Irish Dance circa 1930

/0 Comments/in /by

OK, so can any of you picture your children doing Irish Dance if it was still like this?

[tube]c9g6DvVdwL0[/tube]

West Virginia Feis

/1 Comment/in , , /by

The West Virginia Feis was held on March 23 and 24th, 2013 at Hyatt Regency Hotel at the Pittsburgh Airport in Pittsburgh, PA. Since the feis was held in PA, I have listed it under both PA and WV reviews.

Please add your feis rating for the West Virginia Feis at the bottom of this review!

NOTE: This review focuses on Saturday only for this two day feis. OC and PC stages and judging therefore are not included in the review.

Venue – This is the second feis I have attended at the Hyatt, and for the last one, I said it ‘wasn’t terrible as a feis venue’, and I still go by that, HOWEVER, I liked it a lot less this time than the last. There were four performance stages, and while I peeked in on the fourth, most of my time was spent in the large ballroom with the three stages. As in my last review for this venue, stages were good size and had sufficient chairs for viewers. The traffic area around the stages was not adequate and moving was difficult, especially since some people congregated on the back wall and in front of the doors into the stage area.

When the hard shoe dances started, the noise carryover between the stages was distracting to me in the viewing seats, but I cannot speak for the dancers on stage.

Camping spots were available in the meeting rooms around the ballroom. Hallways were clearly marked “NO CAMPING” but I saw plenty of people camped right beneath the signs. Camping in the seats around the stages seemed to be at a minimum however, which was nice (at least on stage 3 where we were).

For the last feis I thought the biggest venue ‘issue’ was the concession set up. For this feis, use of the hallways WAS WORSE. This was not helped by the people who did not appear to notice the ‘NO CAMPING’ signs.

Feis results were posted in the hall between the ballroom and the lobby, where the concessions happened to end, which made for an issue of the lunch crowd versus the results crowd. On top of that, there were vendors across from the results, which severely constricted flow. At lunch time that area came to a literal standstill, the rest of the time it was just horrible.

There were also vendors on both sides of the big hallway adjacent to the ballroom, so it was slower traffic through there. The hallway on the end of the ballroom did not really have vendors and might have made a better results area (my opinion only, since I have never set up a feis).

Parking was plentiful but may have involved a bit of a walk depending on when you arrived. There was a way to pull right up to the hotel to drop off dancers and gear though. The feis did pay for parking which was cool and saved me $13.

Venue Score: 5.5 (sorry the results-vendor hall made it worse this time)

Judges – Same as the last time, daughter danced four dances and was judged by three different judges.

Judge Score: 9

Music – Each stage had their own musicians, otherwise pretty standard.

Musician Score: 8

Food – Same as for the last feis, breakfast sandwiches, hot dogs, pretzels, pizza, salad, drinks and sundries… all apparently reasonably priced but we did not eat at the feis so I cannot speak to the quality.

Food Score: 6

Vendors – They had an airbrush artist which I had not seen at a feis before and I thought was a nice addition. Otherwise the standard feis tshirt guy, shoe booth, jewelry, feis and Irish themed apparel, knit goods, the wig stuff, nic-nacs, paddywacks, etc…

Vendor Score: 8.5

Results – Another negative. My daughter danced her first dance at 9 and the results were out at 930, not terrible but not great. After that though, it trended toward terrible taking about 90 minutes for the next 2 results and over an hour for the last (not sure how long since we went out to lunch and came back). A caveat, my daughters comps had nearly 30 dancers.

Results Score: 4

Feis Flow – As for the last feis here, I thought the feis flow was pretty good. There appeared to 5 or 6 dances between each of my daughters so there was time for rest between each although I did see 1 dancer from another age group what appeared to be back to back dances.

From my viewpoint the flow was handled really well and things were kept moving.

Feis Flow Score: 8.5

And the WTF Rating – a 7.07.

What did you think?

[poll id=”3″]

Lavin Cassidy Feis

/0 Comments/in , , /by

A SPECIAL THANKS to a Feis Mom (who asked to remain anonymous) who volunteered to do a write-up for this feis.  THANKS!

The Lavin Cassidy Feis was held on March 2, 2013 at the Grand Geneva,  Lake Geneva, WI.

Venue – A very spacious and well laid out location for a feis.  In all the stage areas there were plenty of seats and room for limited camping, and even room for some practice space in the stage area.  Water was provided and the dispensers were frequently refilled and kept cold.  Most of the stages were on the main floor with a few on the second floor, but were all very easily accessible  A very handicap accessible feis as there was room to move around with a wheel chair if need be.  Some congestion in the one stage area, but it was to be expected and nothing to complain about.  Microphones were down in our stage area so if you weren’t watching the competition progress on your paper you were kind of in a pickle, but they were calling out for competitors very frequently.  The stage helpers (hey still somewhat new to this and still in beg2) were good about getting the kids lined up and if you missed your competition they would get you in between other dances with no issue.  The used dresses were in one of the coat check areas so they weren’t crammed in the back of a stage causing no room to stand.  Also there was a shuttle service in the lot if you needed to park a distance or if you were staying up at Timber Ridge Lodge.  Did not notice very many handicap spaces, but at least if walking was a issue for you there was the shuttle.

Venue Score: 9.5

Judges – Did not have different judges for my dancers different dances, but the judge did change two dances before she went on.  Nice to see some of the judges we have had at our level judging at the upper levels and getting to compete in front of different judges for a change.

Judge Score: 9.5

Music -Each stage had their own musician.  I loved having a fiddle for the younger ones.  The musician at our stage did not take a break.  From what I noticed at the other rooms that had multiple stages there was no major sound bleed.

Musician Score: 9.5

Food –Hotel food, prices were decent, could be less but it wasn’t too bad.  $2 for a can of pop was ok and not too high, but would have been happier to see it lower.  Was a bit upset that they did not have spotted cow, considering half the people there can’t get it in their home state.  I did not get a chance to see what food was offered up on the second level as we didn’t head up there.

Food Score: 8

Vendors – Usual suspects.  Nice to see the T-shirt people are having more options for what you can print on your shirt, but some of the prices could be a little less.  For example if you wanted a sweatshirt you were looking at easily spending $60 if you wanted all the printing on it.  The kid got some new shoes from the shoe people and it was nice they found the best shoe for her foot type. The author of the Leify Rivers series was there signing books for the kids.  I would also like to say the vendors were all spread out and not all in one area, so you weren’t getting pushed around looking at the items.

Vendor Score: 9

Results – Great.  Out somewhat quickly and with the given foot traffic in that area there was little to no issue viewing the results.  The tabulation room was close to where our results were and since the venue was very spacious the runners could get them there and posted very easily.  And if you were blessed to place, getting your medal was very easy, and the kids passing them out were very pleasant and congratulatory towards you.

Results Score: 10

Feis Flow -Wow…all I can say is wow.  They said our daughters group would be done by 10:30 before the next levels would start on that stage and they were done on time, it not a few minutes early.  This feis moved rather quickly and smoothly, in that you weren’t rushed or felt that you were waiting all day.  Again I can’t say how it was for the ones that did start later then us, but it seems that you probably wouldn’t have to be there too long or late as they kept this moving quickly.  I did talk to some friends who were there longer then us but they were done around 3 which wasn’t too bad compared to other feis where they were there till 5:00 pm or later.

Feis Flow Score: 10