CURRY BEAR

Aaaah I promise you sir, this entry will be the last of the NNR 2009 remnants. At least until NNR 2010. I finally got around to finishing the bubbles for this competition. After looking at them again, I have realized that I can make a career out of making fun of the Wanted Ashiqz. And as always, if anyone finds a picture offensive, email poppa bear and I’ll take it out. Now, before I stop talking about NNR check out this video montage.

PS: I may be doing a few more pics but they will only be available on facebook. So add me bitches! Also people on facebook got a first glance at these pics already. This way if someone objects they can e-mail me before they are up on the website. I am so considerate now. I must be going soft (unlike one of the guys in the picture).

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This video is dedicated to all the teams that performed at NNR 2009
* Please note this is not a professionally made Montage nor are the videos used professionally recorded videos.

Shreya S. – Wanted Ashiqz Liaison
WANTED! you guys never cease to amaze me! i was blown away. minus the 980746436638947637 props, you guys made liasoning easy. also cuz ashif is my bffforlife. haha. anyways congrats on an awesome win and ill see you guys soon enough! your biggest fan, shreya

Arti D. – VCU Jhoom Liaison
VCU Jhoom is such an amazing and inspiring team. You guys were so friendly and full of life, and definitely entertained me throughout the competition. You have so much passion for dance and rocked the stage at NNR. Congrats on winning best costume! Good luck on your future competitions and I hope to see you guys soon. I couldn’t have asked for a better team!

Reema M. – U.C. Berkeley Mandala Liaison
Mandala is a team with a lot of passion and great talent. They had an amazing first performance and I know they’ll go far by practicing harder, coming up with even more innovative routines and a little double-sided tape! XOXO

Joey Z. – Binghamton Masti Liaison
Dear Masti,
Me tumse pyar karthe hu!! *Gag*. Thank you so much for an amazing weekend. I loved being your liaison, chilling, and partying with you! Great job NNR weekend, you’re all awesome, and I wish you luck at all of your future performances. I’m actually suffering severe Masti withdrawal consisting of shivering, sweating, hallucinations, anxiety, paranoia, depleted hygeine (bleh!), and extreme disorientation. I say you all come to Desi Dhamaka on March 21 in Albany to cheer me on!! I’ll be dancing with Anakh-E-Gabroo. Hopefully it’s not too far cuz I’d love to see you all again.
Yours Truly,
Joey “The Best Liaison Ever” Zuniga

Khizar S – Head Liaison
Thanks to all the teams that would let me boss them around! I had a great time meeting and getting to know all of you. Remember that time, you guys got Gatorade? Yeah, that was awesome (of me).

Natasha M – Michigan Taal Liaison
I had an awesome time being a part of your team. I have danced with and competed against many teams, but I must say that you guys are inspirational. You all truly care about each other and have strong friendships which really shows when you guys are on stage. I really loved your performance at NNR. Can’t wait to play antakshri and charades with you guys next year! Good luck on all of your future competitions!
-Natasha (The real best liasion ever)

Helee D – Temple Agni Liaison
Temple Agni is a great group of girls (and I guess one guy) =) with a lot of heart and talent. You guys are so supportive of each other and really did a great job at NNR. Next time – I want my hair done too!

Priyanka P – Boston Chankaar Liaison
BU Chankaar’s cooperation was beyond perfect, working with them was such a pleasure and a blast! Amazingly, they’re the ones who kept me sane while dealing with the stresses of the weekend even though they were preparing for one of the toughest competitions out there. I can only hope I provided the same for them! You girls danced your butt off and at the same time managed to have so much fun at NNR. I hope to see you girls soon and good luck with your future competitions…SPANK THAT CHANK!
<3 Priyanka

Uneeb K - I had a lot of fun interviewing all the teams. I was surprised by how much energy they had during the show. These teams practiced for 2 days straight, then danced three times in one competition, and then danced for hours non-stop at the after party!!! What the fuck is wrong with you guys? I never realized how hard it is to perform in a dance competition until I saw one of the Wanted Ashiqz guys throwing up in the back because he pushed himself to exhaustion. I can only imagine what other teams had went through. I’m amazed at what these teams put themselves threw just to give people a good show. VCU, I had an awesome time being your secret liaison, and BU Chankaar dances and parties harder than any team.

Rahul K Yeah, I’m the guy who got you guys food. And I think I got one team some shower curtains. And the rest of the time I just went around helping everyone and looking awesome with my NNR t-shirt. And I think I also interviewed some of you. All I can say about you guys are that dancing is not easy and I certainly respect your talent. It’s a lot of hard work for us organizing, but even harder to train and prepare for the competition. I miss NNR.

Uneeq K. – Director of Operations
We would like to thank all of the NNR teams for doing an amazing job with their performances. This was probably one of the most difficult competitions ever and you all did phenomenal!!! We completely understand the amount of difficulty and complications you had to face for this competition because the staff had to face twice as much or more in organizing it. However, we feel extremely lucky to have such great teams that were understanding and cooperative with our staff. One of the reasons the show ran as well as it did is because of you all and your positive attitudes. The liaisons had wonderful things to say about all the teams and what a fun time they had with all of you, even while you all were under so much pressure. Not only did you all add quality to the competition, but you were very supportive of each other and other teams throughout the whole show and especially during the awards ceremony. Any show or organization should feel lucky and honored to have you a part of their event. DDT surely does.

Here is what some of the teams had to say about NNR 2009:

NNR staff was very well organized, we were excited to participate in this new
competition. The staff especially was helpful to us when we had a prop
malfunction. They went out of their way to accomadate our needs. The only
difference we would like to see is being given a few of the same songs for
round 3 as well. This way the judges can really compare the two teams in the
finals.~ SJU RAAZ

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I would like to first on foremost congratulate the NNR organization on such a brilliant concept. It was so refreshing to compete in something so challenging and yet so entertaining. The staff was truly amazing, that was the highlight of the show for us. They were there in our every need in every way possible. Their hospitality is beyond words and they were so accommodating to us from the very beginning. I was dancing on an injured foot and half way during rehearsal I was about to pass out and they made sure to take care of not only me but my whole team. We needed extra help from them for our props which they all helped us with. The fruit baskets were awesome; we devoured it Friday night staying up working on props and costumes. We thought the dress rehearsals ran smoothly and each team were given ample amount of time on stage.

We truly loved the format of the competition. It absolutely pushed us to work harder, choreograph better, think outside the box and never take any of the 3 performances for granted. We could not put all our eggs in any one basket we were determined to make every performance entertaining and as good as the others. This was by far the hardest challenge in the career of the Wanted Ashiqz, we had to choreography 12 minutes of choreo in a matter of 1 month, make new costumes and props and perfect the dance. We are glad to have gotten the chance to compete at a show like this otherwise we would not know our potential. It’s a surreal feeling having to go up on stage after every dance and having to wait to hear the result and then going back getting ready to perform in matter of minutes. The flow of the show was very organized, teams performed one after another and there wasn’t any big break other then the technical difficulties which is completely out of the hands of the NNR staff.

One of the things Wanted Ashiqz was very moved by was when the projector screen for the intro video would not go up and they had to roll it up and we were informed our intro video would not be played and Uneeq told the other organizers that our video was very important and it needs to play. It made us feel like NNR cared about our video as much as we did and understood the hard work that goes into putting a dance together and how important each piece is to the overall performance. One of our favorite things about NNR was also the sportsmanship shown by all the teams, whether they won lost they all congratulated their opponents and walked off with a smile on their face. We wish NNR the best of luck and can’t wait for NNR 2010. WA Return????? Only if CB reveals his identity to me. haha ~ Wanted Ashiqz

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Dear Mr. Bear,

We were surprisingly pleased with the NNR competition. We say surprisingly because we were expecting a hectic competition day since there were so many performances in the new tournament-style show; however, the organization of the show was solid. We never had issues with being rushed or with being uninformed. The tribeca staff was very difficult to work with, but the NNR staff was so helpful that we never had any problems. They were very accomodating; we never felt that we weren’t getting what we wanted. The only major mistake in the show was the MC. He was not professional, did not have anything prepared to say about the teams, and did not know how to get the crowd excited or respect the teams. We really enjoyed the new format of the show because it motivates teams in a new and challenging way. We look forward to NNR next year.

Thanks,
Anu Garg and Himali Gandhi
Co-Presidents
BU Chankaar

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Hi Curry Bear,

First of all, let me just say that our entire team thinks the DDT Staff is HOTT. Shout-out to our “shadow” (you know who you are!)

Issues: While teams were waiting in the hallway to go on stage, members of one team were walking back and forth through the hallway and on the side of the stage (even though they weren’t up next). It would have been nice if that team was controlled by their liaison. Also, we really wanted a mixer! All the girls picked out outfits specifically for the mixer, and they never got to use them !! Lastly, I wish the rounds were ALL 1-2 minutes long, including round 3. NNR was our only competition, and it was just way too difficult for our first-year team to do 10 minutes of dance. I think 6-7 minutes total among all three rounds would make for a better show. It might restrict teams that want to go to other comps, but whatevs. Also, a bigger stage would have been nice. New venue for NNR 2010! And do it on the West Coast next time! AND have registration early September and confirm teams and release songs at the end of September – it’s a tight squeeze for teams, but one extra month to prepare would be great to improve overall show quality!

Good things: Show organization was great! Our team liaison totally helped us out and gave us moral support (much needed since our team came all the way from Cali to perform in front of an East Coast audience!) Backstage was hectic, but that’s good! Staff was alert and ready to move teams to the green room before they went up. The show seemed like it went smoothly! DDT staff was extremely accomodating, they worked with us through the entire process!

Amit Gurnani
Team Captain
UC Berkeley Mandala

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Hi Currybear,

Taal had a wonderful time at NNR last weekend. All the teams were so polite and it was a very healthy competition. The competition was extremely well organized, and except for the technical difficulties, the show ran very smoothly. We were particularly impressed by how accommodating the staff was when we found out that we couldn’t use part of our prop because of a potential fire hazard. The organizing committee was extremely quick to respond and at once helped us find new material to use. We really liked the new format and felt that it forced the teams to really go beyond their comfort levels and come up with something not based on their own preference, but the organizing committees choice. The only concern we had was regarding the judging. Everyone had good things to say about the competition, but we did hear some people question the judging and that we wished we could have seen all of the performances for ourselves.

Let us know if you need anything else!