Holy Angels Feis 2014, PC/OC Review

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holyAngelsThe Holy Angels Feis was held on Saturday May 10th in Charlotte, North Carolina. Originally, the Preliminary Champions were scheduled for Friday the 9th but after some feedback and people wanting to travel to the event, all events were changed to Saturday. This was a welcomed change and in glancing at the competitor list, many traveled from Florida, Virginia, Georgia and Maryland.

Intro

This feis had a lower cap with 150 PC/OC dancers and 250 grade level dancers. It appeared to be capped primarily because of space limitations since the school/church where the competition took place was not that large. Parking was free which is always nice!

We arrived in the late morning and found more than adequate parking. Looks like we got there about the same time that the beginners and advanced beginners were finishing up which helped with potential congestion with the PC/OCs arriving.

Venue

The event was held at St. Gabriel’s Catholic Church and school in their cafeteria. Unlike last year, there was plenty of seating. The organizers removed the round tables at the back of the room and put additional rows of chairs which alleviated much of the ‘camping’ and bottlenecks witnessed last year.

Food

The concessions were run by parent volunteers and some of the older dancers. There were plenty of selections including premade sandwiches, fruit, granola bars, and homemade baked goods. It was nice not to be overcharged for a bottle or water or a banana. You could also bring your own food in which is always a plus!

Stage/Music

There were 3 stages in the morning for the grade levels with one musician. In the afternoon for the PC/OC level, the tape was removed and it became one stage. The stage was not raised and was made of plywood and was not covered in any marley.

Judges

As always, the PC/OC competitions had three judges. The judges seemed very attentive to the dancers even after a long morning of grade level competitions.

Vendors

This was a small feis so I didn’t expect an elaborate selection of vendors. The one there did have a great selection of all the basics and then some.

Results

The results for champions took a little longer that what I expected since the grade levels were done but then again, it can feel like an eternity when you have a bunch of dancers standing around full of nervous energy!

Thankfully, they posted a recall list which I am learning is not always the case. This alleviated the stress for the dancers and the parents when the awards were called. The presentation of the awards was about 15 minutes after the recall list was posted in the atrium of the school. There was not a formal podium instead there were numbers taped to the floor. That was quickly overlooked when the dancers realized that the top 3 were going to get sashes!

Awards were given for individual rounds as well as the overall placement. The dancer placing in the individual rounds were given a nice angel clip board which went with the Feis Name, Holy Angels. The championship awards were a silver tray and for the top three, itunes gift cards and a sash.

Conclusion

This was really a no frill feis but it accomplished the basic purpose which is to provide an opportunity for children to dance, gain feedback from the judges and for the lucky few advance. Over all, I would rank this feis an 8.5.

What Did You Think?

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Memphis Feis 2014, PC/OC Review

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The Memphis Feis was held on May 25th, 2014 at  Christian Brothers University’s De La Salle Canale Arena and Theater.

This feis is a Southern Region feis, and it was not what TGC and I were used to, not bad, in fact, in some ways better, but for any of you Mid America feisers who venture south, you may be in for a surprise. You may want to see the intro, and people who often feis in The SR can skip that part.

Intro

We got to the feis right about 830 and there were only about 30 cars in the parking lot. At start time, we are used to trying to find a parking spot any where close to the venue, so were surprised, and a little confused to see so few cars. But, we saw other people parking and heading in so we just went with the flow.

The campus was beautiful and it was less than a 2 minute walk from parking to the venue. The next part that was a bit surreal was that there were only about 100 people in the venue. Where were the hundreds, ney, thousands of people, dance bags and zucas? Realizing we were only seeing half of the stages, we went down the long hall to the auditorium, where the remaining stages were, that had to be were everyone else was, right? Nope, only another 50 people or so. What the…?

Other big difference was that there were no camping areas. Only option was to stow our gear in the viewers chairs, but there was lots of chairs, so we went with the flow. I can tell I went to Catholic school with nuns, what I was doing wasn’t wrong, but I still felt guilty 😉

The last difference I noticed was that there were no anthems played. Not sure if this is the norm in SR or not, but I have never (that I recall) been to a feis that did not play the anthems.

Venue

Christian Brothers campus is really nice. If we hadn’t had an 8 hour drive after the feis, I would have enjoyed the opportunity to walk around and see more of it.

Stages & Seating

There were 4 stages in two separate areas of the Canale center. Stages 1 & 2 were in the gymnasium for grades level dancers, and 3 & 4 were in the auditorium for PC/OC, and as I understand it, grades level later in the day, but we did not stay to see that.

Stages 1 & 2 were actually one big stage with portable dividing barriers down the center. It was hard to tell how big they were as the plywood was covered with that black flooring material. I have never been a fan stages that are literally attached, but since comps are smaller in SR, it did not seem to be to much of an issue. Seating for these stages were the gym bleachers that were set up on three sides of the stage, and seemed more than adequate for the number of people there.

Stages 3 & 4 were on the auditorium stage, also covered with the flooring material, and split down the middle with the movable barriers. For the PC/OC comps, the barriers were removed and the stage was a good size for the dancers. The seating was the auditorium chairs and there were plenty early in the day, but seemed to fill up later when OCs were winding down, and PCs were ramping up. This seating ‘issue’ was compounded because the feis held up awards for all PC/OC comps until they were all done.

Camping & Access

There was no camping, at least the type I am used to, so people used the viewers seating for stowing their gear. This was fine early in the day but as the morning progressed and more people arrived, it did start to get a bit congested in the auditorium. The gym seating ‘appeared’ to be adequate the entire time we were there.

Awards & Results Areas

Grade level awards were posted at one end of the gynasium on the second floor overlooking the stages. It was easily accessible from the gym.

Champ level dancers used the same stage they danced on in the auditorium for awards, and a podium (actually podium pieces) was brought in when it was time for the awards. Plenty of seating and fairly easy access for dancers to get to the stage when their name was called.

Parking

Parking was very plentiful, and free.

Venue Score: 9

Judges

As always, the PC/OC comps had three judges, with the same three for all the comps except one or two when a fourth judge gave one of the judges a break. They seemed very attentive and while I watched, gave equal attention to both dancers on stage.

Judge Score: 9.5

Music

There was one musician for each set of stages and the separation between the two stage areas was sufficient to eliminate any musical confusion.

TGC did say that the musician on the auditorium stage was playing too slowly, and I had one parent make a comment about the quality of the music, although I did not get which area the musician they referred to was playing in.

Musician Score: 7.5

Food

This venue only had a small college snack bar with pizza, hot dogs, wraps and a few other items. The food was not bad considering, and the prices were VERY reasonable. There was, as I understand it, an outrageous BBQ place within walking distance of the venue. I did not try any, but it smelled really good.

Food Score: 8

Vendors

Very limited selection. Two ‘hair’ items vendors, but one also had shoes and other necessities. There was also the tshirt guy (it is never the same guy, but it is always the same guy, if you know what I mean).

Refeis That Dress was also at this feis. I had met the proprietor last year at the American Pride Feis. I thought the idea of a dress consignment was pretty cool, and was impressed to see that she now also offers dress rentals. That is, IMHO, a really good idea.

Unfortunately, the vendors where ‘vendors of necessity’ and not really ‘fun’ vendors. You shouldn’t even have to ask about the Irish M&Ms  🙁

Vendor Score: 6

Results

Results for champs, as mentioned above used the stage in the auditorium. It was a nice presentation area and was up a bit higher so everyone could see well. If I could make any comment, it would be to maybe break after OC and do their awards, and then do PC when their comps are complete. This would allow OCs to head out sooner and reduce some of the auditorium congestion.

One of the judges read the results and went through all the OC and PC comps fairly quickly. The reading was a bit different, by which I mean they did not read the hard and soft shoe results before the overall for each comp like I am used to. This proved to be nerve-wracking, because when you know the individual dance results, you may have a gauge for the overall results. Needless to say, every number that was not TGCs when they were being read was both a relief and a new opportunity to stress until the next number was called.  😉

Results Score: 8.5

Feis Flow

This is where I think the biggest issue with the feis was. TGCs comp did not get started till 2 hours after its scheduled start time, and although they kept things moving, this two hour (and maybe a bit more) was never made up. Champ awards were supposed to be announced at lunch, and it as at least 2 before it actually happened.

Feis Flow: 7

Scoring

Two part scoring with a Feis Score consisting of Judging, Music, Results and Flow, and then the overall consisting of everything.

Feis Score: 8.125

And the WTF Rating is 7.93… Not bad, and I think we would consider doing this feis again, but we would plan maybe an extra day.

EDITOR’s NOTE: There was a rumor that this may be the last Memphis Feis, but I can neither confirm nor deny said rumor.

Where You There? What Did You Think?

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Akron Feis 2014 Grades Review

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The 38th Akron Feis was held on May 24th, 2014.

This was our first trip to Akron and I can honestly say we won’t be going back. My head is still spinning from the day. I just don’t get why so many like this particular Feis.

Venue

Yes, we all know that it is held in a barn-like structure on the fairgrounds, but it was so dusty and dirty that our skin was gritty by the end of the day. For anyone who suffers from allergies this is not the place to be hanging around for hours on end. Camping was so crowded and it was hard to move around without walking through another families’ area. It did not help that every 10 minutes an announcement was made threatening disqualification of your dancer if you failed to stay within the blue tape boundaries. There was not enough space for the amount of people in proportion to the size of the venue.

Parking

The parking lot was all loose gravel and it made it difficult to pull or push anything with wheels. We ended up carrying the Zuca and the cooler (along with all the other stuff).

Feis Flow

Our stage (novice dancer) was super fast. The pace was a bit much for many of the girls around us and many parents were complaining that they needed to slow down. We started at 11:00 with the LJ and were done with all 6 dances by 12:15. There were no chairs or clear staging area for the dancers to check in and wait to take the stage. They were standing the whole time on concrete intermixed with parents who were standing side stage watching or camping.

Judges

Awful! We only saw 2. Most of the girls (mine included) had the same judge for 5/6 dances. Judges were rotated once while we danced. The first judge started the stage and judged every dance for the 200 and 300 level dancers and was there for the 400 LJ’s and group A of the RL. He rotated out and another sat down for the remainder of the 400 level’s 4-5 dances. I noticed that the same judge returned to that stage after lunch break while we were waiting on results.

Results

We finished dancing at 12:15 and results for all 6 dances were posted by 1:00. Not bad. We only had to wait around for the TJ and TS results once we walked over to the results area. The boards were very hard to read and there were a lot of mistakes with some dances being listed 2 times in multiple age groups. Lots of crossing out and tiny writing over the cross outs that were hard even for someone with 20/20 vision to read. The 2 people working the results table had to take dancers cards and then go read the boards to tell dancers if they placed or not for a few of the dances.

Awards

They were pretty cheap for the grades. 1st-3rd place received tiny pin on ribbons with a small medal attached. 4th-6th received skinny ribbons. My dancers 2nd place medal fell apart and broke in the car on the way home. She was quite irritated. One of her 4th place ribbons was already starting to fray on the ends.

Food

No review. We didn’t eat there and left as soon as we picked up awards.

Summary

My dancer did not enjoy this Feis at all and has asked that we not go back. I completely agree with her. We will skip this one in the future.

What did every one else think?

Did you go, do you agree? Rate the feis below.

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Cape Cod Feis Review 2014

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The Cape Cod Feis hosted by the Forbes School, Haley School, Hansen Keohane School, Heavey Quinn Academy, and Nevin Academy was held on Saturday May 10th and Sunday May 11th at the Resort and Conference Center in Hyannis, Ma.

Venue

This Feis was held at a conference center which had ample free parking. The comps were held over 2 days, with my daughter dancing on Saturday. There were 7 stages spread amongst 4 different rooms. My daughter danced in the largest room which was home to 4 stages, with 2 sets of 2 stages each. Stages were of good size, only negative was that they were not clearly divided. There were PLENTY of seats for spectators, and camping in the seats was not a problem for this reason. There were multiple locations with free water for the dancers and spectators which was a nice touch.

Judges

My daughter danced 4 times for 2 different judges. Typically she seems to dance all 3 soft shoe dances for the same judge, and her hard shoe for a different one. But here she danced 2 dances each for 2 different judges, so better than most feisanna. The judges also provided helpful comments with the marks we received.

Musicians

In the room that my daughter danced in there was an accordion player and a pianist. They were both set up in middle of the 4 stages, and were only playing for those 4 stages so there was no bleeding from other musicians. This was about the best set up we have seen since we began feising..

Food

There was a good selection of food for both lunch and dinner, i.e. bagels, muffins, fruit and yogurt for breakfast, and sandwiches, soups, hot dogs , and chips for lunch. Though the prices seemed quite high to me, $3 for a can of soda, $2 for a piece of fruit or small bag of chips, and close to $10 for some of the sandwiches.

Vendors

There were quite a few vendors here, more than most Feisanna that we have attended. There were multiple shoe vendors, hair accessories, wigs, Irish jewelry, Irish apparel, made to order t-shirts, dress bags etc..

Results & Awards

The room we danced in was literally across the hall from the results/awards rooms so most results were available quite quickly, some even before all dances in a particular age/level was done with all dances.

Feis Flow

Feis flow was very good with all things being in one small area, but managing not to feel cramped at the same time. The only issue I had would be with the comps running about an hour behind, but that is certainly not out of the ordinary.

Scoring

This is probably one of my favorite feisanna so far. Nice venue, well run, great results for my dancer : )

With all this in mind I give this Feis an 8.

Lynn Academy Spring Feis 2014 Review

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The 7th Annual Lynn Academy Spring Feis was held on Sunday May 4th 2014 at the Stamford High School in Stamford, CT.

Venue

This Feis was held at Stamford High School, which was a very large school. The first problem when we arrived was that the entry doors to the Feis were not clearly marked. We parked on the side of the school and went around to the front to find the main doors locked, and still no signage pointing to where we did need to enter. We continued to walk around the outside of the school and gathered a few more confused souls before we luckily found a random door open. Once in the school signage was no better. We happened to get lucky and found a helpful volunteer who walked us to where we needed to be.

The feis had 8 stages in 3 different places. My daughter danced in the large gym which housed stages 1-5. The school was so expansive that I didn’t even see where the other 3 stages were located. In the large gym there were 3 connected stages on one side, and the other 2 were connected on the other side of the gym.

My biggest concern with this Feis was the way that the comps were run. My daughter danced 4 dances, on 3 different stages. This was done to rotate through the judges I believe, instead of having the judges themselves move. My daughter started on stage 1, danced and then had to wait for 2 comps on stage 2 to run before she danced there. It was the same way between each dance. There was quite a bit of downtime in between each dance, which is hard with a young kid who is easily distracted. It took her about 1.5hrs to get through her 4 dances. By far the longest of the 15 or so feisanna she has competed in.

Despite it being a large school it appeared that most camping was done in the gym with the comps, there were people and bags EVERYWHERE, making it difficult to get around, especially after having to change stages between each dance. Also, there was not a single chair to be had. All spectators had to view the ground level stages standing up.

Judges

My daughter danced 4 times for 3 different judges due to the stage rotation that I mentioned above. One issue I had with the judges was that they arrived late, which in turn got the comps off to a late start. The judges did provide decent comments with their marks.

Musicians

In the gym that my daughter danced in there were 2 musicians for the 5 stages that were in there. One for the 3 combined stages, and a second for the other 2 combined stages. Because of the setup the music was bleeding from one area to another and it seemed to cause some regular issues with the dancers.

Food

The only food I saw was dipping dots, though having a mid morning start meant we didn’t go in search of food. However, the dancers each got a chocolate pop with their medals which the kids enjoyed.

Vendors

There were quite a few vendors here, more than most Feisanna that we have attended. There were multiple shoe vendors, hair accessories, wigs, Irish jewelry, Irish apparel etc.

Results & Awards

Results for most of the dances seemed to come out after an extended period, which I will attribute mostly to the great distance that the runners would need to travel from stages to the tabulation room. Honestly, about a 5 minute walk. The medals themselves were nice, with different colored ribbons to distinguish placement.

Feis Flow

The flow was not very good. As I said from the start it was a constant battle to figure out where you had to be, and the distance between the stages and the results and awards was quite far. The comps got started off late, and certainly didn’t catch up throughout the morning.

Scoring

With some changes I feel that this could be a much better feis. More(any) signage, no stage rotation, and results/awards closer to comps.

With all this in mind I give this Feis a 6.

Bluegrass Feis PC/OC Levels Review 2104

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bgFeisThe Bluegrass Feis was held at the Lexington Convention Center on Sunday, May 11th, 2014. This is the second time we have done this feis and you can see my previous review here.

As has become my habit of late, this review focuses on the PC/OC levels. If you have comments on the grades levels, please add them at the bottom of the review or contact me and I can add them for you.

Venue

Second time at this venue, and after having read last years review, apparently I am not as big a fan this year.

Stages & Seating

As it was last year the venue had 7 stages, with 1 – 6 actually being 3 big stages divided down the middle by tape, making two roughly 16 x 24 foot stages that were literally connected. This made for cramped standing for bigger comps and cramped dancing for everyone except the more beginner dancers.

Stages 1 – 6 were for grades, and stage 7 was for PC/OC. Stage 7 was about 24 x 32 but was not divided as the others were. Later in the day, stage 5/6 became just stage 6 and had some PC/OC comps on it. Stage 7 did have some maintenance issues shortly after we got there and dancing came to a halt while they fixed what I was told was a loose screw.

Seating wasn’t bad, but the people who were so courteous the prior day in Cincinnati decided to leave it in Cincinnati. You can see there were a few complaints (here and here) and seating due to these people was not adequate.

Camping & Access

Camping was very cramped, a lot worse than I remember last year. I wonder if the number of competitors was increased. Very tight camping area, little room to move and very crowded walkways made the whole thing seem claustrophobic. There were areas on the far end of the venue that could have been used better. I think I made the same observation last year.

Awards & Results Areas

Grade level awards were posted at one end of the venue on a large wall, with awards fairly close.

Champ level dancers had their podium stuck in between stages 7 and 5/6. No seating and lots of noise from the stages on both sides.

Parking

Free and plentiful, but could involve some walking.

Venue Score: 7.5

Judges

Judges seemed very attentive again today and rated TGC about the same as the previous day (1 judge was the same both days). So maybe it is TGCs skills evening out 🙂 I also thought the judges did an excellent job of keeping things moving.

Judge Score: 10

Music

I really cant speak to the music for the entire venue, and to be honest, since we stayed on stage 7, I am not even sure if the merged stages (1 – 6) had there own musicians (6 different) or each merge shared 1 (3 different). Can somebody help me out with that one?  The musician on 7 seemed fine and I heard no complaints.

Musician Score: 8.5

Food

Only saw a Italian Ice/gelato stand inside the venue, but a short walk in the same building brought you to a food court with a variety of options, all reasonably priced. There were also options close to the venue.

Food Score: 8.5

Vendors

Feis vendors were pretty much a repeat of who was in Cincinnati at Queen City. Here is the list, but alas, still no Irish M&Ms.  🙁

Vendor Score: 7.5

Results

Results for champs, as mentioned above was jammed in between two stages. No seats and music competing with the announcer from both sides. It took about an hour and 15 minutes from the end of TGCs comp to announcements, so slightly worse than QC.

Results Score: 7

Feis Flow

From start to finish, both PC dances and got awards in about 2 hours. That part was good. I also noticed that by 130ish, it seemed like things in the entire venue were starting to wrap up and at least one stage was being torn down.

Feis Flow: 9

Scoring

Two part scoring with a Feis Score consisting of Judging, Music, Results and Flow, and then the overall consisting of everything.

Feis Score: 8.625

And the WTF Rating is 8.3… Not the highest for the weekend, but it had its high points. Good job Bluegrass!

Were You There, What Did YOU Think?

Polling software still on sebaticle. Would love to hear what you thought, so can you do it in the comments below? It can be anonymous  🙂  Thanks!

Queen City Feis PC/OC Levels Review 2014

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queencityAs I think about the Queen City Feis, I realize that it was the first feis we attended, ever, back in 2008. TGC walked away with 2 third place medals that day. I actually wrote a mini-feis review on my personal blog. Who knew what we were getting ourselves into… so without further ado.

The Queen City Feis was held at the Duke Energy Convention Center on Saturday, May 10th, 2014. This was our 6th trip to this feis (missing a year for a school change), and the first year we got to be on the other side of the wall (the champ side). You can see my previous reviews here.

This review focuses on the PC/OC levels but has some additional info that crosses the levels. Not to worry, one of our newest contributors, Mellie Wilkes, wrote a grades level review for your reading pleasure.

Venue

We have been to this venue a number of times and I like it a little more each time. This year was no exception.

Stages & Seating

There were 7 stages in the venue with 1 – 5 being grades level, 6 for PC and OC, and 7 for OC. The grades level stages were 20 x 24 and plywood, and the champ stages were closer to 32 x 32 and covered in a light gray coating (not sure what it was). There was good separation between the stages and lots of chairs at each one. I did not see any stage maintenance during the day in the way of sweeping and mopping, but stage crew seemed to be on the ball for any FO (foreign objects) and removed them promptly. It seemed there were less opportunities for ‘feis shaming‘ since there were plenty of chairs at each stage, and it was the most respectful crowd I have seen at the champ stages in this regard in quite awhile. I did hear some grumblings from the grades level side that people were less courteous.

Camping & Access

Camping areas were plentiful and well marked, and the feis team set up a 6 – 8 foot wide walkway throughout the stage areas. This was occasionally more constricted due to camping overflow and loiterers, but generally you could get through pretty easily.

Awards & Results Areas

Grade level awards were posted at one end of the venue on a large wall. No matter where you are though, grades level results are hard to get too with the number of people trying to see them. The awards table was right next to where the results were posted.

Champ level dancers had a section off in a secluded area featuring the standard 3 tier podium and lots of chairs for viewers. ‘A’ chair for a viewer is out of the ordinary, so ‘lots for viewers’ was a bonus. This area was far enough away from stages so the announcements did not compete with music from any of the stages.

Parking

Parking was plentiful with various lots costing from $10 – $15 dollars within a block of the building.

Venue Score: 9.5

Judges

The stage we were on actually had 4 judges, 1 in training as I understand. The judges were attentive to both dancers on stage each time, and the scores seemed more consistent than they have at other feiseanna. Not sure if this speaks to the opinions of the judges, or a consistency in TGCs skills. Either way, I liked the judging.

Judge Score: 9.5

Music

Having commented on musical confusion in other posts, I can say when you are in front of the stage or in the middle of the venue, this feis was no different. Lots of overlap from the various stages. I did make a point to walk the venue and try to hear the music from a dancer perspective (without actually getting on the stage) and realize that if you are ‘in front’ of the musician, it is a lot easier to hear.

Each stage had their own musicians and I heard no complaints.

Musician Score: 9.5

Food

This venue had ‘upscale’ convention center food like Cuban sandwiches, Metts, Chicken Tender sandwiches, and then your burgers, fries, pretzels, deli sandwiches, etc… The concession was pricey at $8.50 for a deli sandwich but it was good size and came with a small pasta salad and granola bar (weird combo). Drinks were also pricey.

You could also find smoothies, lemonade and sno-cones and a nice roasted nuts and chocolates table.

Food Score: 7.5

Vendors

You can see a complete list of vendors but the usual subjects were there, including George the shoe guy and Mare the ribbon lady. Otherwise, a few wig and hair things and some specialty tables, but sadly, no Irish M&Ms (Smarties).  🙁

Vendor Score: 7.5

Results

Results for champs, as mentioned above had a nice area off to one end of the venue with lots of chairs for viewers, so props for that, but it was just over an hour for results to be tabulated and announced. This was not much less than the feis last weekend that literally had twice as many dancers in the comp. Still, an hour is not terrible.

Results Score: 8.5

Feis Flow

We got to the venue early, we always do, but that is our fault. From start to finish, TGC did a special, both PC dances and got awards within 2 hours. Pretty darn good.

Feis Flow: 9

Scoring

Two part scoring with a Feis Score consisting of Judging, Music, Results and Flow, and then the overall consisting of everything.

Feis Score: 9.125 – That is VERY respectable 🙂

And the WTF Rating is 8.71… Nice Job Queen City!

What Say You?

Well, not sure what is going on, but our polling software has decided to spazz out on us. Would love to hear what you thought, so can you do it in the comments below? It can be anonymous  🙂  Thanks!

Queen City Feis Grades Levels Review 2014

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queencityThe Queen City Feis was held on May 10, 2014, in Cincinnati, Ohio at the Duke Energy Convention Center. This is the building which spells CINCINNATI in window lights. It is surrounded by several hotel and shopping options. The feis hotel was also connected to the convention center by SkyWalk. The SkyWalks also connect to the Tower Place Mall and secured parking garages. From First Feis to Prizewinner and Adult to Championship levels, this feis welcomes all ages and abilities. Several memorial specials are also a draw for championship dancers. This feis can certainly boast of their excellent crew, or herd, of feis volunteers. They were easy to spot in their day glow t-shirts, with GRUNT! on the back.

Please remember, this is a review from a Southern Region perspective. The Wilkes family does not usually feis in the Mid America Region. This was our third foray into a feis offered by this region. This is also our 3rd feis weekend in a row. Parts of this review are a bit more rambling than previous reviews. So, y’all just remember the perspective of the reviewer while reading.

EDITORS NOTE: This review is focused on Grades Levels. If you are interested in notes from the PC/OC levels, click here.

Venue: 8 out of 10

Convention center feis! As most readers already know, I am a fan of convention center feisanna. This venue is an excellent example of a well run, convention center feis. Walkways were fairly self patrolled. This Georgia Belle learned the true meaning of feis camping at this feis. I saw everything but a camp fire and a tent. Though I did look, there were no marshmallows or chocolate bars visible. I did see a few candy stashes, though. There was also ample seating for attendees and their guests. Several times, I saw unclaimed and empty seats in the viewing areas, while parents stood. The stages were low, so I am guessing they wanted to see the dancers feet. With low stages, standing, is a good way to ensure a view of dancer feet. If you know anything about dance in general, you know to watch the feet. The bathrooms were clean and well stocked. They were not well marked, which created some confusion and embarrassment. Camping areas were taped off and well marked. There were tables for munching at a couple of locations in the hall. There was also plenty of room for practicing, warming up, and stretching. The feis location was not well marked, upon entering the convention center. There were plenty of Duke Energy Center employees and security personnel to direct everyone.

Parking: 7 out of 10

The parking options were all very close to the convention center. $15 to park in a secure garage. $10 for an open, unsecure lot. There were a couple of both within a block of the convention center. The prices were higher than expected, especially compared to Atlanta parking prices. There were skywalks to the feis hotel and to secured parking garage.

Feis Flow: 9 out of 10

The feis was well announced over loud speakers. It started on time, with the the opening ceremonies. The majority of attendees did pay the proper respect to all national anthems. It warmed my heart, to hear my own little darlings sing the anthem of the United States of America. They were just behind me and I nearly cried. Patriotism should be taught when the children are young. It is a blessing to know that my little darlings have paid attention to that teaching. But, I digress…the stages did not all start at the same time. Some began immediately after the opening ceremonies. Others began later. The figure stages that began slowly, that I noticed, were due to either adjudicators not being quite ready or to musicians tuning their instruments and handling last minute sound checks. The volunteers were well connected with technology. Each stage had at least one volunteer wired with a headset and radio communication. So, stages were held when there were conflicts. Figure dancers did not miss the start of their solo dances on other stages. Such a stress relief! Well done, Queen City GRUNTS! You are excellent examples of well trained, hard working, well connected, and patient feis volunteers.

Vendors: 10 out of 10

Several vendors ran feis specials. One wig vendor was selling a full wig for $55. Another was selling sterling silver Celtic knotwork birthstone rings for $20. This feis had a wonderful variety of vendors available.

  • Two wig and hair bob stands
  • Two crafty doo dah and doll stands
  • Dress maker
  • Photography
  • Shoes
  • Custom Hair bands and hair bobs
  • Irish, Celtic, and Feis themed stand
  • Used dress rack

Judges: 5 out of 10

One little darling danced all three dances for the same judge. Another little darling danced twice for one judge and twice for another judge. My big darling who danced 7 grade competitions, only danced for 3 judges. On the grade stages, there was certainly a lack of judge rotation.

Music: 7 out of 10

Violins were on the grade stages for our little darlings. This caused music overflow from neighboring stages. The champion stages had accordions. Oh, beautiful accordion! Dear accordion, you were missed on the grades side of convention center. This feis, I only noticed one musician mishap on the grades stages. Very talented violinists on all of the stages our darlings danced.

Results: 4 out of 10

Results started out posting very quickly. Beginners were out within 10 minutes of their dances. With the start of advanced beginner and novice, the results started coming out slowly. Some results came out in 15-20 minutes after the competition, others took over 45 minutes to be posted. Some were lost in the shuffle completely, and did not post for 2 hours. One of the our little darlings had a competition whose results fell into that category, the feis results abyss. Do you think such a thing could be plotted on a stage assignment map? Here is the tabulation area. There is the awards stage. And right next to the podium, that spiral shape, that is the feis results abyss. Also, the awards were on the slight side, in my opinion and experience. From beginner to prizewinner, they received the same medals. Even championship dancers received medals for their treble reel. Only first place treble reel champion dancers received a small crystal boxed gift. I am accustomed to champ treble reel receiving trophies and sashes on a podium at the River Valley Feis. Or, receiving trophies and gifts at feisanna by The Drake School. It was surprising, to me, to see such slight awards for such a large feis. Champion results were an hour to 2.5 hours between competitions and announcement. The length of time between the championship dances and their results was a topic of conversation all over the feis. Not a positive or pleasant topic, from what we experienced.

Food: 6 out of 10

The venue food options were, personally, expensive. Not Disney expensive, mind you. But still, $3.50 for a pretzel. Only a pretzel. Another feis family spent $30 on chicken fingers and fries. No drinks or extras for that price. The sandwiches we wanted to order were sold out by the time our family reached the head of the line. Sandwich plates were $8.50, plus the cost of a drink. Ash was quite disappointed in the lack of coffee. But, there were options. This feis offered a wide variety of food vendors, provided you were willing to pay for the privilege.

  • Deli
  • Grill
  • Pizza
  • Specialty lemonade
  • Custom smoothies
  • Gourmet chocolate and treats

Overall: 7 out of 10

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Celtic Spirit Feis PC/OC Review 2014

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csThe Celtic Spirit Feis was held on May 4th, 2014 at the Wisconsin Center in Milwaukee, WI.

Editor’s Note:

Back to back feiseanna were held at the Wisconsin Center this weekend so the summaries and scores for Venue, Food and Vendors here are the same for the Saturday feis. Scores are below. Full descriptions can be found here.

This review is for the PC/OC portion of the feis. If you have comments for the Grades portion of the feis, please contact me and I can share them in a separate post, thanks!

Venue Score: 7  |  Food Score: 7  |  Vendor Score: 9

Judges

I actually had an issue with the judges for day 2, or more specifically, one judge. This particular judge during the time I watched, seemed to focus on a particular dancer if they noticed something they did not like about the other dancer. It came across as a snap decision, ‘nope don’t like that dancer, not going to look for anything good about them.’ Just gave me a bad impression and therefore did not like the judging on Sunday as much as the judging the previous day. This was on Stage 1.

Judge Score: 7

Music

Actually, the setup of the musicians and the issues I encountered with that setup on Saturday, remained on Sunday, so the score is the same.

Musician Score: 7

Results

Awards were in the same large area as the day before so there was plenty of room, but the time from the end of the comp to the announcing of results was a little slower on Sunday at just over 2 hours.

Results Score: 8

Feis Flow

I can sum up the flow like this, by 1p.m. it looked like over 95% of the comps had finished, and there was dancing on very few stages. That feis moved along. Great job!

Feis Flow: 10

Scoring

Two part scoring with a Feis Score consisting of Judging, Music, Results and Flow, and then the overall consisting of everything.

Feis Score: 8 – Not quite as good as the day before due to poorer Judge and Results scores. A better Flow score helped.

And the WTF Rating is 7.86… not terrible, and definitely worth another chance..

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Wisconsin Spring Feis PC/OC Review 2014

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logocolorThe Wisconsin Spring Feis was held on May 3rd, 2014 at the Wisconsin Center in Milwaukee, WI.

Editor’s Note:

Back to back feiseanna were held at the Wisconsin Center this weekend so the summaries and scores for Venue, Food and Vendors will be the same for both days and only listed in this review.

This review is for the PC/OC portion of the feis. Sorry, it got to hard to monitor stages and results for grades and pay attention to what was going on with TGC and her schedule. If you have comments for the Grades portion of the feis, please contact me and I can share them in a separate post, thanks!

Venue

This is the first (and second) feis I have attended at this venue and I am on the fence about the venue itself. It is huge and has lots of potential, but I do not think the space was adequately used.

There were 10 stages with stages 1 – 3 set up for PC & OC and 4 – 10 for grades. The huge hall was divided in half by a partition with the PC/OC stages butt up against it. Grade level stages 4 – 8 were in the same half of the hall, separated from the PC/OC stages by a large camping area, and an attempt at walkways between the stages and the camping area. Stages 9 and 10 were in the other half of the hall kind of off in the corners.

The other half of the hall had the results for grades set up on the partition that divided the hall, basically in back of stages 1 – 3. It also held the vendors (about 8 of them), a small smoothie cart and some tables for dining. It also held the awards area for PC/OC which was a nice size and accomodated that purpose better than any other feis I have seen while TGC has been at this level.

The PC/OC stages were very large, about 28 x 32 and covered with the non-slip material which made for a nice dance area. TGC danced on two different stages during the two days and had no problems, and I saw no slips or falls on either of them. TGC did say that stage 3 had either a loose board or high spot she noticed when she was practicing before the feis started, but that was the only complaint I heard.

Afraid that even though I watched a dance or two by friends on the grades stages, I did not notice to much about them.

Camping in the ‘designated area’ was not adequate for the number of people there Saturday. There was plenty of area in the other half of the hall but it appeared that rather than take a 60 second walk, piling on top of each other was preferred.

Camping in the viewer chairs, was as always, an issue. People ‘tried’ not to do that and piled there stuff behind the last row of chairs which impeded pedestrian flow. Add to that the people standing behind that gear, and the people standing behind them, trying to see the dancers, because they could not sit down for all the gear piled onto the chairs, and the walkway that was supposed to be about 10 feet wide quickly dwindled down to about 5 feet. Add in overflow camping from the other side of the path, well, you get where I am going with this.

The concessions were at either end of the hall and there was only one bathroom I saw in the hall, but more were located in the hallway outside, so not to bad.

I heard parking was $15 but to be honest, since we were in a hotel attached to the venue, we used hotel parking when we got there Friday night and did not get in the car till it was time to go home on Sunday.

If I had run the feis, I would have moved all the vendors up to the front of the hall between the main doors and the stages, there was probably 40 feet of free space that would probably would have fit them all. Then, I would use the other half of the hall to space out the stages more and add more camping, but that is just me 😉

Venue Score: 7  (but it has the potential to be 9 or 10. NOTE: Sunday seemed less crowded and more pleasant then Saturday)

Judges

PC/OC  always has 3 judges. They were attentive on our stage and took only one break that I saw. I realized with this back to back, that although there is always similarities in PC/OC judging, having 3 judges does not automatically mean a high score. Saturday was good, Sunday, less so.

Judge Score: 9.5

Music

Each stage had their own musician and according to TGC, the music was fine on the stage, but in the viewing seats it was really hard to distinguish between which stage was playing what. I also saw one dancer jump the gun which I believe was due to having a hard time hearing the music.

Musician Score: 7

Food

We only caught the lunch menu and it was much what you would expect for a ‘convention center’ venue. Hamburgers, hot dogs, fries, pizza. We had two cheeseburgers,  and one fries and it was $17, which seemed high, but the burgers were good and pretty big. There were lots of options if you wanted to venture outside the venue, but not many fast food establishments.

Food Score: 7

Vendors

The shoe guy, NOT GEORGE, who also sold t’s and sweatshirts, some nice knit wear, Irish nic nacs, jewelry, the wig ladies, Guinness wear, a ribbon fob booth but not Made by Mare, the photographer and the feis tshirt booth. Plus, we were able to find Irish M&Ms (Smarties) and I found Lucozade, which I first had in my Grandmothers store in Ireland when I was a kid (queue the reminiscing music). All in all, a nice vendor turnout.

Vendor Score: 9

Results

I am still getting used to how these PC/OC results work and I don’t know if I have determined the average yet, but I didn’t think these were hateful. It was about 90 minutes from the end of TGCs comp and the results and she was in a huge comp.

Awards were given in a large area off in an isolated part of the hall, so there was plenty of room to gather and the noise from the viewers was not a distraction to the other competitors.

Results Score: 9

Feis Flow

Gotta say that the flow of the feis was pretty good for the number of competitors. TGCs comp was done with both dances in about an hour and the comp was the biggest comp for a standard feis I have seen.

Casual observation of other stages and it seems like the flow on those was smooth and steady as well.

Feis Flow: 9

Scoring

Two part scoring with a Feis Score consisting of Judging, Music, Results and Flow, and then the overall consisting of everything.

Feis Score: 8.625 – Music brought this down a bit but the Results and Flow were pretty good considering the sheer numbers there.

And the WTF Rating is 8.36… not to bad and this is a feis we would definitely consider going back to.

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