Harvest Time Feis 2014 PC/OC Review/0 Comments/in , , /by

The Harvest Time Feis was held at Burlington High School in Burlington, Massachusetts on October 26, 2014.

Venue

Burlington High school- we got there a bit earlier this time around 11. Parking was a zoo, it is a huge lot and if you didn’t plan on a long walk and extra time this could be stressful. Again, I am not used to this size feis, which was bigger then Saturday, so maybe the natives would take it in stride.

The stages were spread out upstairs and down and finding a spot to put your things was a great challenge. I settled in a cleared out gym only to be told they were closing it and everyone had to leave in 10 min. Our backpack was then put behind a door near a trash can. It was very crowded but you could go outside, which people did. Felt a bit squished.

It was hot in the gym again but for Opens in the auditorium it was nicely air conditioned. Oh, the stages were rubber on a gym floor, this time splitting it into 6 stages in one room. It worked although there was only 1 check in spot in the back corner for all stages and that was confusing.

For the opens stage in the library the state was back to front with the audience behind the dancers.The only entrance was side stage.

Several falls in opens way too close to Oireachtas. Combined boys and girls. No idea what was happening in opens, and combined with ‘out of it volunteers’ or down right rude volunteers made it worse. I found the volunteers in prelim nice, but no one knew what was happening. One person only, went out of their way to get an answer for me to find out which show was dancing first. Everyone else, while nice to me, just said they didn’t know and walked off. That made it stressful for me and I would imagine worse for first time feisers.

I give it a 5

Judges

There were plenty of judges for all of the stages. I didn’t see a rotation after grade levels but I can’t be sure. They did figures in between, but because they were running so far behind they moved them into the gym that they previously closed. I still didn’t see a change of stations. I can’t rate this since I’m not sure again.

Music

Loved it again. Nice job it was clear and loud. Shared musicians for all but it worked.

I give it an 8

Food

I heard there was a cafeteria selling food but I had no idea where it was, and it was so crowded I didn’t go anywhere. There was a small table outside the gym selling candy for 1.00, but that’s it. Based on that I will rate it a 5, but I don’t know about food otherwise.

I give it an 5

Vendors

I can’t say that I saw a single vendor. Again, this was a big venue but I didn’t see any from my trip from the front of the school to the downstairs gym.

I give it a 0

Results

They were ok, no announcements again, so I had no idea when they were going to be held. No posting for recalls. We didn’t wait to long. The trophies were super cute, and I am all about theme! They had witches on the top, ghosts and pumpkins etc. Sashes were nice, with fringe, I think the opens had gems. Marks were given,

I give it an 8

Feis Flow

It was very choppy. My daughter’s comp ran 1.5 hours late. I was told it is usually a good running feis, so maybe it was an off year. They tried to move it along by moving the figures and glad they did, but ours ran late. Never fun. 2 dances start to finish was about 4 hours.

I give it a 6

Scoring – I give the feis an overall score of 7.

More room, better communication would help for sure. Like I mentioned previously, other locals told me this usually runs well, so we all have off years, maybe this was just a hiccup.

This was a nice experience overall. All the kids and parents were very sweet to myself and my daughter, esp since we have never competed there, so they were curious and that sprung into nice conversations and chats about the differences and similarities between regions. I liked the double feis, as I had to fly, so it made the pain of airfare a bit easier to swallow. I was impressed with the quality of the dancers in the New England region. So many lovely, sharp, and elegant dancers I can’t wait to go back next year.

Do You Feel the Same?

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Neponset Valley Feis 2014 PC/OC Review/0 Comments/in , , /by

logo4The 10th Annual Neponset Valley Feis was held at Walpole High School, Walpole, Massachusetts on October 25th, 2014.

This review is for Champ level comps. ( note: My daughter was in the prelim comp. and a friend who was traveling with me took notes on the Opens stages so those are included too)

Venue

This feis took place at Walpole high school. Parking was decent for the number of people attending. I can’t say whether grades were more crowded, my daughter danced at 3:15 so we got there post lunch. The prelim stages were 3 and were just one big rubber floor placed over the gym and separated by tape. On the wall were the numbers of the comps and they were taken down as each comp moved along. I didn’t hear any announcements to the next comp but the room was big so I may have missed it. bleacher seating no room for camping. We had a good amt of room to walk around, found a corner just outside the gym. could walk in and out of the building for air. the gym was super hot but outside was cool. it was uncomfortable for the dancers. The autorium was where opens were held and it was very hot also. They didn’t combine boys and girls in Opens.

I would give it a 7

Judges

I can’t really say that the judges moved around too much but I don’t know. She only danced 2 dances but I dont remember the judges changes seats before her comp. I won’t rate judge rotation since I can’t give it a fair shake

Music

Same musicians for all the stages but it worked well and they were wonderful. No mistakes no delays and no wandering off never to be found again.

I give it a 10

Food

Nice options. They sold food in the cafeteria with plenty of tables set up. Prices were good ranging from 1-3 dollars. They had pizza, nice turkey, ham. etc sandwiches, orange juice, water, soda, fruit and homemade cupcakes, chips, coffee( yay!).

I give it a 10.

Vendors

In the hallway just as you came in so a bit squishy but nice. I didn’t buy anything but it seems like nice things regular stuffs.

I give it an 8

Results

Not announced and went at super human speed ( Murphy’s Law exception- except for my daughters comp when we waited and waited. ha! always the way) They didn’t post recalls and didn’t make announcments as to when they will happen. This resulted in a friends daughter running up to the podium in shorts and a t shirt ( still nice to be there though) and another missing her daughter on the podium. This was way to fast in my book. Literally, people danced and came off stage and took their things to the cafeteria to get results. I think a breather would be nice and a better way to announce results. That is tricky in a feis I know.

I give it a 5

Feis Flow

Was a bit choppy, ran on time in open but late in prelim. again, we came late in the day but time between dances went fast then slow but nothing that stands out as poor. I give it a 7

Overall I give the feis an 8.

Both my friend and I agree the volunteers for the school were lovely and helpful. Parents and kids alike were warm and welcoming to out of towners! The halloween treble reel was cute and fun (I would have liked it at the end since kids wore costumes and it made a bit of a delay but still fun. I would go back and I recommend the feis. It was bigger then any feis I am used to but natives seemed to be used to that.

What Did You Think?

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Ryan-Kilcoyne Feis 2014, PC/OC Review
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The 20th Annual Ryan-Kilcoyne School of Irish Dancing Feis was held on October 11, 2014, at the Maple Point Middle School in Langhorne, PA.

Venue

A school. A very small, tight school. This mainly presents issues when it comes to parking and navigating the halls. There are vendors in the small hallways, right next to award postings. It is a difficult feat to get between a beginning mother and her much needed pictures of her newest dancer who just received her first 1st. It could take you several minutes to get to the gym navigating the maze. There are many unused hallways in this school. Why does everything need to be crowded into 2 narrow hallways?

Rating 6

Food

didn’t see any, but it may have been there. Trying to stay as far away from the crowded hallways as possible.

Vendors

Typical vendors nothing out of the ordinary.

Rating 8

Stages

Most of the stages including one preliminary stage are in the gym. Once you take 5 stages and all of the dancers, parents and feis gear into one small space, I bet you can guess what happens next? Lack of floor space. After about an hour of dancing, it is difficult to even find a path to walk to any stage in the gym. Camping occurs everywhere and anywhere. If there is an open spot on the floor, by all means, drop your stuff there. It won’t matter if you are in the direct path of the stage. The person behind you will need to navigate that one.

Rating 5

Musicians

Good musicians, but it is always difficult for dancers to hear when 5 stages are in close proximity.

Rating 8

Awards

This is the worst part of this feis. The champ awards are held on the opposite side of the school from the prelim stage. The background is a lovely set of red lockers. There is no school banner covering the lockers. Even after the placements are called, the volunteers didn’t even attempt to move out of the background for the parents to take photos. I actually have a picture of my daughter on the podium with a volunteer picking her nose in the background. I think I will frame that one. I understand that you are dealing with limited space, but a simple banner would fix some of this.

Rating 4

Flow

Good, kept to schedule. Awards came out relatively quickly.

Rating 9

Overall score: 7

Did you make it to this feis? What did you think?

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Rhythm of Ireland Feis 2014, Champs Review/0 Comments/in , , /by

Booster LogoThe Rhythm of Ireland School hosted their annual feis Sat Oct 18-19, returning to Williamsburg after a one year hiatus (held in nearby Portsmouth in 2013.)  This review covers the Championship competitions on Saturday.

Venue

This feis returns to the original location, The Doubletree by Hilton (formerly a Marriott.)  The venue is spacious, with large ballrooms for competitions, vendors in the hallways outside the ballrooms and the auditorium.  A good feis rate was offered for the hotel, and some rooms were extremely spacious.  This feis also offers itself as a weekend destination for the whole family, with much to do for the entire family.  Many feis goers enjoyed the outlets, Colonial Williamsburg and Busch Gardens before or after competitions.

Stages

Preliminary Champions were in one ballroom, and Open Champions in another ballroom, and for this reason, music was very good because there was no competing music for dancers to hear.  Sets were held on a dedicated stage in the auditorium.  Stages were raised and covered with a painted material to help with slipping.  Although I did not witness any falls, some dancers did say floors were slippery.  Stages were also adequate in size for champion dancers.

Score 8

Feis Flow

The feis began at 8:30am.  Stages seemed to be moving at a good pace until there was a delay on Stage 1 before the Prelim U12 competition.  Unfortunately, these dancers were dressed and in their chairs for 45 minutes before competitions resumed.  The dancers did their best to stay warmed up during this delay.  Awards will be discussed later, but having awards between set dances on Stage 5 delayed award presentations and flow of this stage.  However, it did ensure dancers that they would not miss their awards while waiting for their set.  Sets were adequately scheduled to ensure there were no sets missed due to competition.

Score 6

Food

Food was plentiful and with a variety of options at the Doubletree.  There was a cafe, a vendor offering hot dogs, hamburgers, salads, sandwiches, etc. outside the cafe at normal hotel prices.  There was also a sports bar and a restaurant available for dining.  And outside food was permitted.  We did a combination of purchased food and food we had brought for our room.

Score 9

Vendors

Vendors were plentiful and a nice variety.  There was a shoe vendor, hair vendor, jewelry, air brushed t-shirts and various clothing vendors.  There was nice spacing between vendors as well.

Score 9

Judges

As standard with PC/OC competitions, there was a panel of three adjudicators.  I have heard that many comments were given to Prelim dancers, but few to none to OC.  This close to Oireachtas, dancers need comments to make the appropriate corrections in the coming weeks.  By seeing my dancer’s score sheet, all three judges were in consensus with scoring and two of the three gave comments.  All comments I have heard (and experienced with my own dancer) are that the adjudicator dedicated to sets gave many constructive comments to each competitor.  This is so helpful this close to Oireachtas, and is offsetting the lack of comments on the OC competitions.

Score 9

Music

There was a dedicated musician to each stage and separate rooms for each competition.  No complaints here for the musicians.

Score 9

Awards

As mentioned previously, awards were announced between set competitions, which slowed down award presentations, and also delayed sets.  Times were posted in the hallway and announced in the ballrooms.  It was nice to have a spacious room for all to comfortably fit inside and see award presentations, and the podium on the raised stage.  Awards were given to the top 50% of each competition.  Awards were very nice and different than the usual trophy.  Open Champion placers were given silver engraved plates.  Preliminary Champion placers were given glass plaques.  Top three competitors for both PC and OC were given sashes, however no place was printed on the Prelim sashes, which would have been nice.  Announcements were loud and clear.  It would have been nice to have a dedicated feis photographer of awards, since there was much space between the raised stage and the audience.

Also, results were all emailed by Efeis by late Sunday afternoon.

Score  9

Social Media

I agree with the grades review on this feis here.  A big opportunity was lost when ROI failed to utilize Facebook or Twitter with updates and results.  Also, the competitor list published had many misspellings of names.

Score 4

Volunteers/Overall Feis

I feel as if I must review the ROI volunteers.  I have been to this feis many times, as both the parent of a grades dancer and a champion dancer.  These volunteers are top notched.  They were willing to help any family who asked and solve the issues.  They also each year run a very fun costume Treble Reel part on Saturday night.  This year ( and possibly also in the past?) it was judged by Maureen Bakke, who is an incredibly supportive adjudicator.  She gives each team positive feedback.  Each competitor receives a treat and awards are given to best overall performance/choreography and best costumes.  ROI also does their best to make this a destination feis for the entire family to enjoy.

Score 10

Summary

This has always been one of our favorite weekends.  The feis may have some glitches throughout, but it is rare for a feis to not have any.  We always make this a long weekend and enjoy Williamsburg on our off-feis days.  It is also welcomed to be back in Williamsburg.  Our thanks to the ROI family for another well done weekend.

Overall Score 9

Have an opinion?

Please add your rating and thoughts to the poll on the grades review page for this feis. Thanks

1ed128b7fc8fa39c72b9bf9e1b900768

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Heather, the owner contacted me and asked if I would like to write a review or possibly host a giveaway to help promote her business, and we decided to do both. Please take a minute or two to read the first product review by WTF. Details of the the Giveaway are below the review.

1ed128b7fc8fa39c72b9bf9e1b900768The Company

Shamrock Soaps is a line of  body products locally made in Wisconsin. With a line for Irish Dancers, and products for their support teams (aka us), I took it upon myself to review one of each. You can find the site at Shamrock Soaps and can purchase on line at Shamrock Soaps on Etsy. They are also on Facebook at Shamrock Soaps.

The Product Reviews

Kick Your Bum Foot and Body Balm

I have always had an issue with dry skin on my feet, so bad, I am sad to admit, they could be on one of those infommercials. They can get so dry and cracked, it hurts to walk. When Heather offered me the chance to try a product, and I saw she had something for dry feet, I figured, what the heck.

I have tried lots of other options, lotions, creams and butters. They are messy to apply and make me slide around in my socks. I never stick to a program with those products even though I know I should. I’m still a guy, remember. So, honestly, I did not know what to expect when I said I would try the foot balm.

I was very pleasantly surprised. The foot balm comes in a tube, kind of like a pushpop, and is very easy to apply. Rubbed a little into my heels, put on some socks and went to bed. The next morning I saw a noticeable improvement. After a few days, my heels looked like normal people feet, and I have used the balm every day since. I can honestly say my feet have not felt or looked this good for a very long time. The instructions say use at night, but since I really don’t like sleeping in socks, I put it on my feet after my morning shower, don the socks, and head off for my day.

If there was any negative, it would be the fragrance. Let me try that again, the fragrance is fine, for a woman, or a girl, but when your 6’5″ and built like an ex football player, you probably should not smell like flowers. I think it is Lavender, but that’s a guy guess. Obviously I didn’t mind and am secure enough with my masculinity to have used it everyday for nearly two weeks. Actually the smell is relaxing, but would probably not fit most mens grooming routines.

I recommend this highly, 5 stars (out of 5) and will continue to use it. You can see the product on the Shamrock Soaps Etsy shop at Kick Your Bum Foot and Body Balm

Subtle hint to Heather, maybe a balm that smells like the beer soap? No pressure 😉

Irish Stout Beer Soap

And speaking of beer soap, how could I not try something made with Irish Stout.

Great soap, lathers really well and has a nice smell which is described as hoppy on the website. Not sure I would say hoppy, as that makes me think of an IPA, but it is a very nice, natural scent. Not at all like beer, so you don’t need to worry about smelling like a six-pack when you get to work. The site also recommends using it as a shampoo, which I did not try, sorry. It did not dry out my skin like some soaps.

Any negative would be it only lasted two weeks, but thinking about that a little more, I have never judged long how long a bar of soap lasts, so maybe that is normal.

I would give it 4.5 out of 5 stars. You can see the product at the Shamrock Soaps Etsy shop at Irish Stout Beer Soap.

The Giveaway

Shamrock Soaps will be giving three lucky people the product of their choice and free shipping for that product. To see the products, visit the website and the online shop.

To Enter the Giveaway

To enter, simply add your name, email and a short comment in the comment section below (emails will not be displayed and will be used ONLY for the purposes of this giveaway).  Entries will be accepted  until midnight on October 31st, 2014 and the winners will be chosen at random on November 1st from the comments on this post. Entrants must also either LIKE the Shamrock Soaps Facebook page OR sign up for the Shamrock Soaps newsletter on the sites homepage to be eligible to win.

Good Luck!

Rhythm of Ireland Feis 2014, Grades Review/1 Comment/in , , /by

Booster LogoThe Rhythm of Ireland hosted their annual feis on Saturday October 18th and Sunday October 19th, returning to Williamsburg after a one year hiatus (held in nearby Portsmouth in 2013). This review covers the morning session of Grades, which featured Beg and Ad Beg of all ages, Novice u10 and below and PW U11 and below. Champs danced Saturday and Nov U11 and older and PW U12 and older all danced after lunch.

Venue

The Doubletree by Hilton was the site of the feis. It’s a huge venue, with enormous  ballrooms and plenty of space for vendors. It’s a very nice hotel and a feis rate was offered. It was nice to have the feis back in Williamsburg.

Stages

Grades danced on 6 different stages, in 3 rooms. The size of the rooms was plentiful and not once did you feel crammed. The stages themselves, at least in the room my dancer was in were extremely slippery. Never have I seen so many dancers fall or slip. I lost count after 5. That’s five too many. The stages were on the small side and initially they had the dancers dancing 3 at a time. This was a poor move on the part of the feis organizers and thankfully the dances after reel were danced 2 at a time.

Score 4

Feis Flow

The feis began on time (8:30 am) starting with figures. Once stages 5 and 6 finished with figures they began Reels, unbeknownst to the kiddos still dancing figures on stages 3 and 4. It wasn’t until all the reels on stages 5 and 6 were completed that they finally decided to get the other stages caught up. They did this by halting all comps on 5 and 6. This oversight did not sit well with many parents. Gladly, they did allow any dancer who missed their reel to dance it without penalty. The stoppage of about 15 minutes could have been prevented had solo’s not begun until all stages were finished with figures. Once stages 5 and 6 re-started they moved quickly through the next dances. Set’s were held up a little while as they had to wait for some comps to finish. The lunch break was listed on the schedule, occurring at approx 11:15 am.

Originally the U11 treble reel and U10 PW non trad set were scheduled at the end of the day. ROI responded to emails by moving these comps to the morning, which made more sense. Probably an oversight on their part originally and they corrected the error.

Score 5

Judges

The dancers rotated between two stages for core dances. That means they were judged by only 2 adjudicators. We prefer having more than two Adjudicators judge the dancers, but realize this isn’t always possible. Judges were attentive and provided comments.

Score 8

Normally this is where Awards and Results get combined. Not this review. They are each deserving of their own special summary.

Results

As usual, the results were turtle slow. And by turtle slow I mean girls and boys completed comps by 11 am and didn’t receive some results until 1:00 pm. No excuses, they messed this one up (again).

Score 1. Interestingly Efeis emailed the results posted online results by 4 pm.

Awards

Never have I been so disappointed with awards. First of all, they only “placed” (meaning you got your name up on the sheet of paper) roughly 40% of dancers. 50% is the norm in our experience. Then, they told the dancers that any place lower than 4th, even if the name was listed on the result sheet, would not receive ANYTHING. So, not only did they place such few dancers (less than 40%), they physically awarded even less. Then, we noticed that those running the scores began to fold over the results sheets so not to show the 5th place and below dancers. I know this because I looked to see what was under the folded part of the paper. And, once efeis put the scores up online, I noticed my dancer always placed well above the 50% mark, but twice was left off the sheet of paper, or the paper was folded over and therefore wasn’t able to receive an award that she earned. By the judges eyes, those dancers were deserving of an award. Purposely not displaying names was a cop out on the part of ROI.

Trophies were given for 1-4th place in PW and 1-3 place Novice. We saw plenty of broken trophies which demonstrates the lack of quality. Medals (nice ones with ribbons) were given for 1-3 place in Beg/Ad Beg and maybe some other comps, but by this point I was too tired and frustrated to find out for sure. Set and Treble reel champions received small medals, as did anyone who placed. Out of 20 dancers in a treble reel, only 4 dancers received an award. Set and Treble reel champions weren’t even awarded with a trophy. Most feiseanna recognize these “special” comps with great hardware. The awards had to be the most disappointing experience as a feis parent. Can a WTF reviewer give a score of zero? If so, that’s the score.

Score 0

NOTE FROM WTF – You can give whatever score you want, it is your review 😉 

Camping/Restrooms

Plenty of space to camp, and moreover there were a generous amount of chairs to sit. Restrooms were clean and close to the comps.

Score 10

Vendors

Head for the World, Fab Rince, Goin Feising, Yours truly Photography, Celtic Vine, Earth traditions, Fireball designs, ishopirish. Plentiful and their placement in the lobby area was good.

Score 10

Food

Outside food allowed and of course you could purchase food/coffee at the hotel. Ice cold water and cups were at the back of every ballroom and outside the results area.

Score 9

Social Media/Release of schedule

ROI has a facebook page but didn’t post results or any information during the feis Saturday. They also didn’t post pictures or results from the Champs on Saturday, but they did post information on their FB page as to when comp results would be announced. They could have used social media a lot better and hopefully next year they will. Feis schedule posted early in the week and a competitor list was also published.

Score 6

Summary

The results were slow, painfully slow, and not one volunteer could tell us why. The venue is very nice and roomy. Location wise, it’s good to have it back in Williamsburg. The vendors offered lots of selections, important for those shopping for Oireachtas and the school had a raffle table with nice prizes. I don’t want to give this feis a score because I am very upset over the results and awards. But, I want to see what score you give the ROI feis so please vote below and be sure to leave some feedback. After all, a feis cannot improve if they don’t know which areas they were weak in.

Thanks! CC

Well, now it’s your turn, what did you think?

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Feis An Fhomhair 2014 Review/0 Comments/in , , , /by

gargoyleleftThe Feis An Fhomhair, hosted by the Irwin School of Irish Dancing, was held on October 10-12, 2014 in Calgary, Alberta.

Venue

The Feis An Fhomhair takes place at the Hyatt Regency Calgary, in the heart of downtown.  Guest rooms are wonderful, service staff is attentive and friendly, and the special “feis rate” brings the cost down to a manageable level for families.  The Hyatt has underground parking (with a special rate for feis attendees.)  I did not notice other downtown parking near the hotel.

Stages were set up in the large meeting rooms on the 3rd floor.  A/B and C/D were in the larger room, and E/F was in the smaller space immediately adjoining. My dancer reports that the stages here are wonderful for dancing, each year.  They seem adequately spacious.  There was plenty of seating for observers.

Vendors were set up in large hallway outside of competition rooms.  A nearby room had solo dresses for sale ($5 charge to hang you dress,)  results on the wall, and the table where the professional photographer sold his shots of your dancer.  Farther down the hallway was a dance practice room.

Feis Flow

The schedule called for FIGURES and ADULT competitions on Friday night.   PRELIM and OPEN CHAMPIONSHIPS on Saturday.  FIRST FEIS to PRIZEWINNER competitions on Saturday.

Feis administrators, announcers, and stage monitors in general did a fine job communicating to dancers when to check in.  (the announcer on E/F Sunday does need instruction on using a microphone.) They seemed very focused on not having downtime. My one criticism of getting dancers checked in early was on Sunday a.m. : competitions started with First Feis dancers.  These dancers were checked in and sitting side-stage for 10 minutes waiting for judges and musicians to arrive.

Judges & Musicians

There was an adequate number of judges, who rotated stages regularly.  Musicians were very capable.  Each stage had a fiddle and an accordion.  There was a little bit of sound interference from one room to the other.

Vendors

Feis An Fhomhair draws many vendors, who set up near the competition rooms.  Dance shoes, Solo dresses, tiatraas and buckles and jewelry, snacks, shirts and jackets and bags (including Zuca bags,) were all available.  The School also hired professional photographers who sold pix of dancers on stage.  (Not sure how distracting it is to dancers to have the photographers snapping shots as they compete.)

Food

Besides the vendor selling snacks, the Hyatt Regency has  a coffee and baked goods shop in the lobby that also sells snacks and bottled drinks, as well as two restaurants.  I’m not aware of restrictions on bringing outside food into the feis;  some folks did.

Results

Results were posted in a room just down the hall from the competition rooms.  It didn’t take too long for the results to be posted.  I especially appreciate that at Feis An Fhomhair, a paper copy of each dancer’s results is included in the cost of registration, and can be picked up after a dancer completes her/his dances.

Things to do around the Feis

Beyond the feis, downtown Calgary also has its attractions.  The Calgary Tower is just a block from the Hyatt, and Chinatown with its many restaurants is only a four-block walk.  The Calgary Zoo is highly regarded, and you can take the train (that stops at the Hyatt) straight there.  Numerous shops and restaurants are within easy walking distance of the Hyatt Regency, including a McDonald’s.

 Did you attend? What did you think?

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The Shoe Shine Post

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idblHardShoesWhat The Feis do you do to get her shoes that shiny?

A few people have asked about what I do to get TGC’s (that is The Girl Child in case you are new to my blog) shoes looking the way they do. Its easy, step 1, join the Navy, step 2, go to boot camp… OK, so maybe that is a little extreme, but it is how I learned. I use a technique commonly called ‘spit shine’ or ‘bull polishing’, but don’t worry, there is no actual spit or bulls involved

Please note, I have put as much detail into this as I could to try to describe the process. There are actually very few steps, but I tried to list all the little nuances to consider and be aware of. I am not big on videoing, and I can’t hold a camera and polish shoes at the same time anyway, so this is going to have to do. I will gladly demo in person, at the hotel bar, the night before a feis, by appointment only ;).

Bringing Back the Spit Shine

Here is a list of what you need to get the shine in the pictures, the After, not the Before

  • Kiwi Black Shoe Polish in the little round can, not a bottle or anything with a spongy applicator
  • Old tshirt, white – cut into small pieces. I guess it doesn’t have to be white, but that’s what I always use.
  • Small container of hot water – the water helps the polish stick to the shoes instead of the tshirt.
  • A beverage – suggested, not required
  • Time
  • Patience

spitShineBanner

NOTE: The shiny shoes in the pictures where shined with a very old can of Kiwi (at least 13 years old if memory serves). Recently I bought their latest product as my old can is nearly empty, but I am not impressed with the shine. It is OK but no where near the shine I can get with the older stuff. I have not tried their ‘Parade Shine’ product, which I am hoping will be more like the polish I am used to, and will let you know when I do. Bottom line, your mileage may vary.

I have a plethora of old white tshirts from my Navy days, so I use those to apply the polish. I assume any tshirt will work though. Cut the tshirt into small pieces so that you can wrap it around your finger covering the tip, while being able to hold it securely with at least two layers of shirt between you and the shoe as you apply the polish.

For the container of water, use something you won’t mind getting polish on, because inevitably you will get polish on it. Keep the lid off a can of spray paint or hairspray, and add that to your shoe shine kit.

A little polish, a little water, and little circles

  1. Wrap a piece of tshirt around your finger and dip it in the warm water, just moist, not really wet. Wipe both shoes with the damp tshirt to get any dirt and debris off them.
  2. Grab a new piece of shirt, wrap it around your finger again with at least two layers of tshirt covering your finger. This ‘helps’ keep your finger clean, but you will probably get some polish bleed through. You can try more than two layers, but I always go with two and just deal with the black finger tip.
  3. Making sure the tshirt is secure, dip your finger in the water like in step one, and then get a small bit of polish on your fingertip. Start applying polish to the shoe in small circles, about the size of a Kennedy half-dollar, or the diameter of a ping pong ball for you people who have no idea how big a KHD is 😉
  4. Repeat Step 3, a lot.

beforeShineI tend to blacken the entire shoe, laying polish in pretty heavy to damaged areas. Make sure it is rubbed in well, and there are no thick spots that can rub off easily and give a spotted cow look to your poodle socks.

After the entire shoe is evenly blackened, I start working on the front of the shoe and toe. You can shine the entire shoe, but the top and front is the focus area, besides the fact that doing the entire shoe will completely eat up your Friday night. I repeat step 3, continuously, still working in small circles. I keep the tshirt moist and will occassionally get a dab of polish first, and then a small dip of water on top of it, and continue the process. There is no rhyme or reason to when to dip polish first or water first, just make sure you don’t get the tshirt too wet.

To get things really shiny, the objective is to get the polish spread over the entire area (remember, I focus just on the top and front of the shoe for the ‘mirror’ shine). Going over the area repeatedly builds layers of polish and helps fill in the grain of the leather. You are not really going to shine the leather, you are going to shine the polish on the leather, so having the leather grain filled in and having a smooth coat of polish is important.

Occasionally, check the condition of the tshirt on your fingertip, as I find that the tshirt can get rough with use and can actually scratch the polish instead of getting a smooth application. You may consider swapping it out for a fresh piece or rearraging it so you are using a clean section of the same piece. This is also the reason I do not use a shoe shine brush. I know they are intended for buffing, but I tend to think they have more of a scrathy effect.

afterShineRepeating the process above will begin to bring on the shine, so keep going until you are satisfied with it. Remember, you will have to do the other shoe and they ‘should’ match, so plan ahead for time.

To finish off, after I have the polish worked in and start to get a nice shine, I will keep going with the little circles(making sure the shirt is not scratchy), even when the last bit of polish is rubbed in from the cloth. As long as the shirt is soft, gentle circles after you have plenty of polish applied will shine the polish. You will actually learn to feel the difference between the ‘raw’ leather and one with a good coat of polish because the cloth will slide more easily over the shoe.

Finally, I will breathe onto to the toe and go over it a little bit more with the cloth, and repeat that a few times. I have it in my head that the warm breath heats the polish a little, and finishes off the shine nicely. I don’t know why I think that, but I have been polishing shoes like this for a very long time, so…

Depending on the condition of the leather and how well the polish is going on, this can take quite a bit of time. I have literally spent an hour on one shoe, so I find it best to set aside a lot of time, put on some mindless tv, grab a beverage, and go to it. It should not take as long the next time, because you have a base of polish on the shoe, but if you go a while between shines, you may have to spend some time on them again. In the peak of feis season, when I am doing the shoes every week or so, I can do both in about 30 minutes, which is probably longer than you spend on them now so plan, you don’t want to get one done and run out of time.

And thats it, really. I know there is a lot of detail there, but I didn’t want to leave anything out. If you boil it all down, it is just a little polish, a little water, and little circles. I would love to see how yours come out. Take before and after pictures. You can post them on the WTF page(s) if you want. Be careful though, if you get really good at it, people will ask you for lessons, trust me 😉

Pat Roche Feis 2014, Grades Review/1 Comment/in , , /by

logocolorThe 2014 Pat Roche Feis was held on October 11-12, 2014 at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont II. This was our first time attending this feis, and we attended only the first day, which was for grades.  PC/OC is not covered in this review, as those competitions were held the second day.

Venue

The feis was held at the Donald E. Stephens Convention center.  The location was convenient — right near Chicago’s O’Hare airport, and easily accessible from the highway.

Parking (in a garage across the street from the venue) was $13 for the day, which is not bad by Chicago standards, but pricier than many other feiseanna, and at that amount, is something that needs to be built into the budget for the day.

There was a bit of a walk (through skywalks) from the parking lot to the feis location, but once we arrived, registration was right inside, and my dancer was checked in quickly and easily.

The convention center space allocated to the feis was generous.  There was plenty of room for camping, practicing, etc.  Since this was a VERY large feis (I believe around 1,200 dancers), and my dancer is fairly young, we were happy to find a spot away from all the noise & chaos so we could have some down time between dances.

The feis had 8 stages this year, and all were used for grades dances.  The stages were set up with 4 on each side of one end of the space.  The stages were close together, with curtained partitions separating them.  My dancer’s stage saw several slips & falls, which leads me to believe that the plywood on that one might need to be replaced.  I did not notice any attempts to mop or otherwise fix the issues, which was unfortunate.

Vendors were plentiful & did not disappoint.  There were several wig/tiara/bling vendors, as well as a few selling Irish clothing & household items.  We had Grandma with us, and she did quite a bit of holiday shopping in between my dancer’s competitions. J

Restrooms were plentiful & relatively clean.  I never had to wait in line in the ladies room, which was nice.  Toilet paper & paper towels were in stock all day.

Overall Venue Score: 8/10

Judges

My dancer danced 5 times & was seen by 4 judges.  That is excellent rotation, in my opinion.  I do wish more comments had been left, though, as my dancer received only 1, and was left  wondering why her placements in a couple of dances were significantly lower than usual.

Judge Score: 7/10

Music

As I said before, I could not hear the music well from the audience, but my dancer could hear fine.  I heard no complaints about any of the musicians, and the one on  my dancer’s stage seemed enthusiastic and happy to be there.

Music Score:  10/10

Food

The feis had a concession stand with pizza, chips & other similar items.  There was not much variety or much of anything healthy, and prices were, in my young dancer’s words “a rip off”.   A small bottle of water was $3.50, and prices only went up from there.  However, there was no ban on outside food (although no coolers were allowed) at this feis, so those who prefer to bring their own food can do that.

Food Score:  5/10

Results/Awards

This is where this feis went south, in my opinion.  We waited almost 45 minutes for the results from my dancer’s last competition.  We wait until my dancer has completed all her dances to check results, so I don’t know if that was a fluke or the norm, but I did notice that many competitions were posted out of order, so it did seem like there was some trouble overall in this area.

Additionally, placements were very limited.  It appeared that only about 25% of the dancers in a competition were placed.  While I don’t believe every child needs to come away from every feis with an award, I do think that placing only 25% of the kids at such a large feis (and one that is close to the Oireachtas & therefore has a lot of VERY strong competition) is pretty stingy.

Medals were awarded for all grades placements, and large trophies were given out for 1st place in Open Prizewinner.  Both medals & trophies were very nice quality.

Results/Awards Score: 5/10

Feis Flow

For grades, this feis was run by dance.  Most stages were single age groups, but a few had 2 ages.  Because there are more grades dancers in the U9-U11 age groups than in others, this meant that dancers were not evenly distributed across the stages & some stages finished much earlier than others.

Additionally, due to its proximity to the Oireachtas, this feis attracts many ceili entries.  Several stages had to be held in the morning because dancers were dancing ceilis on other stages, so many dances were delayed immediately, which was unfortunate.

The feis organizers did move dances off the slower stages & on to open stages as the day progressed, but dancers in the large age groups definitely had a VERY long day.  My dancer started dancing around 9:30 and was not finished until nearly 4:00.

The lunch break was well communicated & dancing started up again promptly after 30 minutes, but not all stages took a lunch break at the same time, which was confusing & made it difficult for anyone with multiple dancers to eat lunch.

There was also an issue with one of the treble reels, which was to be held as the last dance on one of the stages, but was instead delayed for 3 hours while dancers on other stages finished.  Had all lunch breaks been taken at the same time, the Treble Reel could have been held at lunch, and dancers who were done soon after would not have had to sit around and wait for so long.

Feis Flow Score: 4/10

Overall Score:  6.5/10

Not bad overall.  We are not likely to return next year, as the long day was too much for my young dancer, but I would be willing to try this one again when she is older.

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Gem City Feis 2014 PC/OC Review/1 Comment/in , , /by

gcfThe Gem City Feis was held on October 11th, 2014 at the Dayton Airport Expo Center in Vandalia, OH (basically attache to the Dayton International Airport, 15 minutes north of Dayton proper).

This is the third review I have done for Gem City, but I have been to the feis numerous times. If you would like to review the previous reviews, see this page.

Venue

As I have said in the past, the Expo Center is a great venue for a feis. Lots of space, nice size stages, nice separation between the stages, etc… My big peeve with this venue is the assigned camping area. If I was to refer to last years review, I said:

…last year I also said “probably could have taped off a bigger area for camping then they actually did, since the camping filled up and became difficult to navigate in and out of, but the annoyance was minor” and maybe I was a little too subtle. There is a ton of open area that could have been used for camping, but they taped off the same inadequate area this year and people were openly irritated. TAPE OFF A BIGGER CAMPING AREA IN 2014 PLEASE!

Well that went over well… not. Same area as the past few years, too small, too cramped, too frustrating. I won’t ask for a bigger area for 2015 since past attempts have gone SO well, but if someone from the committee reads this, I actually have an idea on how to expand the area.

Next peeve for this year was the temperature. The PC/OC end of the venue was very warm, while the opposite end was almost chilly because they had opened two of the large garage doors on that end of the building.

Lastly, stages. Stage size was great with PC/OC stages being 32 x 32 or bigger, but stage condition was horrible. I saw numerous falls, one resulting in the dancer being carried off the stage and transported by wheel chair a little later. The feis committee mopped at lunch, and occasionally between comps, but it did not seem to help much. Stage 2 actually stopped comps and moved one of the floor panels after numerous dancers fell on it, including the dancer in the wheel chair.

Judges

Typical for Champs, three judges, all attentive and two of the them on our stage were not familiar to me, which was a nice change. The other thing I realized which has not been the norm for TGCs results, was that all three judges scored her evenly. Typically (it seems), TGC will do great with two judges and meh with the third. I always wonder how she can score so differently, but this time that was not in question. All the judges saw the same dance 😉

Music

I did not encounter any issues here. When the stage musician was playing, the other stages music was not a distraction. I did hear that the musician on Stage 2 was erratic with her tempos, but I did not encounter that, and TGC had no problems with the music.

Vendors

Vendors seemed lighter than years past. Balinvilla was there (sans George, but he is doing well according to Betsy), the wig ladies, the feis t-shirt guys, and one other t-shirt guy. No real Irish nick-nacks, no Irish M&Ms… TGC was sad.

Food

Convention Center food, pretzels, pizza, salad and sandwiches. They did have a nice fruit and cheese plate which I thought a nice option. Drinks were also available, coffee, water, soda and beer. I thought prices were high however, $2.50 for a bottle of water and over $5 for a pretzel and soda. The fruit and cheese will set you back $9. My advice, plan ahead. There are options fairly close if you are familiar with the area and easy to find if you are not, so brown bag it 😉

Results/Awards

Gem City does a nice job with the PC/OC results and have an area set off in one corner to do the presentations. The presenter gives plenty of time for pics and makes an extra effort to make sure everyone is done taking pics before she had the dancers bow.

The awards are gems, and all placers get one. TGC got a Prizewinner gem last year and scored a placement gem this year and I think the PC/OC gems are bigger. A little sad that there were no sashes because trying to wear your gem could cause significant bodily harm due to their size.

If there were any negatives about the awards (other than no sashes) it would be the area proximity to Stage 1 made it hard to hear the award announcements when Stage 1 was going at it. Secondly, they had a bunch of lovely pumpkins lined up right in front of the podium and although it looked nice, I think it made it hard for the winners to get up on the podium. Maybe next year, add some space between the pumpkins and the podium.

It took about an hour for results to come out after TGCs comp was done dancing, which is a bit better than average.

Feis Flow

Feis Flow when things were going was not bad, and according to the stage estimator Mrs. WTF used, TGC was right on schedule. The ‘issue’ was the Treble Reels.

Scheduled to start during lunch, they were repeatedly delayed, and at one point they announced that it would be “AT LEAST 20 more minutes” before they started. If I had to guess, lunch on stage 2 started at 12ish and the Treble Reels didn’t go till closer to 130. If anyone has more exact info, please let me know.

Other than that, from my perspective, flow was pretty good.

Scoring

Positives and negatives… venue was great, stages, not so much, awards were nice, flow had its hiccups, vendors were limited, food was pricey. I would place this around 6 or 7, your mileage may vary.

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