McMenamin Academy Feis 2014 Review/0 Comments/in , , /by

mcMThe 4th Annual McMenamin Academy Feis was held on August 10, 2014 at the Student Union at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The feis was run back to back with the Milwaukee Feis, and so some sections of this review will refer to the Saturday feis review in order to avoid duplication.

This is the 2nd time we have attended this feis, and we have generally had a pleasant experience and would likely return again next year.

Venue

(See Milwaukee Feis Review for commentary)

Overall Venue Score: 9/10

Judges

My dancer danced 6 times and was seen by 4 judges, which is pretty darn good judge rotation in my book. My only complaint is that 2 of the 4 judges who saw her on Sunday had also judged her on Saturday. I know it would be difficult for the 2 feiseanna to coordinate completely new judges for grades dancers on Sunday, but it would be nice to see an attempt made.

Judge Score: 9/10

Music

Our musician had a few hiccups & missed notes, but overall was quite good. As mentioned in the review of the Milwaukee Feis, the acoustics of this venue are nice, with separate rooms for all stages, making it easy for the dancers to hear their music.

Music Score: 9/10

Food

(See Milwaukee Feis Review for commentary)

Food Score: 10/10

Results/Awards

Results were very fast and were also posted on Feisworx real time. We wait until our dancer is done with all her dances before checking any results, so I don’t know how long individual dances were taking to come out, but my dancer’s results were all complete & posted 10-15 minutes after she finished her last dance.

As the parent of a young Open dancer (where, as you all know, the competition is tough, and placement sometimes seems arbitrary, and it’s very easy for a child to go home without so much as a single ribbon as a reminder of their hard work & effort), I really appreciate feiseanna who provide generous placements/awards. So we really love that the McMenamin Feis places a minimum of 50% in every competition. Medals were awarded for 1st-5th place at a minimum, and I did see some dancers walking around with ribbons as well. The medals were on the smaller side, but were nice quality and quite heavy. Like most Mid-America feiseanna, medals came without ribbons, but that would be my only complaint.

Results/Awards Score: 9/10

Feis Flow

For grades, this feis was by dance, which can make for a long day. My dancer started dancing around 9:15 and and was not done until almost 3:30, which is pretty standard for a feis run in this format. The feis did a good job curtailing the lunch break to a reasonable 30 minutes, which was much appreciated. I know some people really prefer this format, as it allows for plenty of practice time & more judge rotation, but with a younger dancer, I find that this format is just plain exhausting. It probably didn’t help that the stage with the youngest dancers had the most kids on it & was the last to finish – some reallocation of dances/age groups would be welcomed next year.

Feis Flow Score: 6/10

Overall Score: 8.5/10

Great job, McMenamin Academy Feis!!

What Did You Think?

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McMenamin Academy Feis 2013

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mcMThe 4th annual McMenamin Academy Feis was held on August 11th, 2013 at the Student Union at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Editors Note: This feis is run as a back-to-back with the Milwaukee Feis and that review covers a few sections for both feiseanna. In an effort not to duplicate content and get myself banned from search engines, this was the easiest way. Sorry for the extra trouble.

Venue – See the Milwaukee Review for all the details

Venue Score: 9  (This also applies to the Milwaukee Feis for Saturday)  

Judges – The girl child danced 3 times and was judged by 2 different judges. I generally think that can be done better, but in this case, the dances were spread farther apart and the judges were rotating frequently. Actually, TGC was going to be judged by a third judge, but was offered a break by the first judge who had scored her, so it ended up in the duplication. Good rotation.

Judge Score: 9

Music – See the Milwaukee Review for all the details

Musician Score: 10 (This also applies to the Milwaukee Feis for Saturday)

Food –  See the Milwaukee Review for all the details

Food Score: 9.5  (This also applies to the Milwaukee Feis for Saturday)

Vendors –  See the Milwaukee Review for all the details

Vendor Score: 6 (This also applies to the Milwaukee Feis for Saturday)

Results – FeisWorx was at it again and had reults electronically in about 15 minutes.

For this feis however, the results and the awards were in the same place and dancers would pick up the awards where they checked the results. These volunteers were not linked via laptop, and were using the results sheet that had been posted on the wall to keep track of who had picked up awards. I think this feis did a poor job in this area when compared to its counterpart on Saturday.

Even with the kickin’ FeisWorx results, this area needs improvement.

Results Score: 7

Feis Flow – Not as good as Saturday. We started at 9ish and had the last dance and were through by 2. This also included a quick 30 minute lunch. The dances were spread much farther apart and that really slowed down the day. The slower turn-around between dances usually helps  judge rotation, but in this case it was so slow the judges started repeating.

Feis Flow Score: 7.5

Scoring

2 part scoring is in place, the feis score consisting of Judges, Music, Results and Flow, and then the overall WTF rating for all items including the venue, food and vendors.

Feis Score – 8.375  A good score, but this feis is still relatively young and they can take some pointers from the Milwaukee Feis.

And the WTF Rating – a 8.28, still pretty respectable

What did you think?

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