My first ‘real’ post out on Antonio Pacelli on the subject of being an Irish dance parent is what I call ‘The Top 10 Responsibilities of Being an Irish Dance Parent’ which you can find in its entirety at https://www.antoniopacelli.com/community/article/the-top-10-responsibilities-of-being-an-irish-dance-parent.
If you have a minute, give it a read. I would love to hear your thoughts! Thanks.
A number of months ago, Antonio Pacelli contacted me about blogging for them. To be honest, I had no idea who Antonio Pacelli was and thought it was a hoax, I mean, what does an Italian man know about Irish dance?
After a bit of research I found it was indeed not a hoax, and Antonio (Tony to his friends), knows quite a bit about Irish dance, so I accepted the invitation.
Well today, my first blog posts have been published with the release of their newly redesigned website. So, if you want to find WTF on AP, to to the Feis Dad Blog.
For this post, you can Get to know Feis Dad (aka me), and while you are there, browse the community for posts from Irish dance bloggers from around the world.
We had the opportunity to spend a little time in Naperville after the Chicago Autumn Feis and I wanted to mention a few places that may be worth a visit if you are a food fan.
Quigley’s is on Jefferson, pretty much in downtown Naperville. It is a nice place and has that dark, wood paneled walls and big booths atmosphere you would find in a pub in Ireland, they even got the smell right. Nice cold pints and some pretty decent Irish food make it a nice place for a beer after a hard morning of feisin’, or for a lunch, dinner or just a snack.
I had a lamb stew with some Irish bread that was pretty good and their chips went really well with the beer. There were some kid options so everyone was able to find something they wanted. I heard the Reuben rolls are worth a trip there all by themselves.
It was a bit pricey for a meal and feeding the family, but a pint and some chips wouldn’t set you back to much. Definitely worth a visit.
Le Chocolat du Brochard on Washington is also downtown, just a short walk from Quigleys. It is easily the most outrageous chocolate store I have ever been in, and has a huge selection of custom confections.
After browsing and asking questions of the extremely helpful staff, we made some selections and then stepped next door to the attached cafe for an espresso to have with our chocolates. In addition to coffees, the cafe has specialty drinks and desserts, and is a perfect ending to a walk around Naperville.
There is a little sticker shock at the price per pound for the chocolates, but it is a nice treat and highly recommended.
The 11th Annual Chicago Autumn Feis was held on Saturday, November 9, 2013 at the North Central College in Naperville, IL. This is the second time I have attended this feis, the last when it was held back to back with the Prairie State Feis at Ho-Chunk back in 2011. I liked that venue better 😉
The feis was held in the indoor track of North Central College and it could be great venue if there weren’t 9 gazillion people at the feis. Very crowded with inadequate camping is the best way to describe it.
See, 9 gazillion people, and it was this crowded from one end of the hall to the other.
8 stages surrounded the outer walls of the huge room. Stages 1 – 4 and 7 were for Teams and First Feis through Prizewinner, and 5, 6 and 8 were for Champ dances. All the stages seemed to be 24 x 20 or larger, but it was hard to tell on some because they were covered with the black material that is becoming more popular at feiseanna. The black covered ones ‘I think’ were all PC/OC stages and were a bit bigger.
Stages were separated nicely and seemed to have good space between them. (Someone remind me to start getting stage pics will ya, that might be helpful).
I saw no slips or falls and I saw mopping going on on at least Stage 7 at lunch time.
Seating was in chairs with additional seating on metal bleachers set up behind the chairs, and seemed to be adequate, at least for the stage we were at. There was a LOT of standing all around the venue so I may be wrong on the amount of seating, or people were just tired of sitting.
RANT – Whoever decided it was a good idea to fill the front row of seats at stage 8 with their gear, and only occupy no more than half the chairs, and typically only one or two, throughout the day, you were wrong, not a good idea and actually kind of rude. There are plenty of people who did not need to be navigating those thin bleacher steps who were much better suited for using those front row seats more than your stuff. Sorry, but if you aren’t going to use the chairs, move your crap. – END RANT
Camping was very limited and although I like good vendors (and this feis had good vendors), they took up entirely too much room in the center of the hall. I think if this feis returns to this venue, that needs to be thought out a bit better, less space between vendors and more camping.
Parking, eeeessh, don’t get me started. We dropped off and parked about 1/2 mile from the venue. Could be, in fact 97% sure it is, the worst feis parking I have seen.
Since we are in PC (see how I said we… OK, OK, TGC is PC now) and are judged differently, I did not notice the Judge rotation, in fact, that is not the only thing that I was not as attentive to, and this may be the beginning a ‘feis review transition learning curve’ now that TGC is in the ‘big time’ 😉
There were 16 judges scheduled at the feis, and if there were 9 taken up by the 3 PC/OC stages, that would have left 7 for the remaining 5 stages. There were enough to rotate, and I did see at least 1 judge change on the stage we were on, but I did not notice if all three changed or just one.
Anyone notice the judge rotation and if so, would you mind sharing in the comments?
Every stage had their own, always a plus, and I heard no complaints about musical confusion (aka bleed over), but it was really loud in some areas so I am not sure how it was for the dancers.
A local company catered the event and they had a nice variety of items at reasonable prices. Salads, sandwiches, pop corn, nachos, fruit cups, hotdogs etc… all less than $5. They did seem to run out of sandwiches pretty quick though.
They had a real nice assortment of vendors at this feis, but my buddy George was not there. Shoes and wigs of course, and lots of knits and ceramics, sweatshirts and other items, and I was able to buy and share with my family Smarties, aka Irish M&Ms that I first had from my GrandMums shop on Achill Island in Ireland (insert lovely flashback to the lighthearted days of youth music). Short of the Michigan Irish Music Fest or the Dublin Irish Festival that have coinciding feiseanna, this was one of the better Irish swag collections. They had feis tshirts stuck off in a corner, so hidden I almost missed it, and I thought their prices were a bit high, $50 for a hoodie with a sticker on it? Come on…
Results and awards were at the far end of the venue, right next to each other so they were convenient. Although I was not frantically checking the results wall like in every previous feis I have been to, I tried to make a point of gauging how soon results were being posted, and if I had to guesstimate, I would say it was in the 30 minute range, so not spectacular.
This was also my first experience with the PC award process. I thought that was a bit ‘tedious’ for our first time out, and it was about 2.5 hours from the end of the dancing till the announcing of the standings. There was a lunch in there and there were A LOT of dancers in the comp (if you follow me on Facebook, I posted on Saturday that there was about 150 dancers in the comp… I was j/k, it just seemed that way). I really have no prior experience to compare this too so I guess time will tell.
Once again, feedback from other attendees on either of these points appreciated.
We got there early because I am really anal about not being late, and TGC wanted to be ready for anything. She did not dance till after 11 so there was a lot of ‘killing-time’ in the interim. The stage she was on kept a good pace though, and even with all the dancers in her comp, she was done dancing in about an hour.
Looking at the schedule for other stages, I would guess that there are probably a variety of opinions on the flow. Some stages had comps with only had 2 or 3 dances between individual dances, and some had 7 to 10 dances between. It seems like some of the other dance Moms I spoke with throughout the day were there for a long time, and there was one or two that were done right around lunch time. I did not however hear any grumbling from anyone.
Here is where I usually do all that math, but for this feis, I felt so distracted with everything around our recent status change, I did not catch as many details as I would have liked. If I had to summarize, the parking, limited camping and the crowdedness, were the negatives, but it was not a bad feiseanna. If I had to give it a score, for you number crunchers out there, I would say a solid 7.
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The 1st Annual American Pride Feis was held on November 2, 2013 at the Embassy Suites Nashville – South/Cool Springs in Franklin, Tennessee.
Venue – From a hotel standpoint, it was great. For a feis venue, um, not so much, sorry. Not really a big fan of hotels as feis venues and this one was no exception.
The stages were in the big ballroom that had been divided into smaller rooms with partitions. Stage 1 was partitioned off by itself, Stages 2 & 3 shared a room as did 4 and 5 (someone fact check me on that one please, I really only peeked in and do not remember).
The stage sizes were not bad with the smaller ones (2 & 3) being about 20 x 20, 4 & 5 about 24 x 16, and 1 around 24 x 24. Stages 2 & 3 were combined for an actual area of 20 x 40ish with tape down the middle to divide them. Stages 4 & 5 may also have been combined (sorry, waited to long to write the review 🙁 ).
Stages 2 & 3 were used as one of the champ stages late morning so it provided a nice size stage for those comps.
Stage condition seemed good and I did not see any slips or falls. I do not recall any stage maintenance. (I really need to do these reviews right after the feis weekend or take better notes… jeez).
Seating for viewers was not adequate in my opinion, and the rooms were so tight, that standing off to the sides or in the back was very cramped, and only served to hinder traffic flow in the rooms. There was of course the issue with people camping in the viewing chairs, or should I say their stuff was camping, and one woman actually had a bit of a hissy fit when my family sat in ‘their chairs’ to watch the special at lunch time, even though they had not been in the room.
Side Note: Dear rude lady, there was no need to yank your coat off the chair from behind my wife. We are well mannered and gladly would have moved had you let us know we were in ‘your chairs.’
The hallways around the ballroom had the vendors, which inevitably cramped them all the more, and between those and support pillars in some areas, traffic congestion was bad, especially between the dance area and the results room which was around the corner.
Camping was not terrible, especially since the venue was also the feis hotel, but hallway camping is never sufficient, and there was really no area for personal chairs if you happened to bring them.
Parking, to be honest, I cannot comment on. We parked Friday night when we got to the hotel and did not leave the hotel until Saturday evening after the feis. If someone wants to weigh in on parking, feel free.
Venue Score: 5 – Limited seating, cramped halls, conjoined stages, hotel feis, sorry, not a fan…
That however, is the only low feis score, and now for the highlights.
Judges – TGC had three dances and three judges. Can’t get any better.
Judge Score: 10
Musicians – Stage 2 & 3 shared a musician, 1 had its own musician, and I am assuming 4 & 5 shared one. Although I am not typically a fan of sharing musicians, I really did not see any issues with it on stages 2 & 3, and only twice did I witness a stage coming to a halt because of this. The partitions were sufficiently sound dampening so that bleed over was not an issue.
Musician Score: 8
Food – We did not eat any of the concession stand food but did buy canned sodas that were a bit pricey at $2 a piece. Can’t really rate this one sorry.
Food Score : NA
Vendors – Limited. George was there, and another shoe seller, wigs, tshirts and that was pretty much it. No fun Irish swag, just the feis necessities (feisessities?). There was a nice lady from Refeis That Dress, a solo dress consignment and rental service that I thought was a pretty nifty idea.
Vendor Score: 6
Results – The results and awards room was around the corner from the dance area (see note above about traffic flow, ugh), but that inconvenience does not take away from probably the best results turn-around I have seen. Out in hard copy on the wall in about 5 minutes for the ones I witnessed.
Awards were right next to the results wall, so it was very convenient. Plus, they had some unique trophies for 1st place Prizewinners.
Results Score: 10
Feis Flow – In general, I thought the feis flow was pretty good, but there was one incident that could have been handled a little better.
I noticed that the stages (well 2 & 3 anyway, I heard from a Mom that stage 1 dragged) were moving pretty quickly, and the schedule had a clear lunch break in dances on it. Well, at about 920 stage 3 posted check-in for one of the after lunch dances since they were moving so quickly. This really caused some confusion because 2 & 3 were slated to have champ dances on that combined stage before lunch, and for a while people, present company included, were in a panic because it really was not clear what was going on and dancers were not ready to compete if that checkin post was accurate. It took about 15 minutes to get it sorted out, but when they did, the rest of the day proceeded according to the original schedule and ran smoothly.
Feis Flow Score: 8
Two part scoring with a Feis Score consisting of Judging, Music, Results and Flow, and then the overall consisting of everything.
Feis Score: 9 – Extremely respectable for an inaugural feis.
Overall Score: 7.83 – A better venue and a bigger variety of vendors and that would be higher, but still WELL DONE American Pride!
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If your dancer is like mine, and you have been doing this for a while, there are some adjudicators they want at the table while they dance, and some, well, not so much. So when TGC (that is ‘the girl child’ for you new readers) saw the ‘cool judge’ sitting at the table to judge her Hornpipe, she was thrilled. And if you follow me on Facebook, you may already know that TGC got a first in that dance, which coincidentally, was the last first she needed to be advanced to PC, so lets just say she was a little happy about it.
After the feis, we saw the judge in the hotel lobby, so TGC went over to thank her. The judge gave her a hug, and as I don’t recall exactly what she said, so I am paraphrasing, I heard something along the lines of “I just judged, you did all the hard work.”
My first thought was, giving the credit to the dancer, what a class act, but then, I thought about her words more.
You see TGC (if you even read this blog), you are going to be judged repeatedly in life. In dance, in school, at your job, by your peers, and so on, and the work you do leading to those events, will determine how those ‘judges’ see you. Hard work generally yields the best results.
The other lesson is, if, and knowing you I mean when, you are privileged enough to be in a position where you are the judge, give credit where credit is due. There are way to many people in life who would have taken the thanks expressed to that judge, and turned it into being about them.
So I guess I learned something here too, Julie Showalter, you are the ‘cool judge’. Thank you.