Remember Rachel from MI at the Dayton Feis, well she was was there again, dancing against my daughter. Thankfully she got the last dance she needed to move up to Prelim, and she didn’t beat my daughter every time this time 😉 Sorry, I was nice the last time, I am going to be a normal Dad this time 🙂
Whoever told Rachel’s Mom I posted the last post, don’t tell her about this one 😉
I often feel like I am only there to drive and pay, but tonight, I had the chance to use some of my Navy training to help my little ‘dancing queen.’
The toes on her hard shoes had no black left on them, so I broke out my shoe shine kit and spent a half an hour on them. I did not do them like I would have back in the day, when I could spit shine shoes and make them shine like mirrors, but I blackened them and gave them a bit of a shine. You really cant see it because of the flash, but its there. My shining ability was a source of pride for me back then (I was actually accused of wearing patent leather shoes for inspections), and to be able to share some of that with my daughter made me happy, but I digress…
Which makes me wonder however, is there a rule for shoes and how much they can/should shine? Is the well-worn look the best, or slightly blackened, or really shiny? Your thoughts would be appreciated. Oh, and if really shiny is best, you guys are in trouble 😉
I want to say CONGRATS to Rachel from MI…. I won’t say what school or what age… She competed against my daughter and took first in every dance. Way to go!
Rachel and her Mom are the type to wait till the end to get results and it was killing me not to share with them how well Rachel was doing. It is really nice to meet dancers who don’t appear to have that ‘drama queen dance diva’ attitude and I like to see them succeed, even if they are beating my daughter.
Oh, BTW Rachel, can you move up so my daughter has a better chance? Thanks! 😉
and hi to Katie (Rachels little sister who also dances, and the reason I met the family in the first place) 🙂
Editors Note: Rachel and her family have no way of knowing about this post, so if you know them by chance, please pass on my regards. Thanks!
Stumbled across this and thought I would share. Great info source: http://www.irishcentral.com/story/irishdance/healthy-irish-dancing/
Just read this and see if you agree. A musician’s view on the state of Irish dance… http://ryandunssj.blogspot.com/2012/02/has-irish-dancing-lost-its-luster.html
So this morning after church, we went to a local Mom and Pop place for breakfast. As we sat waiting for our food, I recognized one of the gentlemen at the front door of the restaurant.
That is a feis dad, I thought to myself. The GC thought she recognized him too. We are at a small place in the middle of nowhere, no Irish Dance schools for literally miles, and yet, there are other dance parents a few tables away.
So, after I ate, I stopped by their table to say hi. The man had reconized me also so we made quick small talk. ‘What school’ I asked, and here comes the awkward part…
Our new school is a ‘spin off’ of another area school. I don’t know all the details, and don’t really care to know, but as you can imagine, there are some ‘feelings and emotions’ that go along with a teacher leaving one school to start another… And now back to the restaurant….
You know what school they said, the ‘parent’ school of where ours ‘started’. I told them the school we had just left and then said, but we just switched to, and mumbled the name of our new school and smiled.
They laughed, but I had to wonder what they knew and what their opinions were, but I just said, ‘just checking the color of the grass’. I told them I would see them in 6 months and we went our separate ways.
Seems like there are A LOT of Irish Dance websites out there, so am I spinning my wheels, or would that be reels? 🙂
This could really go lots of ways, my first thought would be a resource for parents, maybe describe the dances, the history, how feis’ work etc….
I also thought a community might be nice, a place for schools to have forums on feis topics, a member section where school members could interact with other schools, and maybe even give an area for parents to blog.
Or maybe I could be the directory for all things Irish Dance and instead, group links to all the other good info that is already out there into a usable searchable format, kind of like the Google of Irish Dance… OK, I know that Google already is that but it might just work anyway.
So what do you think? Do any of these ideas sound appealing or maybe you have realized that something in the community is missing and I can build that here. I value any inputs and I am still interested in chatting with folks who might want to help.
Thanks in advance and Happy St. Patrick’ Day!
Sláinte
As of right now, March 13th, 2011, What The Feis (WTF for you people in the know) is just a concept. My original idea was to have it be a guide for new Feis Parents but my blue-sky idea is having it be the ultimate reference for everything Irish Dance.
In addition to a history lesson, a reference, a glossary, a list of schools, a schedule and a community, my goal is to have links, discussions, classifieds, member sections etc… kind of like a Feis Facebook Plus.
Here is where you come in. To make this work, I need help from people who know things about Irish Dance. I am getting there but as a Feis Dad I am way behind the power curve. So, if you want to help, contact me at any of the below:
Let’s see what we can do with this 🙂