R2B2 (Rass Rave and Bhangra Blitz 2007 Dallas TX

This competition was held at McFarlin Auditorium on February 17, 2007. I consider Dallas home. My comments may seem a bit biased but I will try to stay as neutral as possible. Let us first start with the competition itself. There were four Raas groups (SMU Stix, UT Austin Kachi Kerinuh Raas, John Hopkins R.A.G.E. and Mitrass UC Irvine). There were four Bhangra groups (Stanford Chardi Jawani, University of Michigan Bhangra team, Emory Karma and UT Austin Texas Bhangra). There was a guest act by H.K. Gidda team. Grand prizes for Raas and Bhangara were $ 2000 each and second prizes were $ 1000 each.
Judges included two seasoned judges who were very familiar with Raas scene, two seasoned judges who seemed very familiar with Bhangra and one that seemed to know a little bit about both. I will refrain from commenting about the judges because I know some of the judges quite well.
SMU won the first prize and Hopkins came second in Raas category. Emory won the first prize and Michigan came second in Bhangra.
Let us talk about the Mustangs (SMU) first. Several of their participants are known to me for last five to ten years. It was refreshing to see some of the moves that they learned in their early days being incorprated in the dance. Their clothes matched the stage because unlike many stages in west and north east, the floor was black and the dresses were black and blue. What did differentiate them was the intensity, innovative choreography and "phinishing" as a desi would say. They were without a doubt the best coached team. I later found out that they had one of the most demanding managers in Dallas. Well, it paid off. They were the best Raas act of the evening. Their lighting was not I would have preferred and they did use a piece of music that I as a judge would have not liked but they were the best. Gidda team did very well to keep the audience happy while scores were being tabulated.
Second prize went to Hopkins. They were creative with their theme of Kites, but their creativity was not matched by precision and basic Raas choreography.
I personally liked both UT and Mitraas which had great deal of precision and good theme. I probably would have given second prize to one of those teams.
I am not knowledgeable about Bhangra but my daughter danced this year with Boston Bhangra. I have seen quite a few videos (around 30 or 40 on Internet, TV and live). I am biased towards Stanford because there was a girl on that team with same last name as mine. I did like Emory a lot. To me they were all very close but I liked UT and Stanford slightly more than Michigan. It would be interesting to see what the judges with more Bhangra experience thought.
There are a few things SMU could have done differently. They need a seasoned team to handle the back stage. There are many experienced stage hands in the Indian community who are known to have done an outstanding job in the past for various events. India Association runs 45 to 50 items in four and a half hours and their precision as far as stage management is flawless. Video projection was particularly bad. We could not read the themes of many of the teams, including that of SMU. Lighting was somewhat unusual. McFarlin stage is very unique and light designer had to be careful. If you are an Indian program and you left the lighting to them you will get too many color changes and disco type effect. If you are the choreographer you will probably wind up confused because they use lights from the trees on the sides as their primary source. They can do absolutely the best professional lighting if you pay them and give them enough time. I have seen them do some amazing things for T.I.T.U.S., a local dance organization. Timing was off at times. I don't care for too many light effects in a competition unless they are there for a good reason. I like to see faces and expressions. I don't mind night life effect for a few seconds if the theme is about moon light or night. I heard rumblings that the participants had to pay a lot for motel rooms. Some of them felth that did not get the kind of service that they had expected. r2B2 was compared to GWA and Raas Dhamaka butthen again two years ago I heard similar comments about them. Time, experience and better funding will make things better in the future. I know that Krishna and her team worked relentlessly and made many personal sacrifices. This is the third time that SMU has done a competition like this. They will do better next year. They did get quite a few sponsors. After program party was not publicized a lot. My son's Friend said that it was OK, just like any Indian party. I don't know what that means. All in all I have high hopes from SMU next year. As a Texan I would like to thank teams that came from out of state. I hope you will come back.If you need anything while you are in town next year, just contact me here. Make sure you visit Sunny Brian's Barbeque on Inwood (original location) and Harrera's on Maple for Tex max food. Go to Billy Bob's for country dancing. Let yourself loose. Y'all come back now, and remember pardner, What happens in Texas stays in Texas.