On this episode of The Bhangra Podcast we talk to the judges of Bhangra in the Burgh 2021 about their placings!

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You know, like they did great gimmicks, but like Pooja just said a

lot of the stuff was just running around and it was like, you do two counts and

then move two counts and then move.

You have to show . We have to be able to see that you can do actual Bhangra on the

spot and everyone can look like a team

This is the Bhangra Podcast

we

are back with our last episode of 2021.

And fittingly enough, we finally get to talk about actual Bhangra up

perform rather than it, having to talk about everything else outside for

dancing.

It's been like

2 years good god today, we are talking with the judges of Bhangra in the

Burgh 2021 When I talk to them about who they individually plays, how

they ended up deciding on the final placing and everything else around the

judging, Also, I just want to shout out Burgh for giving us a press pass

in the competition.

It let us record little moments

backstage after performances.

Dancers and according tech time, stuff like that.

I also want to shout out to judges for being so open during this episode.

and we got one little extra surprise I'll announce at the end of this

episode.

So stick around until the very end.

Anyways.

Thank you all for checking out this episode.

Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel where we're going

to be posting more video content along with a video form of this

podcast.

All right.

Let's get to it.

Fancy.

Um, so let's go over a quick introduction for everybody.

Can everybody go ahead And introduce themselves?

We'll start with.

Hey everyone.

My name's

Simran I'm from Toronto, Ontario, then doing Bhangra for the last 14 years now.

Um, Just getting into judging, excited to see, you know, what the future.

sure.

Hey everybody I'm Pooja.

I've been dancing since I was six years old.

I'm classically trained, but I've been uh, served as captain

back while I was back in.

school And, um, most recently I've been dancing and competing with Fauj

or one of the podcasts know who I am, and I'm usually on the

other side of the microphone here.

Um, but today I'm as guest.

I've been dancing 2014, um, for whole

bunch of teams based in New York city.

And yeah.

Excited today as a guest.

Awesome.

And Kuntal want to finish it up.

Sure.

Hey guys, this

is Kuntal just, uh, been on the circuit for forever.

Uh, since 2008, I'm

also one of the co-founders of, uh, Carolina, Indian arts stance

academy, and uh, championships of Bhangra So, uh, excited to

be here,

excited to

you guys

some, you know inside, look into what goes on in the judging

room.

So looking forward to it.

All right.

Yeah.

So, um, let's go.

I'm going to go, I know people have to leave by two, so we'll

just jump right into this.

Um, the first thing I just want to ask you guys, and just kind of to

set the scene.

Uh, the last time there was a big competition was March of 2019.

So coming back, obviously this wasn't the first competition back,

but with the names of the teams are coming and the first big in-person.

What was your overall impression?

How'd you guys feel coming back to actually come and watch it.

Bhangra competition.

think for myself, it was very, very refreshing because over

the last two years, we've pretty much just been seeing online teams.

Um, it's a better experience.

You can judge a lot better.

There's more chemistry between teams.

Of course, it was hard

to know what to expect with teams.

Cause you didn't know, you know, over, COVID not a lot of teams

were Um, they weren't active,

but it was refreshing to see new ideas, um, current ideas

being incorporated and such.

yeah, I would agree.

Um, to be completely honest, I think I was expecting more from this lineup since

we had some pretty big name teams at this

competition, but, you know, given that we've all had a couple of years without in

person comps, it's definitely harder now.

Uh, since training new dancers, holding practices.

Has undoubtedly been tricky for teams.

Um, but yeah, it was, it was really nice and refreshing to

see dancing back in person.

Now I was having FOMO over the entire time because I wanted

it to be dancing up on stage.

Yeah, I think for myself, um, on the one hand, I think just personally,

it felt really to be back at a comp Like it's been a really long time.

I think even just being the same room as a bunch of like dancers, people that

are, you know, our peers, people we know, um, I think it was like just like

emotionally, a really nice moment to see a bunch of people that we know and

care about doing they love care about.

Um, I think from like a judging perspective, I definitely was really

curious to know if things have been a lot of talk over the last year or

two about like okay, what will it look like when everyone comes back?

how will sets have change?

Our people's like set design methods gonna have changed because of pandemic

and those, you know, restrictions.

That's put on everybody.

So it's really cool to see like how many of those predictions came

true and how many of them didn't.

Um, but yeah, I think it was a good feeling overall be, back at competition.

Just see what everyone's done.

Yeah.

For sure.

Yeah.

it was obviously enjoyable.

Uh, And it was also really special was I didn't expect there

to be a lot of ticket sales.

Um, you know, just people being concerned about being in a crowd and whatnot,

but, uh, whatever the Burgh committee did was awesome.

Cause I think they sold like over a thousand tickets or 1200

tickets or something like that.

So having a, you know, one us getting to witness these

teams, um, perform live again.

But on top of that,

being back in an

environment where everyone's cheering each other on, it was just really

special to be there.

Yeah.

And in terms of, you know, what teams brought w you know, it was going to be

weird and it's, everyone's been wondering what it's going

to be like.

Um, you know, with passing off to the next

generation of

captains or, um, collegiate teams, trying to figure out how to do

this from scratch pretty much.

Um, but the one thing I think that we said from the get-go, even in our first

judge's call with the teams was, uh, you've had two years to kind of come out.

You know, creative moves and choreo and ideas.

Uh, so we hope you hash those ideas out and figure out a way to present

them in a way that blows us away.

Um, I will echo Pooja in the sense that we weren't really that blown away.

Uh, but

everyone was pretty dang good for having a year and a half off or whatever it was.

So, uh, that was very.

Awesome.

And just to touch back on what Kuntal

you and Pooja just said Uh, were you guys overall like satisfied.

or dissatisfied

with what you saw or what

the comp experience.

I would say I was definitely satisfied.

I mean, you

know, we're, we're all here because we loved like, this is, this is what we do.

And it's just, it's a blessing to be part of it.

So I would say in that sense, um, I think we're all pretty grateful that

we're still, still able to do this.

Um, but in terms of like the competitive sense, um, I'm, I'm hoping to see.

And the next down upcoming.

Yeah, I felt like that was how I kind of tailored a

lot of my discussion with teams.

Um, was where do you go from here and how do you actually get yourselves

back to where you used to be, or, or just push the you know, push the

level of your team to the next tier?

Um, and that.

was basically how I framed every conversation and.

In, in the hopes of, uh, next semester's comps, you know,

actually blowing people away.

Uh, so hopefully, you know, this was just a stepping stone to get back into, um, as

competitive as the circuit was before the.

I think it definitely.

Also, if you look at Burgh's pass one of the.

things that surprising to me along the lines of what, Pooja and

Kuntal arehighlighting is that.

I feel like in years past, it's always been, know, like the, the Burgh lineup has

always really strong and not say that the lineup was not strong this year at all.

It totally was.

But in the past you get a lot of burgs where there's like a cluster of teams

at top where everyone has their own opinion about like, who really could

have taken for a second or third.

Right.

And, know, that's obviously like indicative of the strength of the

teams that Burgh brings every year.

And like as a panel, when we

were judging, uh, this past competition, it didn't feel like there was that cluster

of teams where it was like really hard to see who was going to edge each other out.

Um, teams did well overall, but it's, it was still like there was

still a deficit between like the.

top few teams.

And then there was like a drop he's like that skill level of

like, the next few teams and there was drop for next few teams.

So it wasn't as, uh, the

skill level and Like execution and creativity of the teams was not

clustered around Like the same level.

the way I feel like it hit has Burgh's past

Yeah, I agree in the sense that every team did

bring a good performance, but.

At that competition level, it was very clear cut out, um, kind of first,

second, third, and then so forth.

I think going forward it's maybe this was just kind of teams getting back into

it, trying to figure out how they're going to be meeting during the pandemic.

Um, kind of feeling out the circuit,

what everyone is looking forward to, but going forward, I do

want to see a little bit more, um, Kind of all the teams at the same level, in

a sense and more deliberation for sure

All right.

Great.

Um, so speaking of like, I guess the lineup of what the teams brought

themselves, um, and you guys obviously took notes throughout the competition.

Can we get like a high level,

breakdown of what you saw from different.

Like things like gimmicks.

Wow.

Factors.

What was memorable?

Like just kind of break that, break that down at a high level.

sure.

I can take this one.

you know, to be completely honest, this was the easiest judges deliberation.

meeting I've ever been in I've judged a lot of comps and I've never had a

deliberation that took three minutes and this one did, um, it was a clear one,

clear two and like a 90 second discussion kind of about three, but not really.

Um, so, you know, placings wise, we were all on the same page and

that was nice, but it just kind of emphasizes the fact that it wasn't.

No one brought anything that, you know, made us question, uh, or, you know,

made our different backgrounds, have a

conversation about what was going on.

So, uh, I thought that was interesting.

Um,

And I also thought it was awesome though.

We didn't have to have that discussion and a potential argument about any placings,

um, especially knowing, uh, you know, the last three Burgh's that I've been a part

of it's ha it has been that experience.

So, um, it was definitely different.

Um, getting into the teams though, um, you know, first class one first, um, and.

I think right after they

performed Sumit and I looked at each other and were like, they're just so

smart and know how to do this rubric and know how to work this stage.

Um,

basically everything they did, you know, segment a segment, they just

knew how to capitalize on a whatever memorable thing they were trying

to do in every single segment.

Nothing like blew us away about it, but it was just really, really good.

Um, And the timing was very well done.

So, you know, like the way they build up to their effects, it

happens in a way that the first time you watch it, you appreciate

it.

Um, I'll let some of these other guys get

into more set, specific stuff, but I just thought I'd mentioned that

with a First Class in the first place

team.

I think for me, another thing that was really nice was

they were hitting their drops They were hitting their gimmicks.

Like it made sense when they would do anything, even if it was super subtle.

So like to get into very specifics, they played black and yellow.

They had a black and yellow jodi come to the.

front Very subtle, but the crowd understood it.

Judges understood it.

And it's just little moments like that, that just build up your set to

become a first place set As Kuntal has also said they studied the rubric.

They knew where their major points, where they knew where, you know, we

don't need to focus too much here because this is what the big winner is.

Um, other teams, they did have really, really good sets, but

I feel like it was kind of.

If they had good formation, they would lack on execution.

If they had good sync, they would lack on formations.

Um, a lot of teams, what we repeatedly said was what was

memorable about yourself?

What was the one part in each segment that you wanted us to remember?

And as a team.

you should be able to tell the judges that, especially on a panel of.

Uh, you expect a lot more deliberation.

We all come from very, very different backgrounds.

So it's kind of just like making sure that you're well-rounded as

opposed to just one strong set,

um, teams had really, really strong dancers as well.

They would have,

you know, like Furteelay did the heartbeat thing in the start.

Uh, they had a nice vibey jhummar, but then it was like, sometimes there's a

few segments that don't have that same.

Yeah, I would say that looking at the sets overall, really both

first-class and Farishtey had the.

Consistent, uh, segment to segment central idea.

That was like important thing you get?

I wouldn't say that it was like either first, they are

first class as best sets ever.

Um, but I think that those two teams did the best in terms of having something

in every single segment, um, and know, selling their set really well.

I do not think that like Farishtey their scores.

If you look at the way we scored them there, You know, execution in sync kind

of fell a little bit short, but we all felt like they were really creative

and they were really selling their.

Um, so I would say that those two teams did the

best in terms of every segment, having something like someone saying, Um,

that's not to the other teams, didn't also have out segments, but that

was kind of exactly where they fell short, where they had like one or two

really stand out, incredible segments.

and then the rest of the set.

necessarily live up to

that standard that they themselves had set for, know the performance

that they were doing that night.

So, you know, mob had a

jhummar that all of our.

We watched that.

And we all just had like the best time watching them dance there's are more,

Um, we didn't feel that way, the entire set which would have been really nice.

and, kind of know, we hope that mob and the next time they go to competition,

the care that they put in designing that segment, the way that they dance it is

what they to the rest of their design now, because we know they can do it.

We just need to see that done throughout.

So that's just one example, but I think that was a theme that

all of us picked up on And that.

was

also thematic and the feedback we the

entire

definitely, definitely.

I could echo that as well.

Um, there was a lot of strong dancing from teams, but it came down to like the

consistency and keeping everyone engaged,

um, by like having

dynamic pacing in your set.

Um, you know, making sure

you're hitting every section of the rubric,

like Kuntal was saying, I did want to mention.

So I actually really liked, uh, Cornell set.

Um, they tried some different things with their set and, uh, some of them

hit some of them didn't but what matters is that they tried to be bold.

Um, like dancer maturity execution are definitely the biggest areas

of improvement, but I think they're on the right track.

And I loved seeing kind of that.

Go get it.

Attitude for them, even in the

judges meeting, like makes me excited to see what they're going to bring.

All right.

Yeah.

Um, and I guess just one thing I got, I want to touch on or kind of

go over is that, um, of people will like everybody, all the viewers will

have their own opinion on who should have placed, but I don't think they

understand what they're being, what the teams are being judged off of because

every comp has a different rubric.

So can you guys just break down this rubric and how it applies to.

The placing is applied to that rubric who, who got first and why they

got first, according to the rubric.

Sure I can take this one.

Um, so the.

There's three overall umbrellas of categories in this rubric.

First one being set design and within set design there's creativity,

choreography, design, and formations, sorry, difficulty of choreography,

design of formations, and then cohesion.

How does all that work together kind of thing.

Um, so that's a total of what was that?

45 points I think, uh, And then there's two execution umbrellas.

So one is dance execution.

That's talking about form and stage presence, and then there's

set execution, you know, as a team, how did you execute the set?

Uh, so sync and, um, executing your formations and team energy.

Um, so those are the main buckets of you know, of the rubric there.

Um, so if you're talking about, you know, comparing design versus

execution, um, 45 was set design.

30 was dancer execution.

30 was set execution.

So total of 60 for execution.

So you weren't going to win this comp without, you know, having practiced a lot

and, you know, executing at a high level.

Uh, but on top of that, there, there is, you know, 15 points

for creativity of choreography.

Uh, Which is where there was a kind of a big spread, um, you know, in

terms of, uh, how the team stacked up and why that, you know, ended

up working out the way it does.

You know, you always got to remember that this is an average of five

people's numbers that go into it.

And it's not just like, arbitrarily picking or anything like that.

But, uh, for this night, First Class won every single one of the categories on

the rubric, except for one And that was

Um, So you know, it's very easy to see how they won this rubric.

if they literally won every single category.

Um, after that Farishtey Furteelayor you know, RVD and mob were all

kind of mixed, depending on which category we're talking about.

Um, for example, like RVD was the top score in form on the night.

Uh, but we're 1, 2, 3, 4, fifth in.

Fourth and set design.

Um, you know, So when you have that kind of spread category to category,

it's not going to help you get that, um, total score that gets you the placing.

Um, So again, just goes back to how FCB was smart about how

they checked off pretty much every single box on the rubric.

And it added up to enough for them to, to be the clear winner of that night.

Um,

I just want to say something that like, for people who might be

listening to who like have not judged before, I think this is something

that people forget is one as judges who are there for the competition.

Like we get one look at what's happening as it's happening.

And so a lot of.

times, and like, it's something that I used to do right.

When I was like a younger dancer and didn't really understand how like judging

or rubrics work, I would be like, watch the videos when they came out afterwards.

Like, it looks very different and you're watching a very different

pace in a very different environment.

You can also like rewind, right?

So like the perspective that you have as a judge watching is very

different from what other people have.

And then also judging against the rubric.

Um, if you're doing a good job of judging, you're evaluating just against that

rubric, not necessarily what you want.

So the way that we, as a panel place, these teams, like we all had

very, very, very similar scores.

We do not have very similar backgrounds nor do we have

very similar personal tastes.

Right.

But we all have the same scores.

So I think, you know, it's important to remember that who we think

places is not always indicative of.

Who we like best or who we think we had the most fun watching, like all

of those things have their place on a rubric, like having fun, watching someone

figures under current stage presence.

But it's important.

Remember that like everyone has their own opinions about what they like,

but part of the job of judging is to match that against a rubric and

make sure that that's, you know, represented properly the score

itself.

And I think it's important to remember that like these rubrics

for each comp are created by the judges on the panel, teams are given

these rubrics months in advance.

So they know exactly what it is.

We're looking for.

Same as Naina said, I could love a team, but that doesn't mean that what this

comp they would win maybe a different comp it would be a first place that.

Um, also just remembering, like you can have great set design, but if

your execution isn't there, you're not selling that choreography.

You're not showing us the true potential of your set.

Um, First Class being the first place team first there being the second

place team, they had, you know, strong set design, which is 35 points.

They had good execution.

They had, um, good team execution, set execution, form.

Maybe not

The top form of the night, but

it was still there.

They were, still able to show us exactly what it was that they wanted to show.

Um, so I think that's another thing

when you're trying to

win a comp just remembering that judges are watching

everything as a whole.

It's not

just like we have a

great set so we're

gonna.

Yeah.

And I think, um, something that's shifted in the circuit, which is great

is that these rubrics are getting more organized in ways that.

One for judges to, to score right away, but to, to communicate

that to teams and, and, you know,

on top of that, maybe also, uh, doesn't allow

as much for, uh, judging preferences

or judges preferences to play a

part in who wins that night.

And, you know, uh, when you have a good rule,

It's going to work out in the way you want it to work out and what, whatever

the vision of that comp, you know, was,

um, laid out to us, uh, from the committee

is, is going to show up, uh, at the end of the day in the scores, if the rubric was

constructed to match that.

I so know that first place.

What places were, what Farishtey

no, Farishtey second, first class first.

And for Furteelay third, correct.

Um, what was the difference between.

First and second place, like why, why first-class get first?

Y'all you said they like scored high and they got the high score in every category.

Um, but what could have, what could have like Farishtey I've done

better to take that first place.

yeah, I can take a crack at this one.

Um, and as my perspective, judges,

please add if you can think of anything else, but from, even from our discussions,

like, um, first day, it was very pleasurable to watch good stage presence.

Um, solid set.

There just weren't memorable drops, especially in their, um, prop segments.

Um, they built cool moments, cool small moments, but, um, they could have hammered

them harder and good use of stage, but sometimes I felt like they were,

um, you know, not hitting all the formations or like they were just,

um, moving around a bit too much and not letting their formations

and their ideas be digestible.

Um, In those ways FCB had a leg up.

Um, and it goes back to what Kuntal was saying in terms of FCB

just did like one or two points better in every single category.

And that's what, what, um,

I think also, um, fresh.

They had a really good set.

I can't say I didn't enjoy it.

You know, like they did great gimmicks, but like Pooja just said a lot of

the stuff was just running around and it was like, you do two counts and

then move two counts and then move.

You have to show . We have to be able to see that you can do actual Bhangra on the

spot and everyone can look like a team.

Another thing for myself was there were very, very small mistakes that

first they had, you know, they had two dancers that almost fell on

stage, um, legs showing on Dhammal.

That's like, of course it doesn't dock a whole lot of points, but when you put

it into perspective and you look at the little, little mistakes that add up it.

And you're comparing to a team that won first place that had

very, very minimal mistakes.

It's it's not so much of a deliberation.

Um, and then another thing I would say is they had really good

dancers, but then there are some dancers that can still match up

to different levels.

Um, some dancers stick out a little bit more than others.

Of course, that's dancer maturity.

It's just experienced, but

just making sure everyone

looks alike.

No, one's standing up.

Yeah.

And, And, just to give some context, you know, they were three

and a half points back or three points or so back on the night.

And I think, um, and that's across an entire 115 point rubric.

So we're not talking about like a giant spread here.

Uh, but it was enough for there not to be a conversation about, um, you know,

whether or not first had deserved first.

Yeah.

Like they said that, that there were two falls, a mismatch here.

Uh, On top of that, you know, they, I told them in the meetings that they,

I didn't feel like they researched the Burgh stage and what hits well

formation only on the Burg stage.

Well, um, and that took away from some of their moments.

So, you know, th the combination of all of those things

just gave FCB enough padding to, you know, not even be for not to be

a conversation where we're, we're thinking about switching those to.

three points on the whole.

Right?

But like, if you look at the averages, they're almost a full point behind

FCB Just on design of formations.

Right?

So we've, we all say, we've been saying how, like, we, like their

formations could have been better.

Right.

And it's reflected in that score.

There were like, that really could have,

you know, they really could have closed the gap there.

And then you're not a three, maybe you're down to like just two points.

Right.

and just, you do a little bit better in every single category.

They're like pretty much the second place team behind, uh, first

class in the majority of the categories, you know, Kuntal highlighted some

of the other discrepancies earlier.

Yeah, just a little bit better in everything really could

have really could have pushed.

The biggest, uh, spread that FCB made with Farishtey is, is, you know,

going back to those three buckets of score, uh, categories in set design alone,

you know, FCB was up over two points.

You know, that that's most of the.

The, the spread right there.

Um, you know, just in those, in that 35 point category out of 115,

there's a two point spread already.

So it, it just, you know, it echoes

everything we're saying that they didn't quite make their set work for.

As you guys are saying first place and second

place kind of clear cut based off the

scores and the spread.

Um, third place you said there was, that was where the main debate

was though it was like 90 seconds.

But like, what was, what was the debate there?

Like why, how many teams were like competing for.

third place right there?

So I think, uh, four judges.

No three judges had Furteelay third just from numbers.

Um,

and there were two other teams that we kind

of talked about.

RVD was in the running and MOB was in the running.

So those sort of the three teams that we kind of discussed

for a third place, um, MOB,

we just didn't feel like had enough.

For us to consider stepping outside of the rubric and considering them for third,

um, RVD is an interesting situation.

Um,

like I said, they had the top form score of the night.

Uh, but you know, they had an unfortunate situation where they had a dancer

leave the stage, um, and that dancer leaving stage was a distraction.

And, um, you know, when you think about it in terms of, oh, just one dancer left

the stage, it was probably a deduction.

And maybe it makes sense that there may be

more in the conversation, but when you think about it in terms of what

a judge has to do and, uh, putting that to numbers on the, on the sheet,

you know, if someone's leaving stage

you're you're losing points in sync, you're losing points in stage presence.

You're losing points in formation, execution, and

losing points and the energy.

So you're losing just even if it's a decimal and each of those

things or a point each of those things, that's enough basically to

take you out of the running, uh,

So I, Naina I think I'll, I'm gonna throw this to you cause you, you

kinda, I think you had them in third.

So I want you to have a chance to

So,

maybe talk about that.

had them in third, but again, like as soon as we stepped into

deliberations, like it, it wasn't.

It wasn't a third.

I felt so

strongly about that.

I was like, oh no, it

makes sense to give it to them over Furteelay Right.

So I think my scores were Furteelay and RVD were close enough that it made sense.

Um, I would say that, you know, I, I definitely agree with everything

Kuntal just said about, you know, they're form being really excellent.

Um, and then, you know, the dance we're leaving stage, you know,

having the repercussions that it did.

Um, think it's, it's, it's hard to, you know, look at

it on the whole picture when.

Their form is so excellent at the same time, there were, like we said earlier,

there was certain segments that.

were like so much fun to watch.

There were certain segments where I think we all kind of started

to like lose our concentration a little bit, which is not something

that you want happening as judges.

So, um, I think, you know, it makes sense when you look at the context

of the rubric, where there was more points allocated to words, Execution.

And then there were like, you know, creativity.

And so RVD set is execution wise, um, you know, a little bit better than

it is creatively than like, I guess, you know, that's the way the points

worked out the way I scored them.

But you know, when you look at it on the whole, and you look at, you know,

how for daily did versus how RVD did my scores were not far enough apart

that I felt like RVD was a clear third and especially, you know, as a panel.

It felt like we were all on the same page about what we'd seen that night.

And it made sense to, and that deliberation to a word for delay,

the third place they had done well enough, it bumps in my eyes and in

the other judges eyes to deserve that.

And

yeah.

Yeah, just one thing, just to shine some light on what

Naina is saying about their set.

Um, you know, I'm looking at the numbers out of 45 points and set

design and RVD score, like just over 30, like 30.6 out of 45.

So they left 15 points on the

table and just the set they

created for this rubric.

Uh, it's hard to overcome that many

points that you didn't, you know, achieve on that rubric.

So just something worth mentioning, sorry, someone go

And that's what I was, I was going to kind of mention like

it's of course the main thing that everyone thinks about as an audiences.

Okay.

They had a green dancer leave, but that's not to

say if the green dancer stayed that They would have won third, there's a

lot of other discrepancies in the set.

They had a shikka

lock right in the first like 10 seconds.

You know, there's a lot of, I feel like

their set was really tight in terms of spacing.

Some formations would be.

Um, you know, there would be energy discrepancies where the

middle is completely killing it.

And everyone

on the side is just walking the set.

So it's not to say that they would have won third, but maybe, Um, they

might've been in the conversation, but in comparison set to set Furteelay came

on stage a lot stronger.

They knew the stage, they knew the comp they knew the

rubric Furteelay had some minor mistakes as well.

I don't think it was

enough where it could have been a conversation where RVD would have placed

over Furteelay at this comp at least

Yeah, I agree with everything that's been

said so far.

So I was the

one that

had actually had mob

and Furteelay tied for third in

terms of points.

Um, but when it comes down to, when it came down to deliberations, like.

All agreed.

Like MOB's set just felt a bit monotonous and their stage

presence could have been better.

That's where Furteelay kind of took the leg up over them.

Um, at least

for me, uh, and, um, in terms of why Furteelay placed third,

as opposed to further up,

I would say, uh, this, this rubric was

execution heavy and that's

kind of where they took, um, more of a backseat compared

to Farishtey

Alright.

Um, so like moving forward with, you know, the comp season.

What, what is your, take away from.

this competition?

And what, do you want to see going forward for them, for like, teams that

are listening to this right now that are applying to different competitions.

We know March is full of a bunch of them right now.

What do you want teams to take away from?

I think for myself, I want teams to bring new things to the table.

A lot of things that have been presented as

recycled material from like 2012 to 2018.

And that like Bhangra was

huge back in 2012, where teams would come out and they would bring out sets

where you would sit there and think, how did they even think of that?

And we're not getting a lot of that anymore.

I think it's really funny.

I just wanted to bring this

up.

Yeah.

Um, I, I just judged one accomplished at Atlanta and I

asked one of the teams.

I was like, who is your, a lot of the teams, all these young teams

are like taking ideas, but not

Um, older

they're how, how old, like where they're from.

And I was like, ask the question.

I was like, what, what, like, how far back do you watch

videos from?

And they said 2017 and I was kind of heartbreaking.

I was like,

Yeah, like, Bhangra had its prime.

yeah.

to 14, whatever that era was.

And it's like, I kind of want to see it come back where now we, as judges

who have been in the circuit where crazy things are happening, we can say,

well, like this is great, you know?

And of course still preserving proper Bhangra being able to keep the form.

No, this is what I need to hit more modhe.

This is when I need to do this.

I'm not just doing Bhangra for the sake of Bhangra though.

You have to be able to face

what actual Bhangra

I

think.

You know, the effect we're talking about is the Instagram effect, right?

The Tik Tok effect.

Um, we're talking about how teams are all kind of, you

know, it's, it's what looks good

on, on social media versus what looks good on stage and as a team.

and

uh, those don't always go

hand in hand.

Um, I like the fact that the,

you know, the social media side of it is pushing.

You know, try and be unique with their

choreo and stuff, but at the same time, it just ends up being people

ripping each other's choreo.

Um, so, you know, we have a lot of time on our hands and we've had a lot of

time and

I hope to

see more, um, more of an identity from each

team.

Um, you know,

like figuring out who you are as a team, what kind of moments you want to sell?

Obviously we don't want the same flavor

of moments over and over and over, uh, and you're set, but

you know, it should be obvious.

What you want us to think of your team when, when, when we're watching

you, um, and what vibe you want to,

you know, to have as a team.

Um, so I think that's a big part of it.

Just, you know, trying to figure

out, you know, after all this time off

who you are

as a team.

Um, and then just to piggyback that being smart, like First Class was at this

comp and knowing how to work that

rubric study the rubric so hard to make sure that every

segment lines up with the

rubric so that you can get credit for your ideas.

yeah, I'm really looking forward to the teams.

Um, kind of honing into that identity aspect is.

And really emoting, um, and making the audience feel, uh, something, you know,

make everyone have fun, watch you dance.

That's, that's what the art of it is.

And I really hope that teams do more of that.

And, um, one thing I did want to mention is that we talked

about this as a panel as well.

Uh, the importance of your mix cannot be stressed enough.

Um, So we really encouraged teams to focus on that.

Make sure your mix is properly EQ'd and that it's not, um, so bass heavy

and maybe Naina you're more fit to, to talk about this, but we just we've

noticed that a few of the teams, like there were so bass heavy that we

couldn't really hear the vocals and the intricacies of their mixing, so that,

um, kind of diminished their sets.

yeah, That's a conversation.

And then I have all the time, right?

Like with teams, it's like, look what you make isn't made to for your mixes.

For you to listen to in your car,

you can make a car version if you want, but you need to make sure you

understand how to, um, get the levels clear out the mids, make sure the

vocals are high enough so that all these things actually work when you

have a giant hall, giant speakers.

Um, and obviously there's people like Nana there's people like all

these people on the circuit that, uh,

are here to help those of you who maybe don't know how to do that.

So I, I hope that people reach out to, um, those who do know

how to do that and then get that help, whether it we're talking

about a mix or we're talking about how to design for a certain.

conversation, we can definitely like that.

That's a longer conversation.

That's not just about Burgh Um, it's, it's a.

That's just like a knowledge gap.

That thing is out there.

It's really cool to see that there's a lot of, I think there was a lot

of mixes at Burgh actually that were done by like newer mixers, which is

actually really incredible to see.

I actually feel like there's been a, there's been a drop off in terms of new

talent being, you know, injected there.

But, Um, the downside of that is that there is still a learning curve and

not a big comp Burgh on a huge stage on a huge sound system like that.

You can, uh, run into issues, but, um, I would say that another thing that I

noticed was if someone playing music in the bank, am I going for three years?

That okay.

That's just me.

Um, and I think that I noticed like, you know, over the course of the performances

at Burgh that is indicative of

maybe like a trend, is that.

I think they were like pretty consistent pacing issues, um, across a bunch of

different sets, which is something that came up in a lot of our comments.

Um, I would say this is another aspect of like this Tik Tok Instagram effect.

Um, it's, it's really tempting when you have like one minute

video on Instagram, right.

To make it like as high impact as possible.

So it's like breakneck speed chock full of ideas for a minute.

That doesn't work when you have eight minutes set.

Um, and so I think we saw a lot of like really, really, uh, jam-packed

segments followed by segments that were like kind of empty in terms of hard

hitting ideas, followed by a segment that was like really jammed full again.

And so pacing was something that I think I struggled to see a good job

of on, uh, in the sets at Burgh.

And I really hope that that's something that people understand that like

constructing a set for a stage that is competitive, and that is supposed to be

like someone was alluding to earlier, like demonstrating an understanding of

Bhangra as a whole, as like an art form.

That's not what goes into making Instagram videos.

It is definitely drawing on similar skills, but it's not the same.

Um, and so it's important to be able to prioritize ideas, to be able to

construct segments in a way that encouraged, you know, your viewer

to appreciate the flow, to follow the, your ideas all the way through.

Um, the flip side of that, that I mentioned earlier, as we saw.

Throw some really like crazy stuff out, you know, Cornell had some ideas that were

super risky at FCB had ideas that were risky even further down our placings, like

Tartan and also ideas that were risky.

But like they all were trying interesting stuff.

I think they're probably like three or four teams that had Jomar songs that just

all of us were like, what is happening?

Like they were just unexpected.

Right?

And so it was cool to at least see that like people are trying new

stuff and hopefully that moves us away from some of the saturation of

ideas and the recycling on the days that we were talking about earlier.

But I think the future is bright.

I think it was a really strong start.

All things considered the season.

Um, Burgh's such a high caliber competition.

So, you know, starting, starting with a high caliber comp and

a high caliber set of teams.

I think it sets a really good bar for the first season, back in a long time.

Alright.

Um, like just to finish this up.

Thank you guys.

Thank you everybody for tuning or hopping on this call and sharing your thoughts.

Um, we'll hopefully have this out very soon.

Um, and we'll get working on that.

Thanks for having us.

It's a pleasure.

That's a good

the good time.

guys.

alright, thanks for listening to another episode of The Bhangra podcast.

And now.

for the little announcement I had in store for y'all So next week we'll

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