Ryan-Kilcoyne Feis 2014, PC/OC Review
/1 Comment/in , , /by

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?

[poll id=”77″]

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

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?

[poll id=”76″]

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?

[poll id=”75″]

 

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.

What Do You Think?

[poll id=”74″]

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.

What did you think?

[poll id=”73″]

Greensboro City Feis 2014 Grades Review for U10 and Below/0 Comments/in , , /by

The 2nd annual Greensboro City Feis, held on Saturday October 4th and Sunday October 5th was sponsored by the Walsh Kelley School. After a not so stellar venue in 2013, the organizers secured a different hotel for 2014 -The Greensboro Marriott Downtown.This review will cover my opinion of the U10 and below comps. U11 and above danced later in the day.

Venue

The venue was much improved from last year. Overall it was more spacious, both the dance room, vendor room, and hotel lobby. A feis rate of $119.00 was offered (plus parking). There was ample parking in the garage adjacent to the hotel but it wasn’t free. There are restaurants in walking distance however the area around the hotel might be best visited in the daylight and with a group of people. Initially the dance room was stuffy then the air kicked on and it was noticeably cooler.

Score 8

Stages and Seating

The Feis was held on the bottom, or lobby floor of the hotel. Grades stages were run on on 2 stages (one huge stage divided) and featured a raised stage The stages were durable and not slippery. The size was small/average and dancers went two at a time. On the far end of each stage was a column type support beam which obstructed the view of the audience, though it *seemed* like the judges, who were seated below the stage could look out and around the column. For the young ones the stage size was not an issue, I am interested to read what U11 and above thought. The raised stage created some excitement among the dancers, especially those who will be attending Oireachtas and don’t normally dance on a raised stage.

Score 7.5

Judges

Dancers rotated stages for each dance. There were 4 adjudicators (from Mid America and West region) -2 sat on one stage, two at the other and they took turns judging the comps. My dancer was judged by 3 of them. All left comments.

Score 9

Musicians

Only one musician was needed at this feis, and he (Mark Arrington) did a fabulous job. Music could be heard just fine by the dancers and audience.

Score 10

Food

Coolers were allowed at the feis which is always a plus. No food or snacks were offered by the host school,which probably had to do with the proximity of the hotel restaurant which hotel was literally behind the room the dancers danced. After the feis it was convenient to go sit and eat. Somewhat pricey, though what you would expect from a hotel.

Score 8

Vendors

Again, this is a small feis so the there were only two vendors ( Fab Rince and Callahans) but they sold the most popular kind of Irish Dance needs. I don’t think either were selling shoes but please correct me if I am wrong.

Score 7 (8 if shoes were offered)

Camping

The room for dancing was not conducive to camping, but there were a good number of chairs set up for guests. I learned quickly though that if my dancer was on Stage 2, then the best area for viewing was close to stage 1 and visa versa. Outside the dancing room people camped along the hallway. The lobby was huge and offered a nice respite from the action. The second floor (staircase from the lobby or elevator) was also roomy and offered a good place for dancers to practice.

Score 7

Restrooms

Close to the dancing room. Again this was a smaller sized feis and not all ages danced at the same time so long lines for the bathroom did not exist (thankfully!!)

Score 10

Feis Flow

The feis began on time (8:00) with the beginners dancing all of their dances. Next up were the AB/Nov/PW for U10 and below. The last dance for this group was the U10 non traditional set which commenced at 11:10. Figures went next, then lunch, and finally U11 and above, Beg/AB/Nov/PW. The organizers underestimated the time U11 would start by over an hour. Though the stage schedule read u11- Not before 10:20, it was probably more like noon. Per the committee, the feis ended by 4:00 pm. Better feis math will prevent the second group (U11 and above) from showing up too early. If I were to score just for my dancer’s comps, I would rate this a 9, but realistically and thinking what the next group thought, it deserves a lower

Score 6

Awards and Results

Results were posted in an adjacent, very large room (the vendors were also in this room along with the dress rack). Let me restate it was a large room! As far as results go I have to tip my hat to the organizers. They had those results up swiftly, at least for the U10 and below group. PW received trophies for 1-3 places, and medals for any place below 3rd. The trophies noted the placement and the first place trophies were taller than 2 and 3. Medals were given for Beg-Nov. groups. Medals came with ribbons.

Score 10

Overall Score 8

If you were at the 2013 feis in Greensboro and decided not to return in 2014, you missed out on a good feis. It was 100% better than last year leading me to believe the feis committee is open to criticism and suggestions and willing to seek measures to improve. Walsh Kelley *usually* schedule their feisianna with younger dancers dancing in the morning and older age groups in the afternoon. If that schedule suits you, then come on down to Greensboro in 2015. I know we will be there!

Cheers, CC

Did Y’all Get Down There?  😉 What Did You Think?

[poll id=”72″]

 

Pittsburgh Halloween Feis 2014, PC/OC Review/0 Comments/in , , /by

I have been to four (at least) feis at this venue between the Halloween Feis and The West Virginia Feis. Yes, I said WV. It is at the same venue as the Halloween Feis which is actually between Pittsburgh and WV, but I digress. My first few experiences (one & two) were not my favorite, but number three was much better. The fact that TGC has moved up into the PC ranks, really helps the ‘likeability’ of this feis since the champs portion is held on Sunday. Not taking away from the great job the feis team does on Saturday mind you, but Sunday is just better. Can I get a ‘yeah man!’

The Pittsburgh Halloween Feis was held on Saturday and Sunday, October 4th and 5th, 2014 at Hyatt Regency Hotel at the Pittsburgh Airport in Pittsburgh, PA.

NOTE: This is for the PC/OC day of the feis (Sunday). If you have comments for the Grades day of the feis, please contact me and I can share them in a separate post, thanks!

After re-reading my review of the WV Feis from March, my comments for this feis are almost exactly the same, so much so that I am just going to quote them here, and I will indicate any differences I noticed.

Venue

Stages 1 and 2 were in the large ballroom and were separated by a temporary partition. This was a much better setup than having 3 stages in the same room and allowed more chairs for viewers and better traffic flow. Combine that with less people and it was a win-win.

Stages were huge, I am guessing 30 x 30ish, or maybe bigger. It was hard to tell since they covered the normal 4 x 8 sheets of plywood (which is how I do my normal measuring) with that black material which made a much better dance platform. I did not see any falls and only one minor slip while I was watching the competitions.

Due to the level of the dancers, results were announced instead of posted. This was in the hallway on the way to the back doors and blocked the hallway completely, which was an inconvenience but only minor (depending of course on who you ask).

Camping seemed adequate and I saw no NO CAMPING signs. People did fill up viewers chairs and the tables that had been set up in one of the side rooms, but I rant about that elsewhere if you are interested. There were lots of chairs though, and we did not have any trouble finding seats.

The concessions and vendors were setup in the halls as in years past, but with less people, it wasn’t as congested.

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.

Judges

PC/OC  always has 3 judges monitoring the performance. You really don’t get much better than that. The judges seemed attentive on our stage and took no breaks that I saw.

Music

Each stage had their own musician and there was a lot of distance between them. I could not hear the music from the other stage when I was watching dancers perform on our stage.

Food

Same as for the last feis, breakfast sandwiches… all reasonably priced.

We were not there long enough for lunch so I cannot comment on that food. There are some previous comments in previous posts.

Vendors

They had the airbrush artist back which I like. Otherwise the standard feis tshirt guy, shoe booth, jewelry, feis and Irish themed apparel, knit goods, the wig stuff, nic-nacs, paddywacks, etc…

Results

As the morning progressed I was more and more impressed that ‘the feis guy’ would come out and announce ‘awards for X will be in 5 minutes’ about 15 minutes after the comp finished. Based on previous PC experience, this is the best PC/OC results I have seen. TGCs comp did take longer than the others, and was between 30 and 45 minutes, but there were a lot of dancers in her comp, so I can understand the extra time. Even with that, it was handled better than I have seen at this level so far.

I have to echo the same sentiment. Jim (the feis guy) does an excellent job keeping things moving. TGCs results were out in about 30 minutes, and now that I have a few champ feiseanna under my belt, that is pretty darn good.

If there were any negatives on the reults, and these are minor… It would be nice if the top three in both steps were announced instead of just first place. This seems to be the norm elsewhere and it seemed NKR (not quite right) when it wasn’t done here. Secondly, if Jim could slow down a little during the result reading, that would be good. If you have heard him, you know what I mean. That is one fast talker and his thick Pittsburgh accent doesn’t help 😉  NOTE: I realize I echo the same sentiment in the last review.

Feis Flow

Big KUDOS for feis flow. ‘The feis guy (aka Jim)’ I refer to above was outstanding keeping things going, and keeping people informed on what was going on.  I saw a continuous flow of dancers within and between comps, and there was very little down time.

Jim also ran the results and kept that smooth and quick. He does have a ‘not from around here’ accent and speaks quickly, and my wife had a hard time keeping up when he read results, but I had no trouble, of course my Mum has that same accent 😉 .  If there was any comment, he could slow down a little.

From my viewpoint the flow was handled exceptionally well.

Side Note: Although I did not attend Day 1 of the feis, we pulled in shortly after 4 and were surprised to see day 1 had already wrapped up. That is one quick feis. Nice job.

Scoring

I think Jim and his team do an outstanding job and from my perspective, this is one of the better run feis in the area. I would easily give it a 9+

What Say You?

[poll id=”71″]

Clan na nGael SummerFeis 2014 Grades Review

/1 Comment/in , , /by

The 3rd annual Clan na nGael SummerFeis was held at the Shamrock Club in Columbus, OH on July 12th, 2014.

First things first: this feis is outdoors. In Ohio.  In July. This is not secret/privileged information. 😉 If the possibility of rain or humidity during a dance competition seems unappealing, this might not be the feis for you.   However, if you are lover of all-things-summer, combined with all-things-Irish-dancing, this feis can be a fantastic experience.

Administration–9

This was the most organized feis committee we have encountered thus far.  Communication via facebook was fantastic. The committee was upfront on both their website (http://www.clannnangael.org/summer-feis-2013/) and their facebook page about a $5 parking fee. In an age when some of us mostly carry plastic, I really appreciated knowing in advance that I would need paper money for parking.  I’m not a fan of the surprise parking fee that leads me to wander around an unfamiliar city searching for an ATM.  This feis filled very quickly and the committee was right on top of things, releasing stage assignments WEEKS before the feis. That deserves a shout out!  Volunteers at the feis were friendly and very patient with those who were….weary (to be polite) from the humidity that day.  The songs for the Treble Reel competition were also announced well in advance of the feis and divided up by age. Kudos to the committee for superior communication!

The posted costume rule was “No wigs or solo dresses” and there was a note about not allowing school letters or logos anywhere on costumes.  They posted examples on their facebook page of acceptable casual costumes. However, their website features a Ceili team in school dresses and large wigs. ?????  It seemed the costume “rules” were really just suggestions as I observed a grade level dancer in a wig and a school dress with her school letters boldly embroidered on the front of it.  I was curious, so I looked up her number where scores were posted and she took home a lot of medals.  So, if your teacher is hardcore about costumes and forbids you to compete in a feis requiring casual costume, come anyway.  Ignoring this “rule” won’t hurt your scoring.  Kind of odd to call so much attention to this rule but not enforce it, but it is what it is….but for those who followed the costume suggestions, this was feis was a breath of fresh air! No heavy, itchy dresses. No hot wigs. Just kids, who looked like kids, dancing freely and with a lot of joy.

Venue–7

This feis had a great outdoor space.  There were several practice stages set up around the Shamrock Club (including some directly behind the performance tent).  Camping was plentiful and there was very little opportunity for “feis shaming”, which was good as seating was at a minimum.  There was a playground for restless siblings and lots of open space for running around.

The stages were VERY slick.  This was in part due to the fact that the seating area was set up on top of very pretty, but very dusty, white stones. This made dancing shoes extremely slick and there were many slips and falls. In what I assume was an effort to keep the feis moving, the stages were not cleaned (that I observed) except at the beginning of the lunch break.   I heard a mom, very nicely, approach some volunteers about this issue, but nothing was done. Hopefully next year they will put a tarp over the stones before setting up chairs. That would have made for a safer competition.

The venue offered an outdoor bar with televised viewing of the champion competitions, which were held indoors.  The indoor space was VERY cramped. There were nice bathrooms in there and a nice little air-conditioned bar serving food, beverages, and offering more televised viewing of the champ competitions. But the key word here is “little.”

Judges and Musician–4

The low score reflects the quantity of judges and musicians, not the quality.  This is one area where this feis needs some major improvements. I loved that this feis truly felt like an outdoor summer festival. However, this feis needs to move MUCH faster to accommodate the judges and dancers.  There were exactly 2 stages, 2 judges, and 1 musician serving all grade level dancers.  Shared musicianship always leads to a slow competition, no matter how amazing the stage monitors are. When one stage is unoccupied due another stage having a large, last group to finish up the reels of the feis, it slows things WAY down.  I’m not “in the know” enough to understand why the shared musician is even a thing, but it’s obviously not uncommon.

Judge rotation was done by moving the dancers back and forth between the stages, but that simply meant for 6 dances my dancer saw only 2 judges.  Not good.  The judges were also very weary and did not even look refreshed when returning from lunch (which was a graciously short break).  They often had their heads in their hands during the competition and who could blame them? They were dressed in professional attire on a very warm July day at a feis that ran much longer than necessary for such a small cap.  Even those of us who love summer heat were feeling a little weary by lunch time.  This feis seriously needs to add more stages, judges, and musicians just to accommodate its current cap.

Vendors–6

There were some cool vendors at this feis and I, personally, loved the summery tshirt logo for this feis. (yep. “summery.” Remember, folks, you heard that word here first. J )There were some general Irish swag vendors and one who reminded me very much of a vendor you’d see at a County Fair offering random Irish and US swag (tshirts, sunglasses, etc.) on multiple tables under a tent.  We were in need of hard shoes and were really disappointed there was not a shoe vendor available.  In all fairness, there wasn’t a shoe vendor listed on the website, but we hoped that was an oversight.  There were also no wigs or dance gear vendors, which was a big disappointment and hopefully next year the vendors will be geared more towards the dancers than the spectators.

Food—10

Could not have been better in this category! There was a good variety of food, from healthy, homemade selections sold by Daughters of Erin, to a local BBQ joint, to a burger/hotdog stand (with very family-budget prices), and also food at the bar areas.  A beverage stand was set up under the performance tent, which was great for hot, thirsty dancers.  Prices were very reasonable, as well ($1 for bottled water, etc.).  I wish more venues would use vendors who don’t charge stadium prices.

Results–7

The speed of result posting was erratic.  Some scores were posted within 10 minutes of the competition. Others took much longer.  The feis was very good about getting things posted on feisworx and scores were often posted online before than they were on the results wall.

Feis Flow (see Judges and Musicians) –N/A

Much of this I addressed under “Judges and Musicians.”    Comps were spread out according to age and grade level. Youngest to oldest, first feis through prizewinner.   Trebel Reels were done during the judges’ lunch break, which was a nice use of time; even so, this feis moved much too slowly for such a small cap.

Overall Rating: 8

If you want to give this feis a try, be sure to bring chairs, lots of water, and a cooling towel for your dancer (available in sporting goods stores).  See you next year, Summer Feis!

What Say You?

[poll id=”70″]

Baltimore Feis 2014, PC/OC & Grades

/0 Comments/in , , /by

Always good to have a second opinion, although these guys seem to be on the same page pretty much. Please also see the Baltimore Feis Review from Corabelle.

27th Annual Baltimore Feis
Date: Saturday September 20th, 2014
Location: Brooklyn Park Maryland
www.broesler.com

Venue

A nice suburban school. The best part is the time of year and the outside space. If the weather cooperates, there is plenty of space to camp outside. There is a large walking distance between the grade stages and the open champ stage. The grade awards and food are downstairs which also helps cut down on the crowded halls.

Rating 8.

Food

Some of our favorite potatoes! The mashed potatoes are wonderful! Other items are available to nibble on. Prices were reasonable.

Rating 8.

Vendors

Typical vendors, except a necklace and charm vendor that appeared to be very busy. Everyone likes a new vendor!

Rating 8.

Stages

Nice and spread out which is good. Two grade stages in one room. Two grade stages and one champ stage in the gym and open champs in the auditorium. There was some limited seating for non-dancers which was nice. I saw Broesler parents sweeping stages regularly.  Only complaint would be at the start of the day and the confusion around ceili dancing. Stage monitors seemed confused about waiting for ceili dances to end or starting the champ stage and holding ceili dances open for a period of time.

Rating 8.

Musicians

Seemed OK. It was hard for parents to hear the music but the dancers did not seem to have any issues.

Rating 9.

Awards

Champ awards and grade awards are great. There are sashes and lots of large perpetuals for champs and lots of grade trophies to take home. This feis does well in this category.

Rating 10.

Flow

Good, kept to schedule. Awards came out relatively quickly. Twitter updates were wonderful!

Rating 9

Overall score: 9

Your Opinion?

[poll id=”69″]