Actually have this weekend and next off from Feising, and then Pittsburgh for the Pittsburgh Halloween Feis and Dayton for the Gem City Feis (yeah, only a 30 minute drive!).
If anyone is dancing before then and wants to add a feis review, please let me know here by leaving a comment, or on Twitter @whatthefeis or on Facebook. I know I only have midwest feis reviews but I will post reviews from anywhere!
Enjoy the fall and we will be back soon!
If you head up to the Muskegon Feis I have to recommend an eclectic breakfast place we stumbled across called Toast N Jams. Retro styling in side, nice menu, great food and reasonably priced. One of those local gems you really oughta try.
Michigan Feis was held on September 15, 2012 at Muskegon Catholic Central High School, Muskegon, MI.
Venue – Although spread out a little, the Muskegon Catholic Central High School was a pretty good feis venue.
Four stages spread throughout the school provided plenty of room for dancers and viewers. I spent most of my time in the gym where stages 3 and 4 were, and they were good size with lots of room between. There seemed to be plenty of seating in the bleachers for parents and friends. Another of the stages was in the auditorium and was well lit and had plenty of seating. Afraid I did not look at the 4th stage.
The Rock River Valley Feis was held on September 8th, 2012 at the Wellness and Sports Center, Harper College in Palatine, IL.
Venue – I thought the Wellness and Sports Center was a nice venue. Everything was in close proximity to the stages and there was room to move around, more so than some recent feiseses.
There were 6 stages all within what most of us would call a basketball arena. The OC and PC stages were in the center, taking up most of the basketball court, and were a really good size. There were three stages on one end of the court, smaller and a little close together, and then one on the other end of the court, similarly small, and off by itself. If there was a negative comment, I would say that the three that were together were too close and that music bleed from one stage to the next apparently made it hard for some judges to focus on the dancers on their stage (valid concern not smartbutt remark like you may have come to expect from me).
The St Louis Gateway Feis was held on August 26th, 2012 at The Renaissance Hotel, St Louis, MO.
Venue – The Renaissance was really nice. A cool bar/coffee/restaurant with fun little niches for private conversations, eclectic setting and furniture, fun chairs with foot stools, nice lobby with ceramic title and cool mirrored surfaces, but, as a feis venue, it sucked.
There were 4 stages that were nice size in separate rooms, but the areas around all except the Champion area were small and very crowded. Seating was inadequate in each space as far as I could tell, on Stage 2 it definitely was. Squatters took up chairs making the issue worse, so people were standing in what space was left making it nearly impossible to move through the area. Hallways served as a camping areas, but chairs, coolers and blankets were not allowed by the hotel, so people stood around filling the hallways making getting around difficult.
After hearing about the ‘one soft shoe, one hard shoe’ performance idea, the Feis Association Regarding Comical Entertainment (FARCE) has banned the idea. In addition to muffled clicks from only one hard shoe, bangs were not happening as often as expected, and when they did, they were scaring the older judges because of there unexpected occurrence. So much for that idea.
…and you heard it here first!
This just in, a new hair style for competition is about to hit the streets and WTF acquired this previously unreleased photo from one of our sources. If I were you, I would expect to see mis-matched wig and hair colors as early as this weekend.
Sources also tell us that they have seen dancers wearing one hard shoe and one soft shoe to perform, and that will be the next big thing.
Note: I really hope you guys saw the sarcasm tag. I saw this on Twitter and knew it was a perfect WTF moment. ;) Thanks to @Kaylarosiee94 and @shaanabaanana for playing along!
Remember Rachel from MI at the Dayton Feis, well she was was there again, dancing against my daughter. Thankfully she got the last dance she needed to move up to Prelim, and she didn’t beat my daughter every time this time ;) Sorry, I was nice the last time, I am going to be a normal Dad this time :)
Whoever told Rachel’s Mom I posted the last post, don’t tell her about this one ;)
The Great Lakes Feis was held on August 19th, 2012 at The Lansing Center, Lansing, MI.
Venue – The venue was great and and all the stages were in the same huge room. The champs at one end of the venue and everyone else at the other. I made it sound bigger than it is, and it isn’t THAT big, but there was good separation. The stages were a good size, had good seating and room between. The camping was very plentiful so the ‘camping squatters’ were annoying. You know them, the ones who set up in the viewing seats and spread out their stuff.
OK, so now you get to see the softer side of WTF. A haiku describing the changes I have seen in my daughter because of Irish dance.
clumsy, like a fawn
but feis after feis she grows
like a doe, graceful
and if for some reason I have broken some haiku structure rule, tough, I’m still going to call it a haiku.
