For those that do not know, Nachda Punjab is split up into 2 categories: live and music. Live teams perform with a dholi, singer, and sometimes other traditional instruments, while music teams perform to a prerecorded mix of songs. Live teams tend to be more traditional, while music teams variate their routines more. The show alternated between music and live teams, and ended with 2 teams placing in each category.

For some reason, the committee decided to put the judges in the very front row, which made judging the overall team execution along with formations, very difficult. Ideally, I think all judges should sit in the front row of the balcony. This gives them the ability to see overall team execution along with expression. Teams also had the opportunity to talk to the judges before the final results were announced. Since we had a limited amount of time to talk to the teams, I wanted to post a more in-depth review of each team. For those that don’t know me, I’m not really the positive sugar-coating type of guy, so some of the comments might seem a bit harsh, but don’t worry, it’s just one person’s opinion.

1) Hurricane Bhangra – The co-ed team from Florida got the daunting task of going first in the show. It’s not easy, but somebody has to do it. Hurricane started the show out with a solid routine. However, there were some mistakes that stood out. A fall early in the routine, along with some overall style variations held the team back. Energy wise, there were times in the routine they were very energetic, and other times where the team seemed dead. Overall, the team was missing the wow factor that helps set a team apart.

2) Bay Area Royal Bhangra (BAR-B) – The all girl team from the Bay Area started off with what might be the most creative intro of the night. Actually, I’ll go ahead and say that they were the most creative team of the night, overall. The main issue they had was that their creative aspects didn’t hit cleanly. Chunni issues along with some lighting miscues were some of the major reasons the team was left out of the top two. From a dancing perspective, there were times in the routine where certain dancers would take time off and drop in energy. Expressions were also an issue as sometimes those smiles were replaced with the ‘tired face’. The little giddha girl was a crowd pleaser. I just wish she would have come out in a more creative way than just walking to the back of the stage. I’ll never understand Chunni Swag, but the crowd sure did, so the sign served its purpose.

3) Nachde Shokeen Gabroo (NSG) – Another local team, this time of the all-guy variety, NSG brought a lot of hype to the stage. Their intro was long and dragged out and had a lot of guys on stage just standing around. They started out with a strong sapp segment. Their dang segment was highlighted with a light up NSG gimmick which the crowd enjoyed. However, their intro video showed the same gimmick. If that is one of the highlights of your routine, which it clearly was, why would you put it in your intro video so the entire crowd could see it beforehand? There was a good amount of messiness, but the overall energy and creativity of the routine made up for it. Their ending consisted of two girls coming out from behind a banner for the last 30 seconds of the routine. I didn’t really see the tie-in for this. They weren’t brought out in a creative way, it didn’t tie into the routine at all, and on top of that, it was messy. Aside from that, NSG is a solid up and coming all-guy team, but is lacking the differentiating factors (style-wise) to compete with the big boys.

4) Ministry of Bhangra (MOB) – The coed team vying to put Chicago back on the bhangra map, came out strong. They were probably one of the cleanest teams of the night and had very good energy. The team picked up and dropped off their props in pretty creative ways, but that is where the creativity stopped. Mix wise: a few parts hit really well, while other parts made it look like they were trying too hard. There is great improvement from the team execution wise, but they are missing the factors that will set them apart from other coed teams in the circuit.

5) UCI Rangla Punjab – My alma mater, and the team that I helped start back in 2002, is back in the circuit as an all-girl team. These 10 girls were a refreshing surprise from the cookie cutter routines we are used to seeing in competitions these days. Their intro, which consisted of just walking on stage, was a little bland, but their style was definitely unique. They had the best energy and expression of the night, which made them almost look messy at times, as some girls were too into it. Their choreography, use of bollywood songs, and modern flair made them a memorable crowd-pleaser, but their execution needed improvement. My fear is that this team will fall into the trap of other teams that try to hit the scene with a different style. People will give them criticism on how they need to be more traditional to compete with other teams, and they will follow that criticism, and turn into looking like every other team in the circuit. My advice, keep your style, perfect it, and establish yourself as a team that brings something different to the stage.

6) Cal Bhangra – The coed team from Berkeley has become quite successful at competitions over the past few years. Their intro with the CAL light up signs was good, but a mishap with the sign raising a little too late, caused for a messy beginning. On top of that, the middle sign was crooked all routine which was quite a distraction. They came out with a ton of jumps, which I am assuming was to get the crowd hyped, but didn’t hit too well. Their choreography was clean and executed well with good energy. At times, certain jodis were a bit off when they came to the front, and a few jodis were slacking when they were in the back. The only problem I have with Cal Bhangra is that they never bring something that you have never seen before. They hit all the aspects of a traditional coed performance strongly, but to me, are missing that wow factor. I am assuming that is just a style preference as I prefer seeing elements that are more crowd pleasing and entertaining, while the team goes for a more traditional style. Overall a good performance though.

And there is my review on the 6 teams I judged. The results were pretty synonymous to what myself and most of the other judges had. The one thing that stood out to me was that every team pretty much started and ended the same way. Maybe it is because Nachda Punjab is known as a more traditional competition, but I really would have liked to see more creativity in the intros and endings as opposed to just standing there and dancing. The night ended with Saini Surinder performing live. For more information on the competition, feel free to visit the Official Nachda Punjab Website.

Music Results:

1) Cal Bhangra

2) NSG

Live Results:

1) Gabroo Punjabis

2) Virse De Heerey

Once again, thanks to the Nachda Punjab Committee for giving me the opportunity to judge, and congratulations to all of the teams that performed. I may be a harsh critic on routines, but do appreciate the effort all teams put in to help keep the bhangra scene going.

Over the last few years, Bhangra Empire has had the extraordinary privilege to perform at some of the most notable venues in the world. That being said, last weekend’s performance at the Bahrain Grand Prix for the Formula One World Championship, and opening for Ne-Yo and Calvin Harris, was definitely an experience like no other at a locale that was one of kind. After weeks of long practice, on April 16^th the team embarked on its 23-hour journey across the globe. Usually, this involves a stressful trip to SFO with a multitude of bags to check-in, but due to the nature of our performances, this time there were no large props to build on stage (our resident prop scientist, Jigish, was very relieved). After a layover in Washington, DC – where we were asked if we were the Irish Cricket Team – and another 12 hour flight, we were finally on the island of Bahrain. In the true glamorous fashion of the Middle East, we were greeted by the press and posed for pictures that we later saw published over the course of our stay, alongside articles about the Bahrain Grand Prix.

After a quick stop to exchange US Dollars to Bahraini Dinar (which significantly shrunk the quantity of bills in our wallets), we were headed to the Ramee Palace Hotel, where we were greeted with fresh juice and dates – a traditional gesture of hospitality in the Middle East. Since Omer was unable to make the trip, Puneet was tasked with checking us all in, receiving our official F1 Performers badges and T-shirts, and going over our agenda for the next few days.  We spent the next hour getting everything ironed, pinned, assembled, and organized before having dinner. Our dinner on Wednesday night consisted of an assorted spread from Pizza Hut, which tastes much better in the Middle East than it does here in America. Being a predominantly Muslim nation, all the food was Halal – and several members of the team got to try Pepperoni Pizza for the first time. Another interesting fact: there are no fixed prices; and yes, we even scored a good bargain on pizza delivery, thanks to Osman and Fahad! After dinner, some of us showered and headed to bed early, while others discovered that there was a bevy of nightlife right in our own hotel. Although Bahrain is a moderately conservative nation overall, there seemed to be a nightclub/nightlife loophole, which was interesting to observe (to say the least).

Thursday – Rehearsal with Relaxation

Thursday morning, we all woke up bright and early to grab breakfast and head over to rehearsals at the F1 village. Breakfast was a pleasant surprise of its own. Each morning, our hotel served a plentiful and gourmet breakfast buffet that had everything you could imagine – from pancakes to paronthay, omelettes to halal breakfast meats, Belgian waffles to chole bhature, bagels and granola to Middle Eastern cheeses and fruit – they literally had it all, and served it lavishly!  Our rehearsal on Thursday was a 40 minute slot where we did back-to-back run-throughs of our performances, on a hot stage, in 105°F+ weather. It was one of the few things that made it up to the top of the list with Omer’s back-to-back-to-back run-throughs on our all-day practices. Fortunately, with a lot of motivation from each other, and a need to put our best foot forward, we survived. Next, was the rehearsal for the Formula 1 Grand Prix Opening Ceremony, where each group was given the honor of holding the sign for the nation they were representing, with Bhangra Empire holding the sign for India. The actual opening ceremony would be broadcast to 600 million viewers worldwide, a fact that made the sweltering rehearsal (twice around a ¼ mile segment of the track, in formation, with smiles and waving) easier to get through.  Since Thursday would be our only day to sightsee, Mohammad (one of our liaisons) arranged for us to get back to the hotel in time to shower, change, and head to the Gold Souk. We spent a few hours at the Souk browsing, bargaining, and shopping, followed by dinner at McDonald’s (I know, I know… not very touristy, but we were too exhausted to get through a sit-down meal. And even McDonald’s tastes different in the Middle East! The the veggie patties are almost like falafels!) After we got back to the hotel, we all took a trip down to see more of the “nightlife” in our hotel, and spent the next hour or so at the Bollywood Café. Manish even made friends with the DJ, and soon enough they were playing our song requests! Needless to say, Manish got the place very lively and, of course, we couldn’t leave the establishment without doing some bhangra of our own!

Friday – Day 1 of the Festival

After breakfast on Friday morning, we all boarded the shuttle to the F1 Village for Day 1 of performances. Bhangra Empire performed two 20 minute routines, each at 1 hour intervals, 5 times, on Day 1. If you do the math, that came out to about 60 outfit changes, 24 paghs being tied and untied, and the equivalent of 13 competition-length routines over the course of one day. Multiply that by 3, combine that with the heat of the desert, and I’m sure you can imagine the state of our outfits by the end of it. Fortunately, we were given air conditioned changing rooms, the boys became inventive in their multitasking, and Puneet found a brilliant way to save the girls from re-pinning outfits. Unfortunately, after performance 1 (which was at 10am), all 12 sets of feet were already blistered; after performance 2, Puneet and Osman had blood blisters that were bandaged up by the helpful first aid doctors in the F1 Village; by the end of the day, just about everyone else had followed suit. How did we make it through? The crowd gathered faithfully every hour, in the un-shaded heat, to watch and cheer us on, as soon as they heard the dhols playing at the beginning of our routine; the emcee, Gill, always gave us an awesome introduction and danced along with us, side stage; and the other performing groups gave us helpful tips, shared bandages, and cheered on our performances. By the evening, it felt like a concert, where all that could be seen from our vantage point was a dense sea of viewers, crowded together, and just as excited to be there as we were. After our performances, we got to meet and take pictures with fans from all over the world – a truly humbling and motivating experience in itself, and definitely one of the highlights of our trip. Coincidentally, Abi had a classmate (we call him Fizz) who moved out to Bahrain after college, and was kind enough to shuttle us to a pharmacy after Day 1 to get supplies for our aching feet (thanks Fizz!). At 7pm, after grabbing some snacks from the stalls at the F1 Village, we all headed back to the hotel for much-needed showers, re-bandaging, and naps. Afterwards, our Friday night consisted of dinner and a movie. Dinner that night was (yep, you guessed it) Pizza Hut, followed by the last 2/3 of Partner (with Arabic subtitles, and starring Omer’s favorite Bollywood actor – Salman Khan).

Saturday – Day 2 of the Festival

Saturday morning marked the beginning of Day 2 for us. After another great breakfast, and a night of ointment and bandages on our feet, we were better prepared for what lay ahead of us. Unfortunately (or by divine grace, depending on how you look at it), the entertainment program for Saturday was running behind schedule, and several acts got cut in order to make up for lost time. So, on Day 2, Bhangra Empire performed two 10 minute routines, and two 20 minute routines.  This definitely left us with more energy for our later performances, one of which was recently posted online. Since this was our last night in Bahrain, we went out to Al-Shabab Road in Juffair, where we were finally had an entire row of great restaurants to choose from, including a Starbucks with signage in both Arabic and English! The team had a great Mediterranean dinner on our last night in Bahrain, and headed back to the hotel to enjoy more of the (ahem) nightlife.

Sunday – Opening Ceremony

Sunday was, our bittersweet Day 3. Though we were excited to complete our record goal of the most number of Empire performances in a single weekend, we were also sad to see our once-in-a-lifetime experience come to an end. Though we were slated to perform twice on Sunday, in an effort to get the opening ceremonies started promptly at noon, we performed “just” one 20 minute routine that day, followed by a very fun fusion performance alongside the Calpulli Mexican Dance Group, before heading over to the Grand Prix track for the opening ceremony. As we walked behind the marching band, following Danish as he held the sign for India, waving to spectators, pit crews, and drivers alike, while being broadcast across the world – the long march down the Grand Prix raceway seemed much shorter than it had been on Thursday. As we turned the corner at the end of our parade, and saw that many of the marching band members were also desi and cheering for us at the end of the parade route, we tried to line up and sneak in a PUNJAB vest drop, but alas, we were holding up the post-parade procession and couldn’t get it in (maybe next time J?). After we got back to our dressing rooms, we quickly packed up all our outfits, props, and belongings so that all the performers’ rooms could be cleared out for Ne-Yo and Calvin Harris. While we were waiting for the shuttle to take us back to the hotel, the races started and the Empire boys rushed over  and caught some glimpses (KJ literally climbed atop a fence to get his picture)of the Formula One World Championship – a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity in itself! Afterwards, we walked through the desert sands (not as glamorous as Bollywood portrays it) to our shuttle, with the hopes of showering and packing in time to visit the Grand Mosque. Sadly, we weren’t able to visit it, so will have to remember it by the great views we got as we drove past it each day, and hopefully there will be a “next time” for us to see it up close!

After some last minute shopping and a quick meal at the airport in Bahrain, we boarded our flight back home, after one of the most grueling and memorable experiences in our Empire lives. Incidentally, the theme of this year’s Formula 1 Grand Prix in Bahrain was “Imagine Your Moment”. Suffice it to say, our experience in Bahrain was far beyond what could have been conceived in even our wildest imaginations. An experience that would never have become a reality without the hard work of countless dedicated people, like: Mohamed and Dania who found a way to take Empire across the globe to one of the biggest venues in the world, our liaison Shammi who unfailingly found our lost dholis (Aman & Kinda) time and again over the course of the weekend, the other performers who were a sheer delight to share the stage with, and our Coach/Captain, Omer, whose ingenuity and diligence turns far-fetched dreams into reality, and whose hard work behind the scenes is often only remembered when twelve dancers try to tackle a daunting weekend without his presence.

I know what you might be thinking: FINALLY, a new post on the blog! And I know everybody must be dying to hear what is going on in the world of Bhangra Empire. Well, currently, there is only one thing that we are focusing on, and that is Bahrain. Performing internationally has always been a goal of mine for the team. Actually, at our America’s Got Talent audition back in 2010, Piers Morgan asked us what our goal was, and one of my main answers was performing at an international level. Last year, we achieved that goal by traveling to London and performing at The Bhangra Showdown (check out our video here, if you haven’t seen it already). It was the first time any bhangra team had traveled so far to perform and it was a great experience for everybody that got to go.

Well, fast forward one more year and we have our second international performance opportunity. In less than a week, 12 lucky members of Bhangra Empire will be packing their bags and heading to Bahrain to perform at the Formula 1 Grand Prix (check out our announcement video here, and another promo here). This is a huge opportunity for us, and allows us to do what we like to do best, and that is bring bhangra to audiences that have not seen it before. But Bahrain will prove to be our most challenging performance yet.

Why? Well, we have to put together multiple 20 minute performances which will be performed 5 times per day over a 3 day period. Do the math and you’ll see how different it is from what we normally do. Usually, our performances are between 7 to 9 minutes and consist of dancers giving their all for that time period. Doubling that to 20 minutes is no joke, considering the stamina required to perform a normal routine is so high. On top of that, we need to have different performances through out the day.

And that is exactly what has had our hands busy with over the last month or so. I’ve always wondered how we can make our performances longer. Given the type of dance and routines we perform, it really is not feasible for dancers to go 100% much longer than 8 to 10 minutes without needing a break. At the same time, extending a routine also introduces the factor of having to keep your audience’s attention. These were some of the challenges we faced while trying to prepare for Bahrain. It took us out of our comfort zone and pushed us to find creative ways to extend the performance without completely draining our dancers. With less than a week to go, we have a hard couple of days of practice coming up this weekend, but I am confident that we will be ready. Unfortunately, I will not be able to go (couldn’t get the time off work) but it actually might be for the better. While the team is gone (for a week) my focus will shift to getting ready for Bruin Bhangra.

Even though we haven’t competed as much as we normally do this year, it still has been pretty non-stop for me. We went from preparing for Bhangra Fever, to preparing for the Warriors game, to preparing for Bahrain, without any break. In the middle of all that, we had our Winter session of classes, which had the most locations and students ever, as well as our Dance Off, which had a crowd of 400-500 people. Following Bahrain, we will start preparing for Bruin, then VIBC, and finally another international performance (top secret) over the summer. What makes it even more difficult is the fact that the majority of these routines are very different from each other. I guess the last paragraph is just an excuse as to why I haven’t updated my blog more often. Hopefully that will change. Aside from that, wish us luck in Bahrain. The team will be updating our Facebook Page as well as our Twitter Page regularly, so make sure you follow along. And for more information on the Bahrain Formula 1 Grand Prix, be sure to visit their official website:

http://www.imagineyourmoment.com.bh

The Winter Dance Off will be held on Sunday, March 24th from 4:30 to 7:00 PM. As stated above, it will be held at Morris Dailey Auditorium at San Jose State University. It will feature 7 classes competing against each other to be crowned winners. It will also feature a performance from our intermediate class. And last, but not least, the Dance Off will be highlighted by 2 performances from Bhangra Empire. The first is a side project we have been working on, and is different from anything we have ever done before. The second is a performance which will be similar to what we performed a few months ago at Bhangra Fever. On top of that, we will be doing a lot of free giveaways. And best of all, admission is completely free. So if you are in the Bay Area, and happen to be free this Sunday, drop by. This is a great opportunity to enjoy an afternoon of bhangra, as well as a great way for prospective students to get a feel of what our classes are all about. RSVP on our Facebook Event for all the details.

And lastly, to give you a sneak peek of what you will see this weekend, check out our intro from our performance at Bhangra Fever.

Now that the Golden State Warriors game performance is in the rearview mirror, it is time to look ahead to the rest of the year. Firstly, we will be having our Winter 2013 Dance Off on March 24th. We are proud to announce that we are moving it to the much larger venue of Morris Dailey Auditorium, located on campus at San Jose State University. Along with each class performing on stage in front of friends and family, the audience will be treated to special performances by Bhangra Empire. I’ll go into detail a little more detail in a future post, but for those that are interested, RSVP to our Facebook Event to keep up to date. Again, it is on March 24th from 4:30 PM to 7:00 PM at Morris Dailey Auditorium. And best of all, it is completely free, so come check it out.

Next topic on hand is Warrior Bhangra which is taking place on March 30th in Modesto. Warrior Bhangra is a great competition which I have had the honor of judging a few times. Since it was near the Bay Area, we figured it would be a great opportunity to perform in front of a semi-home crowd. Now before I go on, I am going to come out and say that I hate when teams drop out of competitions. I understand each team must have its own reasons, but once you make a commitment, I believe you should stand by it. I’ve taken pride in the fact that in the 7 years that Bhangra Empire has been around, we have never dropped out of a competition. That is, until now. Unfortunately, due to an injury to one of our dancers, some scheduling issues, as well as a great opportunity we couldn’t turn down, we will not be able to compete at Warrior Bhangra. The show is still going to be great as there are a lot of great teams coming out, so be sure to still go out and support them. I am sure part of the team will still be in attendance to watch. Now, I am sure you are all curious about the great opportunity I alluded to above? Well, check out the video below and you will find out. Also some more information can be found here. More information coming soon!

1) Your mission is to dance on as many bhangra teams as possible. Retiring will make that impossible.

2) You can’t hold a conversation without bringing up bhangra at least once. In the bhangra world, you are looked upon as an old, wise veteran. In the real world, you are looked upon as a weirdo.

3) You visit Bhangra Teams Forum more than Facebook and Gmail combined. If you retired you would either need to write more emails or stalk more people on Facebook (and who wants to do that?)

4) Where else will you be able to regularly wear clothes that are fancier than what you will wear on your wedding day?

5) You will not retire until you get married, for the sole purpose of saving the cost of hiring a bhangra team because you can force your own team to do it. (Been there, done that…)

6) You have a dream to be the main jodi (pair) with your first kid.

7) You can’t get over your college years and going to bhangra competitions is the best way to relive the good old days.

8) You have a great idea that has never been done before by any bhangra team and you want to come back for one performance to implement it. (Great plan, until you get another idea after that performance.)

9) As long as you keep dancing, you will not have to buy shirts because of the plethora of free, low quality, ink-fades-after-one-wash, oddly sized, uncomfortable t-shirts you receive at every competition.

10) You have found something that you are passionate about, it makes you happy, and you don’t want to let it go.

1) Do not waste time thinking of a creative intro to your routine. It does nothing for you. A perfect routine begins with dancers standing there in place, shaking their shoulders, with sapps in their hands. If you really want to get crazy, start with a sher or mela scene, but only do that if you are feeling extra risky.

2) You must start your routine with sapps. Why? Who knows, but if you do not start with sapps, you have no chance. The sapp song must be extremely fast. Don’t worry about the actual choreography. Every team does the same exact moves with sapps. Just make sure you run around and try to make as many formations and ripples as you possibly can. Don’t worry about actually executing correctly. As long as people get the general idea of what you are trying to do, that is sufficient.

3) After your extremely fast and out of control sapp segment, you have to do a dang segment. Don’t worry about doing anything new with dangs. Like sapps, everybody does the same thing choreography wise. Just hit some more formations. If you really feel like you want to think outside of the box, simply slow the chorus down at a certain point of the routine, hit your dang out, look up at it and bounce your shoulders.

4) Now, onto katos. Nobody does anything creative with katos, so just do a couple of formations/ripples and you should be good to go.

5) Next on the list is jhummer. Why? Don’t ask “why”, ask “why not?” Jhummer must be done to a slow, girly song while being extra feminine, or a hardcore, violent song stomping around like you want to break the stage. There is no in between.

6) Jhummer is complete? Time for dhamaal. It’s great to mix an english song into dhamaal. Why? Because everybody does it, of course.

7) After dhamaal we have phumaniya and jugni. Now for these segments, get ready: you can do them in whichever order you want. You can also change the footwork for phumaniya. But only phumaniya. Don’t change it for anything else, otherwise you are not doing Bhangra.

8) And now, we have to end with a fast song so everybody thinks your routine was difficult. You might want to throw in some formation stuff at this point, but it isn’t extremely necessary. Just hit a 16 count of jumps at the end and stand there with your hands up, shoulders shaking, and looking upwards with a goofy smile on your face. If you really want to go out on a limb, fake the audience out by pausing and cutting the music. And then, tack on another song for the final 16 count (don’t worry about whether it flows or not) so you can dance off stage.

9) Do not try to bring in any props, other than those mentioned above. They will add zero value to your performance. Do not try to add any “wow factor” to your performance. And definitely do not worry about the audience or overall entertainment factor.

10) Don’t worry about your choreography tying in with the routine or making sense with the song. If it does, it means your choreography is too simple. What you need to do is throw together random moves that have nothing to do with anything. A four count followed by a different four count followed by another different four count, all while changing formations 5 different times. This is the best way to achieve more complex choreography.

Good luck to everybody and I hope you can reach the perfection that is described above. Until next time…

It’s actually quite simple. Bhangra is not something one can make a professional career out of. Just like all other extra curricular activities (sports, music, clubs)  it takes up a good amount of time. And unlike an internship or volunteer work, bhangra will not further your professional career. So it all comes down to time management. Parents are worried that something that takes up so much of your free time will affect your academics. And in all honesty, it is a valid concern. How many times have you come back late from practice when you have an early morning class? How do you solve this problem?

The answer to this question is quite simple, as well. The key is to prove to your parents you can handle juggling these extra activities with your primary responsibilities (school, work, family, etc.) And the best way to prove that to them is to show them the results. Work hard, manage your time effectively, and prioritize what is important. One of the most important and influential people in my life always told me that these extra activities are only impressive as long as you are excelling at your primary work. Mothers always do end up giving the best advice.

So next time your parents give you a hard time for getting back from practice late, remember that they are just looking out for your best. Prove to them that you can handle the real-world responsibilities along with bhangra and they will begin to understand, and slowly start to support your extra endeavors. And maybe, by the end of it, they will look at your bhangra career as something that helped shape the person you’ve become, in a positive way.

1) Guys looking to find a girl through bhangra: it will not happen. The bhangra scene is filled with all guy teams, meaning competitions are filled with guys and very few girls. If you do find a female, the chances of her being attractive, are low. It’s just a plain numbers thing. For those of you who might look at me as an example, let’s just say I beat the odds. Girls, your odds are much better.

2) You will become obsessed with bhangra and drop out of school and end up working at a gas station.

3) You will not have time for your current friends and end up being best friends with everybody on the team. It just ends up happening.

4) You will not get rich and famous doing bhangra. On the contrary, you will lose money going to competitions and let’s face it, outside of the small bhangra scene, nobody will know who you are.

5) You will not lose weight doing bhangra. The calories you burn during practices are usually offset by the extremely unhealthy team dinners you have post-practice. Bottom line: if you are looking to lose weight, just join a gym.

6) Hairiness is considered a positive in bhangra. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but that hairiness is usually not looked upon as a positive in the real world.

7) You will forget all other types of dance you might have known and end up doing bhangra to all types of music. That might work out great when your favorite bhangra jam is playing, but when a slow jam pops up and you should be freaking somebody, you’ll end up trying to do jhummer with a member of the same sex.

8) If you are a guy and have to tie a turban for a performance, you will experience a pain you never thought was possible on the day of the performance. This pain will last for hours, and only subside once the turban is removed.

9) Though you will end up dancing to songs that sound great, you will have no idea what the lyrics of the songs mean.

10) You will have to deal with a plethora of short indian guys who think they are hardcore gangsters.

Some might agree, some might disagree, and others might feel like they want to add to the list. Feel free to comment and do so.

The opportunity to perform in an NBA arena during a basketball game is something we do not take for granted. We have the ability to reach people who might have never seen bhangra before, and help promote the dance form. In 2011, our first year, we featured formations that covered the entire court, stunts that awed the audience, and a little bit of California love to finish it off. Last year we brought a blend of Notorious Jatt and Notorious BIG with a huge flash mob to end the performance. This year we’re going to bring something bigger and better, so make sure you circle the date and don’t miss it.

Fortunately, the Golden State Warriors have setup a special link for us to buy special DISCOUNTED tickets. They also offer group discounts so make sure you take advantage of that. These tickets will be prime location to not only watch the game, but also our half time performance. Below is the link and hope to see everybody there!

DISCOUNTED TICKETS – Golden State Warriors vs. New York Knicks – Bollywood Night 2013

Also, be sure to RSVP to our Facebook event for the latest updates:

Bhangra Empire @ Bollywood Night 2013 – Facebook Event