Rock River Valley Feis 2014, Grades Review

downloadThe 2014 Rock River Valley Feis was held on September 6, 2014 at Pheasant Run Resort in St. Charles, IL. This is the 2nd time we have attended this feis, although the venue was different when we attended 2 years ago.

Venue

The feis was held at the Megacenter right next to the resort.  It is a small building with an open ballroom type area.  There was a small food court area near the front of the room.

Parking was free, plentiful & close – which was a nice change from many other feiseanna we have attended recently!

Registration and awards were right inside the entryway, and my dancer was checked in quickly and easily.

The feis had 6 stages this year – 4 for grades & 2 for PC/OC.  Stages were definitely on the small side, and even dancing 2/time, I saw several collisions due to the tight quarters.

Stage quality was a HUGE issue this year. My dancer’s stage saw many slips and falls, including one dancer who had to be helped off the stage & couldn’t put weight on the foot/ankle she injured.  I never saw an attempt at mopping or otherwise treating the stage to make things less slippery.  I know there were slips/falls on at least one of the PC/OC stages as well.

The stages were also FAR too close to each other.  With 6 stages playing music all at once within such a small area, it was impossible for dancers to hear their music clearly.

Vendors were the usual suspects – George the shoe guy, a t-shirt vendor, 4Irish dancers (who thankfully sold me a card of bobby pins when I realized we had forgotten ours!), and another hair/bling vendor.

Restrooms were plentiful, but were not restocked well, and several dispensers were out of soap for a couple of hours mid- morning.  One of the paper towel dispensers had stopped working by lunchtime as well.

There was no camping at all whatsoever.  Zucas and dress bags were piled all over the place & there was a lot of feis shaming going on in the minimal seating provided.

The bottom line is that this venue was simply too small for the entry cap.  Either the cap needs to be reduced, or a new venue with more room needs to be secured.

Overall Venue Score:  3/10

Judges

My dancer danced 5 times and was seen by 4 judges.  That’s very good rotation, in my opinion, especially for a feis that runs by level.  My dancers judges also provided detailed & helpful comments, which we appreciate, as that doesn’t always happen.

Judge Score: 9/10

Music

I honestly could not hear the music from my dancer’s stage (and I was not THAT far back).  My dancer said she had trouble hearing the music meant for her stage over music coming from other stages & she said most of the judges seemed to be having trouble as well.

Music Score:  5/10

Food

The feis had a small food court with hot dogs, chips & other similar items.  Not much variety or much of anything healthy, but prices seemed relatively reasonable.

Food Score:  6/10

Results/Awards

The speed at which results were posted varied throughout the day and by stage.  One dancer from our school waited over an hour for results for 2 dances both danced in the morning.  My dancer’s results were up much faster, but she danced later in the day, so perhaps whatever issues plagued the tabulation room in the morning were resolved by the afternoon.

The feis only placed approximately 30% of the dancers, which is low even for Mid America feiseanna (which typically place around 40%).  I personally like to see a little more generous placement, particularly given that entry fees for this feis were higher than fees for other area feiseanna.  Especially for younger novice/open dances who can become easily discouraged, to only place 6 dancers in a group of 23 (which works out to only about 25%) just seems a little stingy to me.  I’m not one who believes every kid needs to go home with an award of some kind every time, but I think this feis could stand to loosen the purse strings on the awards a little bit.

Results/Awards Score: 4/10

Feis Flow

For grades, this feis was run by level, which usually means most people are in & out fairly quickly, but the Rock N Reel (a soft shoe reel special danced to popular music) wreaked havoc on the flow.

For some reason, the Rock N Reel was scheduled to start at 9:30 (our prior experience with specials like this is that they typically run at lunch or at the end of the day), which appeared to be when the feis expected Beginner 2 dances to end & novice dances to start.  However, stages were not moving at an even pace, and some stages were ready for the RNR before that, and some weren’t ready until well after.

Because the RNR was simply grouped by level (& not by age), the fact that it ran at different times on different stages created stage conflicts for many dancers, which then slowed down all the grades stages considerably.  Additionally, the music was blasted & overpowered neighboring stages which were still running regular dances, making it virtually impossible for dancers to hear their music.

Some stages did stop altogether until the RNR dances were finished, but others continued to move dances through.  A consistent decision on how to handle this would have been helpful.

My dancer was one with a stage conflict due to the RNR & when I asked the volunteers how they would prefer we handle it, all I got was a shrug & a “do whatever you think is best”.  I assume they were just as frustrated with the lack of consistency as I was, but a pleasant response would have been nice.

There were inconsistencies in how many dancers at a time danced, which made some stages move faster than others, too.  On stage 6 I saw dancers dancing 3/time, but on stages 3 & 4, I only ever saw 2/time.

The feis did take only a 10 minute lunch break – they delivered lunch to the judges at the stages & allowed them a few minutes to eat & use the restroom & then things started right back up.  This was appreciated by everyone & is something other feiseanna could stand to try.

In the past, when my dancer has straddled 2 levels and we’ve attended a feis run by grade, we have  typically been in & out in 4 hours.  We were there for 8 hours this time, so double what is normal for a feis run in this manner.

Feis Flow Score: 3/10 (and it would have been lower had it not been for the quick lunch break)

Overall Score:  4/10

Sorry Rock River Valley, but the venue & the poor flow made it difficult to do any better than this.

What Did You Think?

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Naperville, IL Eats

We had the opportunity to spend a little time in Naperville after the Chicago Autumn Feis and I wanted to mention a few places that may be worth a visit if you are a food fan.

Quigley’s Irish Pub

Guiness SnakebiteQuigley’s is on Jefferson, pretty much in downtown Naperville. It is a nice place and has that dark, wood paneled walls and big booths atmosphere you would find in a pub in Ireland, they even got the smell right. Nice cold pints and some pretty decent Irish food make it a nice place for a beer after a hard morning of feisin’, or for a lunch, dinner or just a snack.

I had a lamb stew with some Irish bread that was pretty good and their chips went really well with the beer. There were some kid options so everyone was able to find something they wanted. I heard the Reuben rolls are worth a trip there all by themselves.

It was a bit pricey for a meal and feeding the family, but a pint and some chips wouldn’t set you back to much. Definitely worth a visit.

Le Chocolat du Bouchard

chocolateLe Chocolat du Brochard on Washington is also downtown, just a short walk from Quigleys. It is easily the most outrageous chocolate store I have ever been in, and has a huge selection of custom confections.

After browsing and asking questions of the extremely helpful staff, we made some selections and then stepped next door to the attached cafe for an espresso to have with our chocolates. In addition to coffees, the cafe has specialty drinks and desserts, and is a perfect ending to a walk around Naperville.

There is a little sticker shock at the price per pound for the chocolates, but it is a nice treat and highly recommended.

Rock River Valley Feis 2013

The Rock River Valley Feis was held on September 7th, 2013 at the Pheasant Run Resort Mega Center, in St. Charles, IL. This is the point in the feis weekend where I tell you what I thought about the feis, the venue, judging, musicians, etc… you know the drill. This one however, is going to be different.

If you follow me on Facebook, you know that our trip to Illinois didn’t turn out as planned, and we ended up in the ER Friday night when The Girl Child hurt her foot practicing. By Saturday morning we realized that competing was out for the day, but we were near the venue, and her foot was ok to walk in the funky shoe they gave her at the hospital, so we decided to stop by and support some of TGC’s dance classmates.

We were only there for a about an hour and a half, and since TGC didn’t dance, I really did not have time to do a full review. I do have some general observations however, so I thought I would share them here with the hopes some of you who were there longer, and competed, can add your comments.

Remember this is an observation based on a  very short visit, so here goes.

Some Negatives

The venue was EXTREMELY crowded and noisy. We had a hard time moving around and there did not seem to be adequate camping space. I think this was the most crowded venue I have been in, and it was slightly claustrophobic, and this is coming from someone who was on submarines in the Navy.

The stages were right next to each other with very little separation, and while each of them had there own musician, I thought there was a lot of musical confusion in the room. I overheard one musician saying that she was being drowned out by the musicians on either side of her, so I cannot imagine what it might have been like for the dancers.

I only watched a few comps on the PC stage at the back of the room, and saw some slips and 2 falls. There seemed to be a lot of ‘stuff’ on the stage, and I saw some audience members point out hazards on the stage. So, stage maintenance seemed a bit lax, at least on the stage I watched.

Some Positives

Although we didn’t check any of our own scores, TGC checked results for her friends comp on FeisWorx, and was able to pull up the results within about 30 minutes after the comp ended. That’s pretty good.

I could not find a competitors list on the feis site, and while some would consider that a negative, I do not. After some of my previous posts on feis safety, I am starting to watch how feiseanna do things, and I appreciate the fact that they are protecting the privacy of the dancers. Um, someone let me know if I just missed it online 😉

The other thing that I do not recall seeing in the past, that I noticed this feis did, is that they provided changing areas for the dancers on the side of the venue. While I still saw some girls changing in the ‘open’, I like the fact that a more private area was provided.

What did you think?

I know, that is brief, so how would you rate it? Please add additional comments below. I would love to hear what I missed because of my limited visit.

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Rock River Valley Feis Review

The Rock River Valley Feis was held on September 8th, 2012 at the Wellness and Sports Center, Harper College in Palatine, IL.

Venue – I thought the Wellness and Sports Center was a nice venue. Everything was in close proximity to the stages and there was room to move around, more so than some recent feiseses.

There were 6 stages all within what most of us would call a basketball arena. The OC and PC stages were in the center, taking up most of the basketball court, and were a really good size. There were three stages on one end of the court, smaller and a little close together, and then one on the other end of the court, similarly small, and off by itself. If there  was a negative comment, I would say that the three that were together were too close and that music bleed from one stage to the next apparently made it hard for some judges to focus on the dancers on their stage (valid concern not smartbutt remark like you may have come to expect from me).

The ‘arena’ was two floors tall and the top of the bleachers on one side exited into the vendor area, and the bottom on the same side exited into the results area. The concession was at one end of the arena, and awards and registration were just a short walk down the hall.

Parking was great and there was lots of it. There was a bit of walk if you didn’t get there early enough, or refused to park in staff parking (I probably could have but it was marked staff only, and there are a college cop giving out tickets).

If there were any negatives to the venue, its that the bleachers were hard to navigate for smaller children and older people, and there was no good place to display used dresses for sale. Dresses were hung on the end of the bleachers and there were literally(probably) a 100 dresses hung over the top of one another in a small space. Bad selling and buying experience.

The first issue is hard to fix but the second one should be easy 🙂

Venue Score: 9

Judges – My daughter danced five dances and was judged by four different judges. Good rotation.

Judge Score: 10

Music – Each stage had their own musician and I did not see any of them take a break. I also liked that there was variety, accordion, violin/fiddle, flute etc… Nice mix.

Musician Score: 10

Food – A local pub catered the event, the food was good and the prices were very fair. Not a lot of variety and no hotdog/hamburger things that may have appealed to more people, but I didnt hear any complaints.

Food Score: 8.5

Vendors – A feis tshirt guy, and George the shoe guy… do you see a pattern here? They also had some nice jewelry, the wig lady, and some gifty things. I really like shirts and I am a big guy and not much catered to my taste, but it was a good selection otherwise. You can see the vendor list here.

Vendor Score: 7.5

Results – very well done. Out in 15 minutes or less for most dances and results were right outside the stage area. Awards were just around the corner……. They did not tweet results (I think) which would have been nice, but I did notice they had posted results on their Facebook Page which I found later and am not sure if they were doing that during the feis.

If there were any ‘issues’ with the results/awards, it was the awards table. Those people were doing their best but you know how it is, all the girls wait till the end, flock the table, and there was no lines there. The awarders were passing notebooks with results back and forth, so there was no telling where you should line up and I heard one or two moms getting a little testy. Thankfully, I found our stage notebook right away and fended off the testy moms while the nice lady gave the DD her awards. I can see where it could have been handled better though. Sorry -2 extra points for the awards distribution.

Results Score: 7

Feis Flow – I thought this feis was well run but I heard a lot of griping from parents. I realize though that the gripers were the ones who didnt get started till after lunch and if they are like me, they get to the feis early so as not to miss anything.

They kept the age group dances close together and although we did not get started till 245, my DD had 5 dances done and scored by 415. Thats pretty darn good.

They had a lunch break, and that is when they did their Rock and Reel which, although a lot of fun, took a long time to get started and finish which added to the length of the day. That was one of the main griping points for some of those afternoon parents I mentioned earlier. I didn’t think it was horrible.

Feis Flow Score: 7

And the WTF Rating – Pretty darn good with a WTF Rating is 8.42.