Clan Seger Feis Reviews. Accept No Substitutes.
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), everyone in Clan Seger competes on Feis day. The crew this year consisted of:
| Name | Age | Dances in | Non-Dance Comps |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ges | 43 | Adult Open/Prizewinner Adult 2-hand |
Singing Instrumental (piano) |
| Devonna | %# |
Adult Open/PW Parent/Child Adult 2-hand |
Soda Bread Photography Instrumental (Hammer Dulcimer) |
| Rebekah | 11.5 | Split Novice/Prizewinner Parent/Child |
Soda Bread |
| Rachel | 10.5 | Novice (except for Open/PW Reel) | Singing Soda Bread |
| Luke | 7 | Advanced Beginner | Family Equipment Manager |
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? This is a critical factor when you have to juggle schedules for five competitors. |
| 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
I had a sedate, ten-feis schedule originally planned out prior to the 2004 Midwest Oireachtas. When Rebekah got so close to recalling in her year group, she and Devonna got severely overmotivated.
| New Orleans (Feis Louisiane) | Cancelled :-( |
|---|---|
| Atlanta (Georgia State) | Needed the weekend for the Louisville Feis. Recent rules changes for Oireachtas eligibility discourage Midwesterners in Open/PW from going to the Southern Region anymore. |
| Washington, DC (Nation's Capital) | We may need this weekend for a Midwestern Feis. See previous subtraction for why. |
| Longs Peak | I got outvoted by the rest of Clan Seger. |
| Acapulco, MX | Too far for even me to drive (never thought you'd see THAT on this website, did you?). We also could never find airline connections that met our budget, much less maximized the probability of our luggage arriving at the same place we did. |
|---|---|
| Emmittsburg, MD (Comhaltas Irish Festival) | A Southern Region feis on Memorial Day, which was a fallback option if Rebekah still needed to get a dance out of Novice. We almost went anyway just for the Adult Treble Reel :-) |
| St. Catharines | Heard good things about this feis from people who had been there, and it's halfway between Indianapolis and Columbus on the schedule. It's also been a couple of years since we've been to a Canadian feis, eh? Unfortunately, recent rules changes for Oireachtas eligibility discourage Midwesterners in Open/PW from going to Canada anymore. |
| Youngstown | Looking at their website for last year and talking to school dancers who were there, this feis has made tremendous improvements since we last attended. It's also a week before Staten Island, which means we can sort of leisurely make our way east for the better part of the intervening week and make a vacation of it. After lots of thought and prayer, we decided to go a different direction for the big family vacation/feis trip. |
| Staten Island, NY | Devonna and I had gotten numerous good reports on the Adult competitions offered here. It's in the Mid-Atlantic region, which means it counts towards Rebekah's Oireachtas eligibility. After lots of thought and prayer, we decided to go a different direction for the big family vacation/feis trip. |
| Dayton (Gem City) | A new feis in our home town, at which we were intending to work until a cousin decided to get married on that exact day. I hope you're happy, Rich... :-) |
| Charlotte (Rince na h'Eireann) | It was our traditional season-ending feis for years. With Devonna scheduled for surgery on her right eye two days before, we'll have to pass. |
| Houston, TX (New Year's Feis) | Because Rebekah and Devonna demanded I put it on the schedule. Devonna even offered to slide |
|---|---|
| Dallas (Texas State Championship) | Front-loading the feis schedule with Southern Region trips to give Rebekah a chance to get her remaining two steps out of Novice |
| Syracuse, NY | Wanted to do some feisanna out east this year, wanted to do a feis in April, and Rebekah was on a mission. This feis met all those criteria. |
| Buffalo, NY | Our original intended introduction to the Mid-Atlantic Region. We're still planning on it because Rebekah is on a mission. |
| Indianapolis | I'm from there, and we skipped that weekend last year. Rebekah is also on a mission. |
| Kansas City | New Midwest Feis over Labor Day weekend, same time as the Staten Island feis. I had originally thought of this as a stepping-off point for Longs Peak the next weekend, but I was the only family member who wanted to go to Colorado again. That was until everyone else pointed out the advantage of getting the feis out of the way at the beginning of the vacation. It's also kind of part of an Irish Festival that weekend... |
| Feile Minnesota | We had skipped that weekend last year for reasons best explained there. This year, Rebekah's on a mission. |
Recommended
I've discovered over the years that certain feisanna consistently rate well every time we've gone to them. Since it doesn't make sense to repeatedly cut and paste from the previous year's review, I've set up a list of feisanna which I can recommend you consider for attendance. This year, they are:
- Indianapolis
- Columbus
- Feile Minnesota
Honorable Mention: Nashville, Cincinnati, Louisville. Barring unforseen catastrophe, they should be promoted next year.
If a Feis Isn't On This List...
...it means we didn't go to it! When I started doing this many moons ago, I linked to another review site in a slightly different format than mine so there would be more than just Clan Seger's opinions (and feisanna) available to the online Irish Dancer. I have since been informed that the other site is no longer online, so I propose the following challenge to the online ID community:
- If you know of another feis review site out there, drop me a URL.
- or, write your own review! Hey, if I can do this, anyone can.
Since I posted the above challenge last year, it appears Feisworx may have sort of taken me up on it. For feisanna they manage, they provide a feedback form for dancers and parents to fill out on a particular feis. It's not as public as a feis review site, but the comments still head straight to the target committe.
Clan Seger can't go to every feis out there (even though it seems we do). Many eyes, however, lighten the workload across the continent for all. Together, we can improve feisanna for everyone.
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 Irish Dance Teachers Association of North America (IDTANA) or any of its regional sub-entities
- the North American Feis Commission (NAFC),
- the Celtic Academy of Irish Dance, or
- any of the numerous people, committees, or facilities referenced in these reviews.
Any questions?