E81: 81 – Don’t Call it a Comeback…Yet: An Interview with the New Bruin Bhangra

Sup y'all, welcome to another episode of the Bhangra Podcast.

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Today I have Poonam who is the new or old or returning director of Bruin Bhangra this

year.

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want you to introduce yourself.

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My name is Poonam Jolly Siddhu.

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vast alumni network today.

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vast alumni network today as well.

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Yeah, I guess then what sparks the, mean, it seems this year there's quite a little bit of

a rebrand or re-envisioning of what Bruin is, and so why don't you tell me about that.

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So I think we were talking about this earlier, like I'm probably not the director.

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I'm just an alumni who is part of a small alumni board that is closely collaborating with

the team this year.

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think change in leadership is probably an overstatement.

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So Bruin is, and I hope will always be a collegiate team running a world-class Bhangra

competition with like unflinching support from a vast alumni network.

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I think like many collegiate teams worldwide, if your hallmark competition,

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gets canceled two years in a row because of a global pandemic, it's hard to pass down your

institutional knowledge or like secret sauce if you will.

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So this year's presidents, Kushy Saan and Rhea Jabra are facilitating this incredible

partnership between the current team and the alumni board to reinvent the entire Bruin

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Weekend in honor of our 25th anniversary.

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So we're all really looking forward to you hearing from Rhea and Kushy in a couple of

months.

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They're heads down on competition work right now, so.

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you have their inferior substitute me for now.

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All right, yeah, yeah.

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vision come about?

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What sparked the, I mean, know like, you know, COVID happened so on and so forth, but

like, what sparked it for this specific year?

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Okay.

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So a lesser known fact that I think we've also forgotten over the years that we are

actually the second longest running the competition worldwide.

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It actually is not infant job.

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It's not in the UK.

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It's, it's not anywhere else.

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It's right here in America.

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The two longest running our blowout, which is the longest running for collegiate teams.

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And we are the longest running for independent teams.

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So I think we're like hit with that in the face every few years, but like,

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This year, when we absorbed the gravity of that, think it was a profoundly humbling

opportunity to meet the moment and, you know, build a celebration that we felt was fit for

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our first 25 years.

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And I hope the impact that we've had on Bhangra and hopefully a chance to chart a new

course for the next 25.

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We also, I think the other part of your question is like, how did it come about?

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Like, we also did like an insane amount of R &D.

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So we talked to captains, dancers, organizers, judges, artists on the record and off the

record, interestingly, and everybody kind of shared frustrations, disillusionments, pain

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points about, know, unfortunately or fortunately the competitive circuit holistically, but

also their memories of the best parts of what a competition weekend is or the best parts

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of like a Bruin from a long ago.

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really almost everybody traded notes really generously with us.

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They rolled up their sleeves.

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People connected us with their contacts and resources, shared secret sauce.

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And I think everyone had this earnest hope for rejuvenation, not just for Bruin, but I

think the scene or circuit overall.

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So it kind of turned out that our vision was kind of just one layer away, like under the

surface.

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was just waiting to be dusted off and brought back to life.

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Wait, if you don't mind, what kind of things did you hear about?

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Like what were some of those pain points or dissolutionments or things that you're

addressing, I guess, going into this?

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I think we heard a lot from folks that there is this hyper focus on judging and rubrics

and outcomes.

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And perhaps the magic of an era where you danced or I danced competitively was that that

was like one small facet of it.

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It was something you hoped for, but something you weren't so deeply anchored around.

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I think...

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That was, think, the part that resonated with me the most was that perhaps the competition

weekend has lost some magic.

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That, you know, 9 p.m.

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after the show is like the single moment that we're most focused on.

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And I think what we, where we started was to like zoom out from that.

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Like, certainly we've placed a lot of emphasis on reinventing our rubric, reinventing

judges, reinventing judging panels and things of that.

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nature, but also building such a wonderful, hospitable competition weekend.

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And hopefully whether you win or you lose, and if you've been a good competitor and you've

taken risks, you will lose more than you will win.

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Like that's just statistically true.

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But whether you win or you lose, you will still remember this weekend as one of the best

weekends of your life.

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I know my time as a competitor, my brewing weekends have been phenomenal.

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Absolutely.

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Okay.

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So going into this, I know you've talked a little bit about the specific, the

specificities of the vision and kind of, I say it's like, you want to do it up big for the

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25th year.

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And so what exactly is like, how exactly are you doing that?

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What are you planning on doing in order to accomplish?

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So, Bruin Bhangra 25 is really our love letter to our teams, whether they're competitive

or exhibition, our audience, whether they are first timers or long timers.

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We actually have had some folks in the audience who have been every single Bruin Bhangra

and our community, whether you're three months old or 90.

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When we started out, we were a really small, scrappy dance competition on a college

campus, but somehow,

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by God's grace, we became this irreplaceable thread in the fabric of Bhangra So whether

you were at BB1 or BB25, you were a part of that tie that binds.

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And I think that's something that we hope to impart to everybody.

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Like, if you've been here one year, if you've been here 20 years, you've been here 25

years, we are together forever.

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That's really, like, our focus is on the moments and the memories that we hope to build

now and for the next 20.

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Okay.

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So love the ideas, love the thoughts.

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However, I think one thing that is kind of, I think bewildering is a little strong of a

word, but just like things that like has like, has caused the people in the circuit to

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take notice is really just like hearing and rumblings of like change, lot of changes that

are being made.

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So we'll go through a few of them, but before we like, before I like, I am a part of the

generation that cares a lot about judges and rubrics.

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So like,

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sorry but like other than that like what what are the like other main things that you're

bringing

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This time we're bringing back like not one, not two, but bringing four world renowned

artists.

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So the two greatest ever perform on our stage are Mokit Singh and Jussie Sudu and they

will close out the show again together.

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Two of our favorite newcomers actually are Jenny Nathan and Inderpal Moga and they were so

generous to offer us a performance at the after party.

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I'm looking forward to that.

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We've really brought back the largest cash prize that's available on the circuit today.

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verified this and it'll over $5,000 for first place.

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It's actually the largest cash price that exists.

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I was gonna say I was gonna say like it's usually like, I remember back, I don't know if

this is still true.

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But when I when I competed at Buckeye Mela, we like liked going there because we would

like we got first like two or three times and so we're just like, shit, okay, we gotta go

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it's because it's $2,000.

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And now we're really just like, like set us up for the rest of season.

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But then one year we got second and it was like 500 bucks.

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It's like, dude, like this doesn't even cover like reg fees like

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So Boston, I think used to be 5,000 in like what we've called the competitive heyday.

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And we're doing a little bit more than that.

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almost the same as first place.

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We actually have to verify which one would be Third place is also gonna be in the

thousands.

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Let's see, our founders, they're just really great, wonderful, kind people.

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And they're working on some generous cash incentives.

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That's fire.

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all competing teams.

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They have this really like sweet and thoughtful idea that it's our 25th.

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And I hope we'll be sending everybody back with full hearts.

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But this year of all years, like nobody should go back with empty pockets.

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So that's just a nice kind thing that they're doing out of the generosity of their hearts.

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My favorite is actually some of the most legendary dynasties in Bhangra history who

fortunately got their name right here on Burun stage.

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are coming back and putting together an all-star collaborative medley performance, like

Khalsa Junction, Sher Foundation, Soormay May, the original, People's Bhangra, Empire,

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Vibe 1.0, the original, LBC, Gabru Shokeen the original, and a few others who are still

finalizing their roster.

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So that's never been done before.

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All of bhangra competitive or otherwise.

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I don't know if we'll ever do it again, but we're really humbled that as soon as we ask,

every captain, no hesitation, 100%, yes, tell us how we can help.

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And booked itineraries, hotels and whatnot.

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So that one's one of my favorites.

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We've also come full circle to a classic Bruin rubric.

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I know we'll probably get into that a little bit later, as you mentioned.

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Our new judges are the best dancers in, I think that the circuit has ever seen.

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And I know that that's a bold statement and I don't say it lightly.

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We've also introduced a farewell brunch for all of our dancers.

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So to debrief with us about the competition weekend, we want to hear from you when that

feedback is fresh.

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An opportunity to have, I think, a more meaningful face-to-face with the judges, chance to

meet the artists and hopefully leave with camaraderie over competition.

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I think that that's really important.

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Some of the greatest rivalries in Bhangra have been built here, but also some of the

greatest friendships, I think.

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and I think that you need something like that to put your frustrations behind you for us

to digest them and for everyone to move forward together.

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And we have a few more surprises up our sleeves.

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We're going to announce them.

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And then of course, we're going back to our most epic venues, of course, our return to

Long Beach.

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Okay, wait, so I do want to actually ask about the one Long Beach for anybody who doesn't

know the younger folks just like go back and like watching brood performances pre like

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like it might seem weird, but like it's been at Long Beach longer than it has been an

orpheum.

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But one could you tell me a little bit more about the more meaningful phase of phase with

judges?

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I actually I'm like actually very intrigued by that.

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If you have if you have any details about that.

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Absolutely.

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So I think what we've universally heard from judges is 30 minutes after you've given it

your all, and adrenaline is rushing, things didn't go right with you, or things went great

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with you, and you walked away with first place.

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You're probably not in the right frame of mind to be having a meaningful conversation with

judges.

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And I think to the detriment of judges,

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Many of them don't come back to judge because they're just traumatized by some of these

penal conversations.

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And I think also to the detriment of teams, I imagine that anyone who has gone into a room

with their mom and yelled at a judge probably regrets it six minutes after it's happened.

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But you can't really take that moment back.

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You can't cut that from the script of life.

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So I think you need a chance to go to the after party.

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to put things in perspective, come back, separate what didn't go right on stage with what

didn't go right over the weekend.

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Give us that feedback of what didn't go right over the weekend.

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And then have a more meaningful, open-ended conversation with judges about the direction

they'd like to see competitive Bhangra go in.

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Like have them impart some wisdom onto you.

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These guys have all been competitors.

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In a world where there were fewer competitions, less opportunities to win, their parents

probably didn't even want them doing Bhangra.

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I think they've seen it all.

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I think that there's room for more meaningful dialogue the next morning than there is 30

minutes after you've won or lost on stage.

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And we've heard this from winning teams too, that like there was something they wanted to

ask, but they didn't want to seem ungrateful as they're holding a first place trophy.

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I think that that's something, I hope that that's something the scene changes with, but

certainly it's something that we are changing with.

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think that an open forum like...

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I'm hopeful that folks, when put in a room full of people, rather than a private

one-on-one, will be more thoughtful in how they frame their questions and how they frame

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their feedback.

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I think it's important to hold folks to a higher level of accountability and dialogue.

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And I think this applies to things way outside of Bhangra.

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I think this could be applied to politics, the global scene, everything.

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It is a lot harder to be...

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a jerk to someone when you're face to face.

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I think we need more open door meetings that actually move Bhangra forward, not just

Bruin.

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Interesting.

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Okay.

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So yeah, because I, have been a few competitions that have started doing judges meetings,

like Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, after the competition.

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And so it allows for a little bit more time, but you're suggesting like a, like a, like a

town hall kind of situation where like all the, like all the peeps are there and they're

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like all talking.

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Interesting.

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mean, town hall may be an overstate.

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Small group forum.

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No one's running for political office here.

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Town hall may be overblown, but yeah.

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Yeah, that's interesting.

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Actually, I really like that.

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Because yeah, you're right.

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Okay.

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I will say it's very easy for some people to be jerks in person and face to face.

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But I think it's a little bit harder when like, other people are seeing you and you're not

like, secluded behind a closed door.

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I mean, I'm interested in how that works out.

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judges and for competitors.

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This is not like Rebecca.

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no, true, true, true, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I've-

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universal across the board.

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And interestingly, I will not drop names because that is not cool.

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Everyone had this feedback, whether they've won on the circuit in the last year or lost on

the circuit in the last year.

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Everyone had this feedback.

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Everyone hated how judges meetings go.

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Everyone hated many parts of it, but no one wants to go on the record and say it.

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So I'm happy to just, we'll go on the record.

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We'll take the ownership of this.

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We are doing this.

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We hope everyone follows suit.

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But if not,

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That's okay, we really want to believe, we really want to a healthier, non-toxic

competition week.

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Absolutely.

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mean, like, listen, Bruin's Bruin.

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Bruin has like, I, me and, me and Anil and Sita like spoken many times.

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And like, we kind of always like say like, Bruin sets the tone for the upcoming year.

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If something works at Bruin, you will see identities or like ideas from Bruin, not only as

a competition, but also as performances.

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You will see like themes from Bruin sets, not like physical themes, but like ideas and

motifs like translate throughout the upcoming year.

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And so.

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If it works out well, I'm very excited to hopefully see that promulgate through the rest

of the circuit.

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Yeah.

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Okay.

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So we will get into the rubric and all that later.

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But so for anybody who doesn't know, most of my, like, I'll be frankly honest, like old,

like people my age and older do not listen to this podcast.

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So just frankly, so for all the people who are, who are younger, who are new with the

circuit,

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help them understand like why the change location

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more of a homecoming.

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So you'll certainly remember that each terrace theater is Bruins most storied venue.

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I think it's both physically and maybe more spiritually a return to our golden age, if you

will.

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So the theater is basically on the beach.

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if you've ever watched like an OG

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by UBC, KJ, Cher, Soormay LBC Empire, People's or DRP performance at Bruin from that era.

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And please forgive me if I forgot a dynasty from that time.

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It was likely on this stage.

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It was an epic stage and it was loved by our performers and the audience alike.

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All right, great.

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So judges, lots of judges.

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I know them mainly just because, and I'll be frank, I don't think I've ever met any of

them except for maybe Preet Chahal like in passing.

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I definitely does not remember me.

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was like, I was 18 at the time.

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But, Sid has kind of like told me a lot about these folks.

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So can you help them help anybody younger understand who these are, why they're so

important in the history of the circuit, what

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they've done, you know, think kind of like little bio and why you think they're going to

do like, why you think they're going to judge well.

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talk about the group holistically.

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think over the next few weeks we're hoping to get them to tell us the things that they're

most proud of.

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I certainly have a laundry list that would probably take up the rest of this podcast.

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But the panel that we've put together is a group of the most legendary dancers to have

graced that stage and I don't say that lightly.

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So if you know your program history you'll know how momentous it is to even bring this

group together.

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I think you and I have

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talked about the names and we've both been so grateful for this group coming together.

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And each one of them has left an indelible mark, not just on Bruin, but on Bhangra

holistically.

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And competitive Bhangra in a way exists today because some of the sacrifices they made,

some battles they fought, some impossible that they brought into the realm of reality.

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And I'm really grateful for that.

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And some of these things are like, for example, one of our judges,

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They were the first all girls Bhangra team on the circuit and they competed at a time

where certainly their parents probably didn't want them doing this as their

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extracurricular and judges used to have no problem telling them like, you did great, but I

can't give you marks above this because girls should not do Bhangra.

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I think we've kind of forgotten those contributions and I'm really excited for the

opportunity to showcase them again.

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If there's a girl's team today, if you're a girl that dances on a coed scene today, heck

if you're a girl who puts on a bug and gets to dance as a boy today, that is because

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somebody spent an entire year and was willing to hear that feedback over and over and over

again, still took it with a smile and still laid a foundation for everyone else to go do

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it.

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like a year or two before I started judging for like people peeps who don't know like it

was a genuine topic of conversation with BTF whether the girls could do thappis or not

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like that was like a thing that like people just kept talking about I remember talking to

HK at one point and she was telling me how when she started and so HK is one of the I'm

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sorry HK if I like messed up exactly what it is but like one of the one of the like

founders of fun slash vent van city etc just like in that in that scene

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But she was telling me how there was a genuine attempt to make a separate, a lot of people

were like, well, girls should dance in the girls league.

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And then she was very much adamant on trying to make sure that they were combined, because

this is a dance form to say weightlifting or something.

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And that's completely --- that happens, that was happening.

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And so it's not that long ago that like,

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these conversations were like happening.

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And so to see that person judging is pretty sick.

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Yeah, and the other seven are same caliber.

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We're really grateful for the group that we've put together.

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I think what we're really, really grateful for is that these folks could have listed a

long list of demands to have their name on this roster, but nobody asked for a comped

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flight.

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No one asked for hotel room.

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Nobody asked for a fee.

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When we called each and every one of them gave with open hearts to help push competitive

Bhangra forward.

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Okay, so

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Will say that I do not judge art.

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Sorry.

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I will say that I am not questioning the caliber the qualifications the abilities of any

of these judges However, I guess my concern is like the circuit has changed a lot like the

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circuit has genuinely changed a lot You know this like we're now doing like shut up like

shop each other and like Pakistani like there's like new steps that like like have like

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become more like a parent in the circuit

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Plagiarism of the UK circuit is like a constant issue in the American scene.

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And also just the fact that there's a lot of ideas that like can easily like, like, like,

if you haven't like intently watched bhangra over the past like three, four years, my

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concern is that like, are you gonna are you gonna catch those like, like moments of like

very obvious like idea theft and or just like

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knowledge of the circuit as a whole right now.

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And so for anybody who has that concern, how do you assuage those concerns about these

judges?

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Well, absolutely.

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And first off, want to say I think plagiarism or inspiration, depending on which end of

the spectrum you look at it from, I think that's existed since the beginning of

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competitive.

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And I think one gimmick that's possibly been recycled over the lifetime of competitive,

Bappe Bhangra Paunde Ne I think I remember it as maybe Punjabi, so we're made doing it and

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getting some uncles to come out.

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Forgive me if it was maybe Sher Foundation instead, but I've seen a version of that

resurrected many times over the years.

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So it depends on whether you look at it as plagiarism or you look at it as inspiration.

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Certainly the competitors who are faced against it probably look at it as the latter.

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But you're right, sir, that is a challenge.

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I will say like, I think I'm more so like, I guess when it comes to play, like, again,

like, I'm just saying this just because again, like, this is just a topic that's been

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popping up a lot.

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With when it comes to UK, because like, so the UK is like very is very formation heavy,

more so than choreo heavy.

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And so they have very unique ideas that are like very like, I know exactly where you got

that chevron to this to this to this like, like transition or like a very like clear

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concept.

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And

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So I think it's more so like, it's more so those ideas.

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Obviously they're like, yeah, but it's also like, you're playing on the lyrics of the

song, like whatever.

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I know I'm not trying to pick on like one example.

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I understand the point you're trying to make, but I think that again, like it's just like

the very blat- like the, trying to make fun of people right now or like point things out

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right now, but like.

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The examples that have happened over the past three years were like very blatant, very

obvious and very annoying because like sometimes the judge didn't catch it.

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was like, well, the reason you like that set so much was because of that concept of that

concept like happened at first place like two years ago at in the UK.

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And so I guess like that's like, that's that's that.

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But again,

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And I think, and to the second part of your point, I wouldn't say that this group is

removed.

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I think that this group probably helped build competitive Bhangra So in a way when you've

sacrificed that much of your soul to see an entire industry exist, you stay very close to

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it.

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You perhaps aren't on Punjab online, which is also not Punjab online anymore, or on BTF,

or on this podcast.

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Yeah, yeah.

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There's a lot of WhatsApp threads that deeply discuss the scene today.

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There's a lot of family parties, one-off conversations.

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There's a certain generation of us that are deeply involved in, or deeply observant and

deeply thoughtful about the scene today.

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You may not hear from us, but I think we all hear from each other.

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So I'd be surprised.

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I think you'll be pleasantly surprised at how informed.

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And relevant this group certainly is and I think some of that is also on us to be an

informed group of leaders.

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So I don't anticipate that any of our esteemed competitors will rip an entire UK set as

you had mentioned, but there will be a large group of us at tech time and I don't foresee

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something that specific or nuanced being a problem.

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But again,

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If you want to bring down a flying dholi I don't think anyone on Empire is going to say,

like, hey, you ripped me off.

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If you're able, if you're standing and applauding.

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If you're able to pull that off, amazing.

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All right.

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Great.

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Thank you for all that rubric, rubric.

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And this rubric is very different from what I've seen.

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And the rubric that was, that was, you know, like the year,

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last year, the year before, it was probably a little bit closer to what I've seen and kind

of what the wording and the organization of the rubric, although the point differential

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point waiting is very different because point waiting for Bruin is very different, but the

wording, the so on and so forth is similar to what I've seen or like what I'm like

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familiar with.

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And so I guess first, let's just start here.

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Like why the change, why the change to the rubric in the first place?

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Let's start.

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So I'm going preface this by saying, you and I have talked about this offline, but I don't

see a lot of great value that comes out of debating the nuances of a rubric.

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As we just talked about, I think there's a close handshake between the rubric and the

judges of a competition to really define the ethos of Bruin.

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And fortunately for us,

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All our judges are past Bruin winners and deeply, deeply understand what Bruin is.

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Now, zooming out from individual point distributions, which this is perhaps not the right

form for, we have reverted to a classic Bruin rubric.

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I think we may disagree on how the other changes were.

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But a fun fact is that most Bhangra rubrics over the last 25 years are actually based on

this one.

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So for us, it was more like a spiritual alignment back to what we have been in what I like

to call our golden age.

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But I also felt that

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We also felt that it was important to go back to the rubric that started them all.

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And I don't think we will ever solve every single pain point of every competitor, every

dancer, every judge, every organizer, every ummer, every Poonam I don't think we ever

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will.

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But we do feel that this is the right direction.

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I think maybe I'll just say that we have a lot of conviction in this one.

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rather than going into point by point as much as I love like the intricacies of rubrics.

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But broad strokes, this rubric is different from past Bruin rubrics that many of the

people, many of the teams that will be competing at this comp will be familiar with.

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I think that's a given.

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That being said, having spoken to a lot of teams that are potentially applying or applying

or considering and so on and so forth, I think the biggest concern is around this

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And I understand like, we don't have to go into like nitty gritty.

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However, this rubric isn't as blatantly creative or impact heavy or so on and so forth.

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That being said, you're right.

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If this is, this is a rubric that you're saying that like was when Empire was hanging a

dholi from the ceiling, like obviously like something went right with this rubric.

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So how would you like

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calm those concerns that like, or like, let me rephrase.

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With the change in the rubric, are you trying to incentivize a different type of

performance or will that classic good Bruin performance still do well on this rubric?

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I think that's the big thing.

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It's like, wants to come to this comp and then lose because they didn't do enough mirza

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or like they didn't like have enough like variations of like Jordi like some folk jodiya

that nobody's ever seen.

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You know what I mean?

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Like I think like that's the big thing.

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Like, well, if I bring a Bruin Bruin performance, will that performance be rewarded

appropriately?

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I think a younger foot in it was chuckling that we're having this conversation.

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I would encourage your audience to zoom out a little bit, but to your question, I think

the question that you're trying to ask me is is Bruin going folk live?

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Basically.

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I'm not sure what part of the rubric lands that way for folk.

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if you want to have.

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it is very much the 15 points on traditionality.

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So like, that comes to the shot.

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that many points for traditionality have this rubric, some points here or there.

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Now that being said, I think Bruin will always be Bruin.

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I hope we will always be Bruin.

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It was a place to

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It's funny that you mentioned that it was a place to launch your routine for the next

year.

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When we first started out, it was actually the last competition of the academic year.

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They turbocharged their routine and brought it here.

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didn't say that it was like a long bad, but I meant more so.

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that's okay.

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I think Bruin will always be Bruin.

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I hope Bruin will always be Bruin.

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Our ethos is that I think Bhangra can be excellent and also entertaining.

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It is the message I'm trying to deliver.

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For most of our history, the extra that folks bring has really been rewarded as extra

credit.

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And I think perhaps the pendulum swung too far that it became the minimum and it became

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cumbersome and burdensome to folks and we never intended that.

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A new team starting their career out.

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We don't want anyone to be of the burden to you know build extravagant sets and spend a

fortune to come to Bruin.

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We will always be a place that rewards creativity that involves that rewards excellence

that rewards the magic if you will.

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But

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we, I think we're just perhaps calibrating on calibrating the take back to what we know to

be an effective rubric that empowers entertainment without having, know, swung the

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pendulum too far on what the minimum base requirement is to come to.

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will say your focus on the word entertainment is actually gonna hit well with a few folks

that I know.

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Okay, so getting off off of that, what are you looking forward to?

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I mean, there's a lot of new changes, a lot of things that look a lot of performances and

special guests and such.

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But what are you most looking forward to when it comes to this with the compass here?

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This sounds very cliche and I don't intend it to be, but really everything from start to

finish.

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I'm not a big party goer, I don't really like parties.

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And I'm looking forward to all three that weekend.

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If I really, really had to choose one, I think feeling, it would be watching a new

generation of kids fall in love with Bruin and Bhangra There's a really special joy in

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seeing that magic sparked in fresh eyes.

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And if I had to choose one event, we are starting the weekend with an exclusive invite

only event for our first, our earliest winners, a big, I don't know, OG, Bhangra legend

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reunion, if you will, we need a better name.

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But I'm really, really looking forward to that.

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Some of these folks have not seen each other since they left competitive Bhangra and we're

humbled for the opportunity to bring them back.

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That's awesome.

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That's exciting.

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Kind of going back on that theme of just, you know, like old heads.

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Well, do you remember your first like when was when was your first burn?

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I do remember my first Bruin.

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And if you're from my generation of bhangra dancers, I think we all remember our first

Bruin.

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I want to know your memory of yours, but I may be aging myself here, but I am really

grateful for the opportunity to have been like an 11 year old, I think in the audience at

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the very first Bruin.

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It was long before my dancing career had started.

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Back then, Bruin used to actually be held in Ackerman Ballroom.

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It was in our student union.

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There were like a thousand folding chairs that were laid out.

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was a world before online ticketing.

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was the only funerary competition in SoCal.

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So if you hadn't gotten your tickets in India suites or that you were just, and if you're

at the very back of that line, like our family was that weekend, you were very likely

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getting turned away.

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At a certain point, most people did.

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There was no live stream or like post-performance YouTube video to catch it on.

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So if you missed it, you missed it.

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For us, luckily, a family friend was on the team, so he got us in and we kind of sat on

these freshly laid out folding chairs, very, very back row.

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We were wearing our moms and mussies, like hand me down Punjabi suits.

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And we were so excited to be there.

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And I think I fell in love with the magic of ruin.

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And I don't know, somewhere I was like, I hope I get to do this someday.

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What was yours?

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Uh, yeah.

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okay.

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And that was like, oh shit, like this, this stuff's wild.

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My first time competing and actually being there.

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year or was it after the projector year?

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Was that the projector year?

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That was the year they came out with the lights on their head and they were like, yeah.

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They did a bunch of project to get this idea, like a year and a year before.

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But I would say my first time, actually, so I'm from the university, I went to University

of Pittsburgh in the first class.

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And so like the only time I was ever going to be there in person is if I was competing.

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DRP won, we went 20.

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Yeah, yeah, that was the first time anybody went 20.

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And so that was like a big thing for us.

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We went 18, no, we went 20, we went 20.

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And that was my first time.

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I remember being so fucking nervous.

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I did eight run throughs before the comps started.

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My bug tire had to retry my bug and he was so mad at me.

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Thank you so much.

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But yeah, like I did like eight full like all-out run throughs before the competition just

to make sure like I knew the set and like I was just kept doing it over and over again.

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And yeah, do I remember my time on stage?

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No, I don't.

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I watched the video and I like, I was there.

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no, it was an absolutely great amazing time.

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The pre-party, post-party, all that stuff.

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It's a very memorable experience.

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If anybody ever if anybody ever has the opportunity to dance everyone you got to do it at

least once it is like definitely like a moment to remember and something that like I

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treasure forever.

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Given all that we said, why, and like, listen, I have been one of the teams that had a

piss poor experience at like some of the recent Bruins.

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And I know a bunch of people who are like kind of fed up.

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Why should a team trust Bruin this year?

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Why should a team apply this year?

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And certainly, think we as a group take ownership of that.

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I'm, on behalf of all of us, we're sorry to hear that.

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I hope that this year, and I hope the next 25, will be one of the most vividly memorable

experiences of your life and career as a dancer.

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So certainly the years when I've come back as a competitor, whether I've won or lost, are

some of the best memories of my dancing career.

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And I think that's something that we want to impart onto perhaps a new generation of

dancers.

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And really that's the reason for the close partnership between the current team and the

alumni board to hopefully chart a new course, if you will, for the next 25.

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And I think the more folks that we've had the opportunity to chat with over the years,

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I think the more we are humbled to find the pervasiveness of that sentiment.

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Like you have a Bruin story, I have a Bruin story.

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The great humbling feeling is that everyone, you know, in a world prior to the pandemic

has one.

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And really every dancer on the scene should have a great story.

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And I think that's really just what we are trying to.

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to build FAC.

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And of course the prizes are epic.

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if you don't want to believe the first part, there's something.

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your next season by winning Bruin.

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That's right.

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What do you hope teams will remember then?

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last question, yeah.

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So last question, what do you hope teams, whether they're watching, whether they're there

in the audience, whether they're watching videos a few, like a little time later, or teams

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that are actually competing, what do you hope that they will remember this specific Bruin

for?

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I think in a moment that's deeply anchored around rubrics and judges, folk or modern

debates or analyzing and dissecting minutes and points of competitions, I hope that we'll

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be able to take you back to why you started doing this.

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And if you've taken enough risks in your competitive dancing career, you will have more

losses than wins.

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Perhaps you should, perhaps we all should.

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It's true of even the most storied dynasties, and I think it's the strongest mark of

growth.

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As a retired competitive dancer, I have long forgotten the placings.

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Any trophies that I had an infinitesimally small part in winning are sitting in the homes

and the studios of my esteemed captains.

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But seared into my mind are the incredible moments, like the rivalries turned friendships

and the people that we came to be along the way.

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I hope that you'll remember the magic and the hospitality because just as much as Bruin

wouldn't be Bruin without all of you, I hope somewhere in each of you, you will also be

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who you are because Bruin was a small part of.

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All right.

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Well, with that, thank you so much for coming on and telling us all about this and little

trip down memory lanes and such.

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If anybody wants to apply, think this will go out before late registration.

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How does somebody apply?

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How does somebody find the competition?

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Go to bruinbhangra.com Registration is easy.

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Fill out a form, send us a video, Venmo a registration fee.

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Ping us, we can walk you through it.

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Cool.

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If that's a little more complex than it should be.

501

All right.

502

Well, thank you so much.

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Thank you so much for coming on and we'll see you soon.

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Thank you for the time, Umer Have a great day.