The 4th Annual McMenamin Academy Feis was held on August 10, 2014 at the Student Union at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The feis was run back to back with the Milwaukee Feis, and so some sections of this review will refer to the Saturday feis review in order to avoid duplication.
This is the 2nd time we have attended this feis, and we have generally had a pleasant experience and would likely return again next year.
Venue
(See Milwaukee Feis Review for commentary)
Overall Venue Score: 9/10
Judges
My dancer danced 6 times and was seen by 4 judges, which is pretty darn good judge rotation in my book. My only complaint is that 2 of the 4 judges who saw her on Sunday had also judged her on Saturday. I know it would be difficult for the 2 feiseanna to coordinate completely new judges for grades dancers on Sunday, but it would be nice to see an attempt made.
Judge Score: 9/10
Music
Our musician had a few hiccups & missed notes, but overall was quite good. As mentioned in the review of the Milwaukee Feis, the acoustics of this venue are nice, with separate rooms for all stages, making it easy for the dancers to hear their music.
Music Score: 9/10
Food
(See Milwaukee Feis Review for commentary)
Food Score: 10/10
Results/Awards
Results were very fast and were also posted on Feisworx real time. We wait until our dancer is done with all her dances before checking any results, so I don’t know how long individual dances were taking to come out, but my dancer’s results were all complete & posted 10-15 minutes after she finished her last dance.
As the parent of a young Open dancer (where, as you all know, the competition is tough, and placement sometimes seems arbitrary, and it’s very easy for a child to go home without so much as a single ribbon as a reminder of their hard work & effort), I really appreciate feiseanna who provide generous placements/awards. So we really love that the McMenamin Feis places a minimum of 50% in every competition. Medals were awarded for 1st-5th place at a minimum, and I did see some dancers walking around with ribbons as well. The medals were on the smaller side, but were nice quality and quite heavy. Like most Mid-America feiseanna, medals came without ribbons, but that would be my only complaint.
Results/Awards Score: 9/10
Feis Flow
For grades, this feis was by dance, which can make for a long day. My dancer started dancing around 9:15 and and was not done until almost 3:30, which is pretty standard for a feis run in this format. The feis did a good job curtailing the lunch break to a reasonable 30 minutes, which was much appreciated. I know some people really prefer this format, as it allows for plenty of practice time & more judge rotation, but with a younger dancer, I find that this format is just plain exhausting. It probably didn’t help that the stage with the youngest dancers had the most kids on it & was the last to finish – some reallocation of dances/age groups would be welcomed next year.
Feis Flow Score: 6/10
Overall Score: 8.5/10
Great job, McMenamin Academy Feis!!
Leave a Reply