First day of Practice: I met with other patrons and got to know little about them. As most of them had been in Technip for more time than me hence I could feel a bonding among all of them. I also tried my level best to mingle with everybody in the coming days. The most tedious task was to select the songs. Everyone gave their inputs which ultimately created lots of chaos. Finally what we though that for some portion alone girls will be performing and for some portions alone boys; then in the end, whole group will cover the stage. But the first song we rehearsed together was including both the parties. We kept on rehearsing after office hours regularly and even on weekends. Finally after the hard work of about 15 days we finalized our combined portion with bits and pieces of individual ones also.
First Screening: Then the day came when our first screening was going to happen in front of the organizers. We all decided to showcase out combined portion which was well rehearsed. It was around 4 minutes. It went well as feedback was nice to hear except some minor comments like energy level, duration of the song and non-complete performance. From then onwards we all were really charged up and continued to work had to make it better. With in next few days we prepared our full song and the total duration of the song got extended up to 7.30 minutes. None of the parties was ready to cut their portion at all. Neither we were ready to shorten our combined portion as it was well rehearsed.
Final Rehearsal: After some clashes rather discussions we all decided to keep the same track and named our group as “Bhangra Rockers”. 3 days were left and we all were called for the final rehearsal. As soon as we were finished with the performance, all appreciated it. We saw other performances also. All were good and within 5 minutes range. Only Bhangra crossed it with quite a high margin. After all the performances, judges gave a comment that we must shorten the duration of the song as it was not fitting in their schedule. We all were really in tension. After listening to the song carefully we had some portions which can be cut without affecting much on the choreography part. Some rest pieces were there which were included between two songs to change the positions and regain energy level. Those pieces were cut eventually to make our performance duration to 6.15 minutes. We rehearsed on it and now it was more tiring & energetic. So everyone was keeping their fingers crossed about the final performance.
The Big Day: Finally the day came and Bhagra Rockers were 5th on the itinerary. We all were really excited and nervous. Bhangra was announced as soon as fourth performance completed. We took our positions. Dance was to be started with girls’ solo performance to be followed by boys and then combined portion to create the impact in the last. It got started with the bang, girls performed really well and it was time when boys needed to enter the stage. Initially I was bit nervous and anxious due to which I forgot some steps also but I think I managed it pretty well. Soon I got over with my nervousness and was completely enjoying the performance. After some time girls again entered the stage and we were heading towards the end. About 5 minutes were over when suddenly music stopped and lights were off. WTF…Power was gone. We were standing in middle of the stage looking at each other. Everyone in the audience was cheering and shouting. Crowd was chanting, “Once more! Once more!” We as performers were overwhelmed by audience response and hall was echoed with clapping and hooting. Soon the power was back. We all too tired to perform again but looking at the response we decided to perform from the scratch once again. Girls started the performance once again with same grace and energy. We all ended it beautifully this time. So now I can tell proudly that I am a Bhangra Dancer.
Regards
PARUL GOYAL
