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today on bali with monster live two

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finds for the two giggles we love this

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ghost we’re pumped jimmy jimmy jimmy

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jimmy jimmy jim

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you pick how many jimmies you lots of

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jimmy baldy with disco music is like the

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best ball you would music wow nice might

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be a strong statement

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controversial

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we love the cheese yeah i love cheese

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hard cheese or soft cheese

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hard cheese all the way

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okay girl get out of here relationship

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over

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we’re done

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hello i’m vicasa kohli the executive

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director of monstert and today we are

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going to get behind the scenes with the

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bollywood monster orchestra and all the

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creative minds that go behind it we are

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going to be talking with jenna lee and

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ria from the giggle queens and uh for

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those who don’t know what bollywood

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monster orchestra is it is a live mashup

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of musicians performing western songs

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and bollywood songs together have you

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ever been to a party i don’t know if

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anyone’s ever been to a party before

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they have these things called djs and

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they make songs up so we’re doing that

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except all live and then we throw

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dancers on top of it

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not too hard though because we don’t

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want jenna lee andrea to get angry with

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us but

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uh so

1:09

moving right in to meeting the fine fine

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giggle queens

1:15

two finds for the two giggles um

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so first what songs are you doing car

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choreography to this time

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wow well

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where to start i mean

1:29

we knew that going into it before you

1:32

sent us the list that it was

1:34

disco and we loved discuss we’re pumped

1:37

and then we’ve ended up choosing

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hot hot stuff hot stuff with macabre

1:43

yeah

1:44

jimmy jimmy jimmy jimmy jimmy jimmy

1:46

jimmy

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you pick how many jimmies you lots of

1:49

jimmy

1:50

and then it’s time we’re ending off with

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yeah it’s time to disco slash it’s time

1:54

to ymca yes because we love the cheese

1:56

yeah all about the cheese hard cheese or

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soft cheese

2:01

what hard cheese all the way

2:03

okay girl get out of here relationship

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over

2:06

we’re

2:07

so uh okay the songs that you guys

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picked then

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what

2:12

talk a little bit about what why those

2:14

songs like when you heard those was it

2:15

the mash-up between the east and west

2:17

was it the particular eastern song was

2:19

it the particular western song what was

2:21

the thing that pulled you towards those

2:23

particular ones great question great

2:25

question um yeah i think for both of us

2:29

it was a mix of you know generally and i

2:32

as you know maybe you don’t know though

2:34

um you know we have trained in whacking

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which is a disco style but uh i’ve also

2:40

trained in bollywood and indian dance

2:42

styles so there’s a lot to play with in

2:45

these songs like there are disco and

2:47

whacking songs that really stuck out to

2:49

jen and there’s bollywood songs in there

2:50

that i was like we have to do this song

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so it was really kind of both our ears

2:55

coming together and figuring out what

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mashup worked for both of our styles and

2:59

you know the musicality that we want to

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play with which is pretty exciting

3:03

because you know we’ve been doing fusion

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for like the whole time that giggle

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queens has been around and this is kind

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of the ultimate performance for us

3:12

especially because it’s disco and

3:13

bollywood which are the two main styles

3:16

that we do so yeah

3:18

live

3:18

and live live live music the dream

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that yeah so

3:24

now

3:24

for okay so you it sounds like we’re

3:27

just all enjoying throwbacks to our

3:28

youth here when we hear these songs

3:30

bring some good memories all that stuff

3:32

so when you went to start doing the

3:34

choreography um

3:37

what is it that you’re thinking about so

3:39

i’ll ask well let’s go generally first

3:42

okay choreography well we we kind of

3:45

decided as we were choosing the songs

3:47

that we really wanted to like embrace

3:50

and love the 70s element and whacking

3:53

makes an appearance on the tv show soul

3:55

train which we kind of talked about so

3:57

we really wanted to

3:59

draw inspiration from not only the

4:02

movement of soul train but the context

4:05

so the way people are dancing socially

4:07

and we’re coming in to our creative

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process with these ideas

4:11

the soul train line everybody

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freestyling but then coming together

4:16

yeah in terms of like our creative

4:18

process i think it’s very

4:20

organic we don’t we like to have a big

4:24

plan but not a little plan of detail so

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we like to just kind of try things

4:31

let them land try some other moves and

4:33

let them marinate and then edit

4:35

later on so that’s where we’re at right

4:38

now so was that a

4:40

very explicit hint or subtle hint that

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we’ll see like a soul train style you

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know

4:45

dance off on stage it was an explicit

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thing

4:49

it’s going down it’s happening some of

4:51

our other dancers are extremely strong

4:54

freestylers and we really want to not

4:57

only bring the choreography but bring

4:58

the freestyle element which we’re pumped

5:00

about music is always

5:02

you know the number one

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inspiration for dancers

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um i mean i can’t speak for all dancers

5:08

but at least for us so

5:10

yeah even like before an idea comes the

5:12

music is really what is going to you

5:15

know um anchor everything anchor all the

5:18

ideas that come so

5:20

you know if we might listen to the song

5:22

and be like oh you know this sounds very

5:24

like dramatic or this is a really good

5:27

place for a battle or something like

5:28

that so that’s like the big idea but

5:30

then

5:31

we’re gonna move and maybe we’ll

5:33

freestyle a little bit so we’ll play the

5:35

music we’ll make like

5:37

in a corner by ourselves a little bit

5:39

and then we’ll come together and be like

5:41

okay what about this we might put it

5:42

together pick and choose from moments we

5:45

liked in our freestyle and then through

5:47

that movement we might be like oh you

5:49

know this is a really good

5:50

uh point for like a soloist to kind of

5:53

come in and take over or like the story

5:55

kind of comes through but the movement

5:57

and music is always first and then

5:59

everything comes after

6:00

what is is what does the timeline look

6:03

like

6:03

of what you need to do uh you know how

6:06

many

6:07

meetings do you have that you’re just

6:09

like thinking about it versus when you

6:11

actually start getting the moves

6:13

happening to then when you start

6:14

rehearsing with other people what’s the

6:16

timeline typically like it depends on

6:18

like the complexity of what we’re doing

6:20

you know how many dancers do we have

6:22

what’s the level of the choreography if

6:24

we’re doing something super intricate

6:26

super advanced it’s going to be a little

6:28

bit longer you know if

6:30

like i usually say if you’re learning a

6:31

minute of choreo you need an hour of

6:34

rehearsal to learn it that’s not to

6:36

choreograph it so you know jed and i are

6:38

gonna have meetings that are just

6:40

creative strictly creative you know like

6:42

kind of blocking out

6:43

um logistics like how many dancers

6:46

what’s the rehearsals what’s the

6:47

rehearsal space what are the costumes

6:48

that’s all like admin stuff and then we

6:50

have the creative piece so what are the

6:52

songs like what songs going first uh

6:55

who’s in what piece like what’s the

6:57

vision for each of those then we have to

6:59

meet to actually choreograph it and you

7:01

might hit those mental blocks and when

7:03

you have a timeline it can be a little

7:04

bit hard but

7:06

within that time crunch there might be

7:08

some cool stuff that comes out of it

7:09

because you just gotta roll with it you

7:11

don’t have time to be like now let’s go

7:13

over that there’s no time really so then

7:15

after we do all of that that we have to

7:17

meet with our dancers and actually teach

7:19

it to them and you know that’s when the

7:21

time crunch is really on because

7:23

you know

7:24

we only have a couple hours with our

7:26

dancers we want to pay them fairly also

7:28

so we don’t want to have 10 hour

7:29

rehearsals that’s not fair to everyone

7:31

so we have to plan it meticulously so

7:33

that we come in and that we’re not

7:35

wasting anybody’s time so what we’re

7:37

we’ve decided to do this year is to have

7:39

a zoom meeting with everybody before we

7:41

enter rehearsal so we can explain you

7:43

know what’s the vision what’s going on

7:46

before we meet so we can just get to

7:47

dancing right away when we see everybody

7:49

ev

7:50

how are you doing

7:52

i’m good how are you doing so maybe this

7:54

is a good time since we’re talking about

7:55

the music and the inspiration it has for

7:57

the dancers what is your role in the

7:59

bollywood monster orchestra project oh

8:01

you know i just get coughing for people

8:04

of course that’s important you can’t run

8:06

rehearsal without coffee no like don’t

8:07

even try um

8:09

no but um i mean i’m pretty much kind of

8:12

managing things on the music side

8:14

um getting the musicians

8:16

sending them the tracks to learn picking

8:18

the tracks writing down the music on

8:20

paper for them to learn wow and then

8:22

making sure they all show up in the same

8:24

room on the same day and they actually

8:25

learn the music

8:26

and that their schedule for the day that

8:29

they know

8:30

when is the show when do i show up for

8:32

the show what do i wear to the show all

8:34

that jazz what is

8:35

what is the first step in making of

8:38

from your perspective

8:39

for um well first step is picking

8:42

the theme

8:43

um because um i think as you mentioned

8:46

in the beginning we have a different

8:47

theme every year it’s always bollywood

8:48

plus something

8:50

um so mean of a class will always pick

8:52

like okay what are we doing this year um

8:54

and i was super excited this year’s

8:55

disco because i also love the school

8:57

music

8:58

this is just a room of disco lovers

8:59

which is amazing

9:00

and i also think baldy with disco music

9:02

is like the best bollywood music wow

9:05

nice might be a strong statement

9:07

controversial yes

9:09

give us feedback we want to hear from

9:10

you

9:11

so yeah picking the theme and after that

9:13

it’s picking the songs on both sides

9:16

like picking the bollywood songs and

9:18

picking the disco songs or whatever

9:20

english songs they are and picking what

9:22

fits together yeah that’s a hard job

9:24

yeah i want to know

9:26

about that like how it’s an interesting

9:28

yeah

9:29

i think it’s a very

9:30

for me

9:31

honestly it’s a very random process yeah

9:34

how i do it like i’ll just listen to a

9:37

whole bunch of songs

9:39

like sometimes i’ll have songs in mind

9:40

like especially because they’re super

9:41

disciplined like i know disco songs so i

9:43

kind of have a list like can i match

9:45

this with anything

9:46

but because

9:47

now not so much but especially a few

9:49

years ago starting this project i didn’t

9:51

know bali would that well so it would

9:53

always just be like okay i’m going to

9:54

listen to this playlist of top 50

9:56

bollywood songs and see which ones i

9:57

like and then whatever i like i’ll be

9:59

like okay can i fit this with something

10:00

else and how i determine if i can fit

10:02

two things

10:03

pretty much just um first of all are

10:05

they like

10:06

basically do they sound similar at all

10:09

like sometimes it’s just like they’re

10:10

about the same speed and they’re in the

10:11

same key and it’s like okay i can match

10:13

that sometimes um you know they’re not

10:16

exactly the same speed not exactly the

10:18

same key but it’s like oh that baseline

10:20

it’s actually almost the same which is

10:22

weird because it’s like this bollywood

10:24

song from the 80s and this song that

10:26

came out in 2010 like they definitely

10:28

had

10:29

no they didn’t talk to each other but

10:31

somehow that bass line is the exact same

10:33

almost um so just finding the little

10:35

things in the music that

10:37

are similar and then yeah then i just

10:39

layer them yeah or even if it’s like a

10:40

chord progression or just like anything

10:42

like that

10:44

um and then just yeah and that is just

10:46

the fun part of just figuring out how to

10:48

fit together sometimes like you really

10:49

want to make something work and it’s

10:51

just not when you put it when you try

10:52

it’s just really not working

10:54

yes

10:55

we’ve tried that with some songs yes

10:57

we’ve tried our own mashups and right

10:59

you can’t force you can’t push

11:00

everything this is cool this is what

11:02

this is about see dancers and musicians

11:04

learning about what it takes and

11:06

hopefully everyone else listening and

11:07

learning about both of the things but uh

11:10

equal awe happening here it’s a lot of

11:12

work on both sides definitely that is

11:14

the moral of the story and we’re super

11:16

grateful because often people have no

11:18

clue i don’t know if you get this how

11:20

much work it takes to dance they’re like

11:22

well do do a dance yes right now even

11:25

the musicians i would say don’t know how

11:27

much work it is to create the music that

11:29

they’re preparing right because we’ve

11:31

had i know we’ve had stories in the past

11:33

like like i know i’ve gotten

11:35

i know what stories are

11:37

i have a lot of stories like musicians

11:39

have said to me like after i sign them

11:41

on for the show like oh can we do this

11:42

song and i was like maybe we can do that

11:44

song next year um but i wrote this sheet

11:46

music eight months ago so oh my god yes

11:50

we’re living in a long-term plan it’s a

11:51

long-term plan here yes and i know

11:54

i don’t think not in my time but i know

11:55

people have asked you before to change

11:56

the key during the rehearsal

12:00

absolutely well now i know that that is

12:02

not easy i can’t believe that it’s only

12:05

this year that we’re working with you on

12:06

this project because i think you’re like

12:08

the perfect group to fit in with this

12:10

project because you also do really cool

12:12

and outside the box things thank you for

12:14

saying that but i want to know then is

12:18

uh what

12:19

excites you the most of what you’re

12:21

going to do this year jen ali oh my gosh

12:25

it i mean yeah everything we talked

12:27

about it feels like it’s all

12:30

every bmm that we’ve done this is our

12:33

sixth one

12:35

and now we get to do it with live

12:36

musicians like it’s all been leading to

12:37

this moment

12:38

whacking for me this is more generally

12:41

answer but is my passion and it’s a

12:44

disco style like i’m paying homage to

12:47

like the root of the dance not just the

12:49

music like the way it was done on soul

12:51

train and to just feel it’s just feeling

12:53

so good so what am i most excited for

12:56

just like living in that live music

12:59

disco fever

13:01

everything’s coming together moment

13:04

with my best friend

13:07

yeah i think like

13:09

there’s a couple

13:10

of things like

13:12

yeah it’s all coming together first of

13:14

all in terms of like

13:16

bollywood monster mashup who like is all

13:20

about the mashups and then giggle

13:21

queen’s also all about the mashups but

13:23

then the fact that it’s disco in

13:26

bollywood which are like our two

13:27

favorite things it’s like ding ding ding

13:29

number two

13:30

and then ding ding ding three we’ve

13:32

always wanted to do like whether it was

13:35

bmm or not like a show with a live band

13:38

like that is i think for a lot of

13:40

dancers the dream like the energy that

13:42

you’re feeding off with dancers but then

13:44

musicians that is just so special like

13:48

for musicians and for dancers you know i

13:50

think that bond is really really

13:52

important and impactful so i think

13:54

number three ding ding ding and then

13:56

number four

13:58

is just like because it’s been like two

14:00

and a half years of not a lot of

14:02

performances i am kind of like scared

14:06

about the energy and the adrenaline

14:08

that’s gonna happen you know because

14:11

we’ve been

14:12

so what’s the word like suppressed in

14:14

for the last two and a half years of

14:15

that kind of energy that performance

14:17

energy um so i’m i’m excited ding ding

14:21

ding ding ding ding all the way

14:23

yeah yeah

14:24

i feel on that i was like you can ring

14:26

my bell

14:28

now almost made it on the list i love

14:31

that my favorite part of that song is at

14:32

the beginning

14:36

like 20 times

14:39

from your perspective what are you most

14:41

excited about this year oh okay i have

14:43

two two things one i think as we were

14:45

all talking like the disco and the

14:47

bollywood i’m also excited for that

14:49

combination those are also two genres

14:51

that i love

14:52

um and then also i guess from the music

14:55

side i’m very excited about i’m very

14:57

excited about specific songs

15:00

um like one of the ones that you two are

15:01

dancing to the hot mukabola yeah um that

15:04

it was like just a complete

15:07

complete chance that that came to be a

15:10

thing

15:10

because um it was on that because

15:12

because i just looked at like the

15:14

tentative list and he was like i feel

15:15

like we need like another like really

15:17

popular bollywood song in there like

15:18

something that people will get one of my

15:20

favorite songs so i was like i was

15:22

looking up really popular bollywood

15:25

very clear direction yes yes um so then

15:28

one of the like probably like the second

15:30

one that i came up was the mukabala song

15:32

which i hadn’t heard before

15:34

and then as soon as i started listening

15:36

to it i was like

15:38

that should go with hot stuff i didn’t

15:40

even have like a reason why i was just

15:41

like that that makes me think of the hot

15:43

stuff songs that i we tried putting

15:45

together and like it worked so much

15:47

better than i even thought it would even

15:49

in that random moment so i’m very

15:50

excited to hear that one live and then

15:52

also um similar to how you said you’re

15:54

excited about working with a live band

15:56

which is great to hear um i’m excited to

15:58

have dancers perform live with us

16:00

because we’ve been wanting to do that

16:01

for years then it was two years of

16:03

pandemic and we like literally couldn’t

16:04

have that many people in the room even

16:06

though we still went forward with the

16:07

project we had to record the band and

16:09

then record the musicians sorry record

16:11

the dancers separately right so it was

16:13

two people i remember so this is like

16:14

the third year of us trying to combine

16:16

music and dance on this project and it’s

16:19

finally actually happening live

16:22

it’s finally coming together that’s

16:24

awesome yeah you know i feel like we got

16:26

like this mutual understanding about the

16:28

work that you do

16:30

and you got some understanding of the

16:32

work that happens on the musician’s side

16:34

and

16:35

i thought it was really cool that

16:37

basically everything that you’re doing

16:38

has the same parallel

16:40

on the music side yeah and then we all

16:42

just come together and ding ding ding

16:44

away

16:47

for the audience i feel like that’s like

16:50

some sort of like uh pootie tanks

16:51

there’s slaying going on like ding ding

16:53

ding all night long or whatever i don’t

16:55

know

16:57

if

16:58

if a pooty tang reference makes it into

17:00

this final cut of the video

17:08

so okay so we got the giggle queens

17:11

we got ev

17:13

on behalf of the bollywood monster

17:14

orchestra music superstar and uh i’m

17:17

going to just do a pre-emptive shout out

17:19

to of course uh antonia who’s also

17:22

helping out with the charts this year

17:23

and then um

17:25

we’re going to look forward so looking

17:27

forward to that first rehearsal with all

17:28

the amazing musicians and then finally

17:31

putting it all together with the dancers

17:33

this is gonna be so fun i think i’m most

17:34

excited after i heard your response

17:36

about how you’re most excited that got

17:38

me excited

17:40

okay good that’s it we’re all just gonna

17:42

be really excited yeah

17:45

anyone else there is excited about doing

17:47

this type of thing then you know

17:49

let us know contact us be part of the

17:51

bollywood monster orchestra fun it’s all

17:53

where it’s at okay

17:55

that’s all where it’s at ding ding ding

17:58

ding

18:02

[Music]

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