Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Your Reach Ain't Long Enough, Your Peeps Ain't Strong Enough

[Post title refers to: Jay Z , "Takeover"] Sorry for the delay since my last post! I hope you are all still interested, excited, pumped, other adjectives signifying that you will continue to read. Between work, visitors and the Janet Jackson greatest hits concert I was a little behind getting this writing done. On the real, the Janet concert was pretty amazing. I can’t sleep now because I am still all overstimulated from the crazy good show she put on. The woman is 50 and still working it. Next time someone tells me I am too old to compete I am screaming out “If Janet can do it, so can I!” I can hear the response: “But you aren’t a world famous bad butt with millions of adoring fans calling you back to dance.” Minor details. You say tomato, I say tomahhhhto. I don’t actually say tomahhhto....

Monday, April 11, 2011

Somebody Told Me This World Was Small, Used to Live in the Same Building On The Same Floor

[Post title refers to: The Roots "You Got Me"] Email Gold. My next post was going to be about Bruin itself—the mixer, practice, the show. BUT as I was remembering details I realized I forgot about one of the best LBC emails I have received to date and decided that I NEEDED to include it. I got this email from an LBC original-Sukh-on April 30, 2006, just a couple weeks after being asked to dance with LBC and a few weeks before the show. It is hilarious and very telling of the kind of guys LBC dancers are. Note that I don't edit out the sarcasm or the random comments.  If you are aghast wondering if my parents are reading the not-totally-Punjabi-parent-friendly...

Thursday, April 7, 2011

First Things First, I’ll Eat Your Brains

[Post title refers to: Kanye West featuring Nicki Minaj, "Monster"] I'm a Monster. I figured I would start my post about how I joined an all guys’ team with a Nikki Manaj reference. Not that I love her. But her verse on Monster is really working for me. Like when I listen to that song when running on a treadmill I run at 8 mph singing out loud, twisting my wrists all around like I got somebody to yell at. It is ca-razy. A lot of people ask me how I joined LBC. Here’s the story. In the Fall of 2004, I watched a competition in Houston, Texas. LBC was performing there. I had seen these dudes’ videos online and heard about them, but didn’t know much aside from the fact that they were well-respected dancers. When I saw them perform, I absolutely fell in love with their grace, their choreography,...

Thanks people!

You don't get anywhere without some help right? Thanks to Harjot at gabroo.tv, Reena at reena.me, and Joe at his new bhangra Tumblr for the links and support! Gabroo.tv reena.me giuseppecampanella.tumblr.c...

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Explored The World To Return To Where My Soul Begun, Never Look Back Or Too Far In Front Of Me

[Post title refers to: Common, "Be"] I am hoping friends and strangers alike are reading this blog. So by now, many of you might be asking who the heck I am. I am a long-time, and proud-about-how-long-it-has-been, competitive dancer. I grew up doing semi-bhangra, semi-hind filmy, but all-bad dances in Arizona. I danced at random Vaisakhi shows, cultural events, birthday parties, anniversaries, etcetera. Same as most other Punjabi kids. (I really hope none of those videos surface.) I started dancing bhangra competitively in college the University of Michigan (Go Blue!) in the Fall of 2001, but I had not exactly intended to join the...

Sunday, April 3, 2011

If You’re Fresh To Death Then I’m Deceased

[Post title refers to: Slum Village featuring Kanye West, "Selfish"] Yippee, a bhangra history lesson! For those of you that have lived this bhangra past with me, it won’t be a lesson so much as a walk through memory lane. Lace up those sneaks and let’s get to strolling. Competitions One of the first major bhangra competitions in the US was Bhangra Blowout. This competition, now in its 18th year, is put on by the students of George Washington University. Another early competition, Dhol Di Awaz, lovingly known as DDA, started in 1998. This was put on by the students of Cal (what I like to call the “other” blue, since I went to Michigan). In...

Friday, April 1, 2011

Even Scuba Steve Would Find It Hard To Breath, Around These Leagues

[Post title refers to: Lupe Fiasco, "Dumb It Down"] For today’s entry, I provide some basic background. If you are asking yourself, what the heck is this “bhangra” this girl keeps referring to and what is its history—rest assured that will become clear to you as you read on (also, YAY that you are reading this!). For now, I hope it suffices to say that bhangra is a traditional folk dance from the North Western region of India. It was traditionally performed as a celebratory dance around the time of harvest and centers on the beats of a two headed drum, or a dhol. Wait a minute, there are bhangra teams? A preliminary note for those non competitors out there who might be asking what a bhangra team is and what a competition entails: A bhangra team often consists of anywhere from 8 to 16 dancers....

 
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