The Crew
The usual caveats apply. Unlike your normal feis family (1 or more dancers, 1 or more non-dancing parents, and sometimes a non-dancing sibling), just about everyone in the Seger family competes on Feis day. The crew this year consisted of:
- Ges - 40 year old dancing father (started season in Adult Open/PW softshoe, Adult Novice hardshoe, Adult 2-hand) and vocalist
- Devonna - %# year old dancing mother (started season in Adult Novice (except for Open/PW jig, Parent-Child, Adult 2-hand) and soda bread chef
- Rebekah - 8.5 year old dancer (started season in Novice hard&soft shoe, Parent-Child) and sometime soda bread mini-chef
- Rachel - 7.5 year old dancer (Advanced Beginner) and vocalist
- Luke - 5 year old non-competing son, equipment manager, and overall good guy?
In other words, things that impacted or concerned us might not be things that would impact or concern you.
Criteria
As usual, I graded each Feis in the following categories:
| Organization | How well did the committee handle things like entries, registration, getting information to competitors, getting enough musicians and ajudicators... |
|---|---|
| Scheduling | Are the individual competitions and stages scheduled in some form of logical order or are they scheduled more or less randomly? When you have to juggle multiple competitors and their schedules, this becomes a critical factor. |
| Facilities | Was the site accessible? If food vendors were there, could they keep up with demand? Were there enough toilets? Could dancers get to competitions without knocking people over? These are just some of the questions which determined this grade. |
| Operations | This category is for the actual day of competition. How well did things go? How well did the committee handle unforseen problems? How quickly were competition results posted? |
Grading system for each category is on an A, B, C, D, or F system, which should be familiar to anyone who has survived American public education for the past two generations. For purposes of these reviews, actual competition ajudication is not a factor in grading a feis. These are feis reviews, not ajudication reviews.
Changes from last year
Those of you who have seen last year's review site will notice changes between the 2001 and 2002 seasons. Here's what changed and why
| London, ON (Forest City) | A feis mom from southwestern Ontario emailed me after I posted my review last year and said that this feis is consistently bad for much of the same reasons that I had reported. After their 2000 feis, she had stopped taking her children to it. That sounded like good advice to me. |
|---|---|
| Washington, DC (Nation's Capital) | While this was a good feis if you were a competing adult, this was one of the three worst feisanna we have ever attended. Incidents like Detroit's inexplicable removal of Adult Open/PW levels, however, forced us to rethink our original decision on not ever coming back. If we hadn't gotten in at Badger State, this was plan B for that weekend -- and was only going to be for Devonna and I. |
| St. Louis (Gateway) | The feis was actually good enough that most of Clan Seger wanted to go back. Unfortunately, as a result of the recently-completed Midwest Fleadh, Rachel now has a prior commitment in Listowel, Ireland that weekend. |
| Pittsburgh | We gave them two chances, which was one more than I originally wanted to give them. We have better things to do with our time and money than spend them here. |
| Nashville (Music City) | Advertised extensively on adult dancer message boards as an adult-friendly feis, so we decided to give them a chance. |
|---|---|
| Dallas (Texas State Championship & Feis) | Once I realized this was a 15-hour drive from Dayton and the family saw the competitions offered, we were interested. Very interested. |
| Atlanta (Peachtree) | Drake School adults were talking this up at Charlotte last year, and we like competing in the Southern Region. It gives us another |
| Akron | Was our first feis two years ago, but a prior commitment prevented us from going last year. This year, everybody else wants to compete here since the weekend's free. I'll take them, but won't be competing myself for reasons I'll be outlining in my eventual review. |
| Milwaukee (Badger State) | Rebekah lobbied hard for this one when the brochures showed up at school. It's new for this year, has Trad Set and Treble Reel for Rebekah, Music comps on Friday night, and three levels of adult competition. |
| Oakville, ON | A short-notice addition when we realized we would be very close on our return from the Fleadh Cheoil na h'Eireann at the proper time. |
If a Feis Isn't On This List...
...it means Clan Seger didn't go to it! That doesn't mean there aren't reviews on it, though: this site contains reviews of various feisanna across North America which are submitted by the dancers who participated in them. The review format is different from mine, but as I sort of said above: things that impacted or concerned the Segers might not be things that would impact or concern others.
If you have attended a feis that isn't on either site, I urge you to participate. Many eyes make light work, and together we can all improve feisanna for everyone who goes.
ObCYA
The opinions and evaluations expressed in these reviews are solely those of this reviewer. They are NOT the opinions or official positions of either:
- the North American Feis Commission (NAFC),
- the Irish Dance Teacher's Association of North America (IDTANA) or any of its regional sub-entities,
- the Celtic Academy of Irish Dance, or
- any of the numerous people, committees, or facilities referenced in these reviews.
Any questions?