Wednesday, 29 February 2012

T Dot Bhangra Competition.

Entertaining. Flawless. Upbeat. Energetic. Amazing.

Those are the five words that basically summed up my night on August 6th.

As you may or may not know, on August 6th I attended Toronto's annual Bhangra competition named T Dot Bhangra. The event was organized by Superwoman (if you don't know who she is, then don't worry, I've provided a link to her youtube channel below) and her Bhangra group, NTP.

I arrived at the Sandra Faire and Ivan Fecan theatre (located at York University) at around 5:30. My sister was my assistant photographer that day since my original photographer was out of town that weekend. We both got our press passes and made our way down to the the theatre, where a representative showed us the backstage and what areas we were allowed to go in and take pictures. 15 minutes later after figuring out what angles/areas were best to take photos, the show began.

From all over North America, seven teams had come to the Sandra Faire Theatre in order to compete for a grand prize of $2000. With that being said, the teams of the night were Anakhilay Gabru, Nachadi Jawani, Furteelay Shokeen, Virsa Folkstars, DC Metro Punjabi Arts Academy, First Class Bhangra, and Nachade Yaar Punjab De.

I won't go into depth about each performance, because I know for a fact you guys hate reading long posts! So instead of writing about each team individually, I'm just going to sum everything up in one little or large paragraph.

All of the teams that performed were filled with so much energy, and they carried out flawless performances. They incorporated such different types of music which amazingly went along perfectly with their performance. One team would use the oh so well known Hollywood song "Jump on it" whereas another team would use classical Punjabi folk music. Heck one team even performed with pure live Bhangra, in other words they used no prerecorded music what so ever. There were definitely many different genres of music played that night. Along with different genres of music came a variety of co ordinations used in dance routines. But one key thing I just loved about the night was how some of the teams incorporated props such as armor/masks. I don't know if they just wanted to use the props for fun or if the props had a message to them, but the way I looked at it was that the props portrayed a message in their performance.

Now that you've gotten a brief summary of the performances, I think it's time I reveal who the judges were and also who received the awards of the night.

There were three judges, Pashi Singh Malik, Sandy Grewal and Pushpinder Sidhu. The first award of the night was the "Best dressed" award, which went out to Toronto's Nachde Yaar Punjab De. The third trophy as well as a prize of $800 went to Washington's DC Metro Punjabi Arts Academy. The second place trophy along with a reward of $1200 went to Nachde Yaar Punjab De. And the lucky first place winners of the night who received a grand prize of $2000 were Nachadi Jawani!

Overall, it was a great night filled with amazing entertainment. One huge shout out to all the teams that performed that night, you guys all did a fantastic job. This was the first time I attended a Bhangra competition, and I honestly loved it. I'm not a critic who knows everything about Bhangra and all things related to it, but I attended the event and fell in love with the dance. I look forward to attending the competition next year. I just can't wait to see what teams will be competing!

I will post just a few pictures from the night, but if you guys are looking for a in depth article about the event along with a gallery of pictures, then don't fret. I've written an article on DESIblitz.com. The link will be posted below, so be sure to check it out! =)

Superwoman's youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/IISuperwomanII








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