Muggivan Feis Grades Review 2016

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Muggivan The Inaugural Muggivan Feis took place on October 23, 2016, hosted by the Muggivan School of Irish Dance-Virginia on the grounds of the Central Virginia Celtic Festival and Highland Games in Richmond, VA. The Muggivan Feis is a casual dress feis, with all dancers wearing the event t-shirt and dark bottoms. The t-shirt design was beautifully done on front and back of a white short sleeve t-shirt. There was a feis rate available at the host hotel for those needing hotel rooms.

Venue/Attractions/Food

The Central Virginia Celtic Festival and Highland Games take place on the grounds of the Richmond Raceway, in a grassy area outside of the racetrack. There was ample parking available and plenty of space within the festival grounds to accommodate all attendees. There was also a Highland dance competition happening on the same day, so plenty of dancers and dance families around if anything was needed! Only 1 dance vendor was present at this event, but there were plenty of Scottish and Irish vendors throughout the festival for an eclectic shopping experience. This festival also had a large selection of food vendors for breakfast, lunch, and dinner fare. This event did serve alcohol (arm band required).

Stages

As an outdoor event, the stage was located under a tent. Three stages were indicated on the syllabus, but on feis day this manifested as one large (approximately 36 x 12) rectangle that was divided by white tape into 3 (approximately 12 x 12) sections. The stage was elevated at the nearest end approximately 1 foot from the ground and approximately 3 feet from the ground on the far end in order to keep the stage surface level. The stage was covered with Marley/shower pan type sheeting. The festival grounds were quite dusty and the tent had no sides so breaks were taken to sweep the dust from the stage. These individual sections of the larger stage were cramped to say the least with ALL ages of grades dancers dancing 3 at a time. Ceili dances were danced 1 group at a time.

Judges

There was a judge assigned to each stage and dancers/judges rotated so that each dancer had 2-3 judges. Judges were attentive, helpful, and left comments.

Musician

Carolyn Bartley was the single musician for this feis and she played from 0930-1930 with very few breaks. Ms.Bartley did an excellent job and even festival goers gave compliments to her playing.

Flow

As with any first feis, there are going to be some bugs and I think the overall flow of the feis is where any bugs were seen most prominently. The feis began at 0930 with Champs only, utilizing all 3 judges and the full size of the stage. The schedule got ahead before lunch and shortened the lunch break but ceilis remained on time with a 4pm start. It was announced that 2 of the 3 judges had flights to catch and had to leave the venue at 6pm, so grades were run at a break-neck speed and it was also announced that no dance would be held for missing dancers. The communication between stage and check in volunteers began to suffer due to this ultra-fast pace. Trad sets and other special dances completed at 1915 with car headlights illuminating the stage for the remaining judge.

Results

Results were posted in a very small, hard to access area being staffed by 1 volunteer. Results went up in no particular order and got slower and slower as the day progressed. By the end of the day this poor volunteer was swamped with parents, dancers, and TCs looking for results. Beginner through Novice dancers were awarded customized medals with two colored neck ribbons. Whoever worked on the design and execution of the medals did an excellent job! Prizewinner and champs received large trophies, also well designed and very attractive!

Other

The schedule was released a week in advance and the host hotel would not allow grades parents to cancel reservations that were no longer needed due to such a late grades start. The feis has no control over the hotel of course, but I think this contributed to the overall level of unhappiness (long day, school night, etc) witnessed at the event. I hope that the feis committee keeps all of the great things that they accomplished at this feis and just improve on the 1 or 2 issues and it will definitely be a successful Virginia feis!

Rhythm of Ireland Feis 2016 – Grades Review

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Booster LogoThe Rhythm of Ireland hosted their annual feis the weekend of October 15-16, 2016 in Williamsburg, VA. This review covers the Ceili/Grades competition on Sunday.

What The Feis Editors Note: Thanks to new contributor DD Feis Mom for this review. The review is the opinion of the reviewer, and does not necessarily reflect those of What The Feis, especially since I was not there.

Venue

The Rhythm of Ireland (ROI) feis is hosted at the Doubletree by Hilton in Williamsburg,VA. The ballrooms were spacious and organized around 2 central hallways on the opposite side of the hotel from the occupant rooms. A feis rate was offered at the host hotel for those attending this feis.

Score: 9/10

Local Attractions

The Doubletree by Hilton is centrally located to all of the area’s many attractions. Busch Gardens has an entry point just outside of the hotel property, all of the historic attractions are within a 15-20 minute drive, and there are shopping options galore. A discounted rate was offered to all 3 of the historical sites—Colonial Williamsburg, Jamestown Settlement, and Yorktown Victory Center.

Stages

There were 6 stages, arranged 2 per ballroom with a piece of yellow tape demarcating the line between the stages. The stages were pressed wood about 1 ½ inch off of the floor covered in Marley. Ceili 4 hand teams dance 2 teams at a time. Due to the smaller size of these stages there were a few instances of teams having to squash their figures so as not to bump the other team. Grades dancers danced 2 at a time as well.

Score: 7/10

Judges

There was a judge assigned to each stage and judges rotated after the soft shoe dances. Most dancers danced for 2, sometimes 3 judges. Each judge on our stages were very attentive to the dancers and their safety. Most parents reported seeing the judges writing notes during the dances, however, at the time of writing, score sheets had not been distributed.

Score: 7/10 (if scores are received with comments I’d definitely change to 9/10!)

Musicians

Each set of 2 stages shared a musician. Our musician seemed poorly prepared for the types of music required for ceilis and grades dancers, however other parents had no issues with their musicians. I’m willing to strike it up to a bad day for our musician.

Score: 7/10

Feis Flow

This feis was unusual in regard to flow. Ceilis started 15-20 minutes late, and due to confusion of scheduling and what information was given to the musicians there were many “breaks” in between ceili competitions. Grades competitions started about 75 minutes late and the judges took a 5-10 minute “break” in between each type of dance ie dance reels, take a break, dance slip jig take a break, dance light jig, take a break, dance single jig, take a break, etc. There was also a break after all soft shoe dances to rotate judges between stages. This made for a very disjointed feis experience. I feel for any first timers who attended this feis.

Score: 4/10

Food

There were 2 on-site restaurants and a small Starbucks within the hotel. The Starbucks was clearly not used to such large crowds in short timespans (as feis goers tend to be) and there were significant wait times during peak periods. Many food options were available off site within a short drive for those feis goers with long breaks between dances.

Score: 7/10

Vendors

There were 4 vendors at ROI 2016. Two vendors for ID gear (hairpieces, wigs, socks, bling, etc), a custom T shirt vendor, and a photographer. These vendors were located in a central hallway between stages 1-4 and 5-6 with lots of room and easy access. If you needed a basic ID supply you could certainly find it here, but if looking for a more specialty piece this was not the feis for shopping.

Score: 6/10

Results

Results were posted in a separate, medium sized conference room. All of our dancers results were posted 20 minutes after the last dance was completed! Lightning speed! With the spacious hallways, good signage, and large space for postings it was very easy to find results. There was also a volunteer stationed in the room to help feis goers find what they needed. The champ podium was also stationed in this room if grades dancers wanted to do pictures with the podium, a nice touch on the feis’s behalf. Awards were in a separate, very spacious room just down the hallway. Medals were given for Beginner through Novice for 1st-3rd placements. Prizewinners received trophies for 1-3rd placements and a medal for 4th placements.

Score: 8/10

Other

The stage schedule and competitor lists came out less than 24 hours prior to this feis. This was attributed to a hurricane that had minor effect on this area about 10 days prior. After travelling to this area for the feis, and having experience with hurricanes in Florida, I saw no signs of hurricane damage. In the time since the feis, there has been poor communication through all means provided to reach the feis committee/dance school. We are 5 days post feis and a proper score card is not available, despite promises of being distributed. With a feis this close to Oirechtas it would be greatly appreciated to receive any comments the judges saw fit to give. The overall experience of this feis was such that I doubt I will give ROI a second chance, which is such a shame because many parents I spoke with who have attended for many years stated that “it used to be such a great feis”.