Tufts Bhangra team upset with Bhangra Blast results

The Tufts University Bhangra Team went into Saturday's Bhangra Blast competition, the most competitive Bhangra event in New England, with very high hopes.

The squad practiced close to twenty hours a week for over a month to perfect its timing and synchronization in preparation for the event.

Unfortunately for the dancers and their countless screaming fans however, the Tufts team left MIT's Kresge Auditorium empty-handed, as NYU took home first place and Northeastern finished in second.

Bhangra is a traditional Indian performance style that brings people of every culture together. The folk dance is driven by upbeat, rhythmic music with fierce drum beats and powerful vocals, coupled with graceful dance moves that require a high degree of skill and athleticism, both of which are reflected in the complexity, precision, and grace of the dancers. Competing teams are required to write and play their own music, design a routine, and create their own story-telling performance which is later judged on a variety of criteria.

The Tufts squad, led by choreographers Vidushi Gupta, Kapil Dargan, and Priti Julka, consists of eight men and women: graduate student Gupta; seniors Dargan, Sameer Puri, Mshak Ghazarian, Neha Surana, Abha Verma, Shivani Patel, Selby Abraham, Ronak Patel, and Shaunik Panse; juniors Matt Magpayo and Roneel Punjabi; sophomores Julka, Nadia Ashai, and Aekta Shah; and freshman Jed Forman.

"We were definitely upset about the outcome, some of us more than others," Surana said. "Especially because there are a lot of seniors on the team, we were unhappy not in our dancing, but in the judging."

Tufts' dance was more traditional this year than in past years, putting together more of an authentic, story telling dance rather than one filled with stunts. Despite that, the team was energetic, lively, and smiled throughout the entire piece.

"We danced nearly flawlessly, probably the best we've ever been in competition," Surana added. "The dance was very well choreographed, very traditional, with authentic bhangra aspects, and we had a cute theme with original music and lots of expression. It was so much fun to get out there and perform in front of such a supportive crowd."

Unfortunately for the Jumbos however, the criteria that the judges used to rank the teams not only involved the typical aspects of synchronization, authenticity, and music choice, but also criteria including live singing and drum playing.

While the Tufts team had its own original music, the members had prerecorded the song instead of singing it live because they felt that it made more sense with the type of dance they were performing.

"We had some idea of the criteria beforehand, although the judges apparently didn't stick to the same criteria they outlined beforehand," Surana said.

Despite the disappointing finish, however, the Jumbos still had a great experience dancing and a great time performing.

"There's nothing really we can do anymore except remember that we danced extremely well and had a great time throughout the entire experience," added Surana.

The competition was in its sixth year, and was sponsored by SAAS, MIT's South Asian Students Association. The other teams competing were Boston University, University of British Columbia, and Cornell University.

"Bhangra has been one of the most rewarding experiences I've had in college.," Surana said. "I've loved being a part of such a great team of people, and traveling and practicing with everyone. They've been my family here at Tufts for so long."

The Jumbos will look to bounce back from Bhangra Blast when they travel to Michigan for their next tournament to compete against the top teams from all around the country.

"We put together and performed the best dance Tufts has yet to offer and hopefully we can build on it for our next competition in Michigan," Dargan said.