Feis Report Card

Clan Seger Feis Reviews. Sometimes late. Never imitated.

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:

Italics denote a competition only done once or twice a year
Name Age Dances in Non-Dance Comps
Ges 44 Adult Open/Prizewinner
Adult 2-hand
Parent/Child		 Singing
Soda Bread
Devonna %# Adult Open/Prizewinner
Parent/Child
Adult 2-hand		 Soda Bread
Photography
Rebekah 12.5 Open/Prizewinner
Parent/Child		 Soda Bread
Rachel 11.5 Novice (except for Open/PW Reel)
Parent/Child		 Singing
Soda Bread
Luke 8 Novice
Parent/Child		 Family Equipment Manager
Soda Bread

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

Okay, so where are those wacky Segers going to this year?

Subtractions
Dallas Originally intended as part of this season's Southern Swing. We decided not to enter to give Rebekah's persistent (Oireachtas-induced) foot injury more time to heal
Syracuse, NY (Bob Gabor) There was actually serious thought to come here again. When we decided to go to Twin Cities, we scheduled a local activity for this weekend and got caught flat-footed with a prior commitment when Twin Cities cancelled.
Buffalo, NY We said we'd try it once. We never said we'd try it again. June's busy enough anyway with Indianapolis moving forward one month on the Midwest schedule.
Dayton Was going to dance here since I'm no longer on this committee, but the Peter Smith Feis that weekend had a much more meaningful adult competition.
Cincinnati Replaced in favor of the Peter Smith Feis because we assumed they were going to do to adult competitions what everyone else in the Midwest was doing.
Albany, NY Actually a good feis, but we needed to clear the schedule around the local County Fair and the kids' 4-H projects.
Great Lakes Rachel's rough treatment at the hands of Tabulation last year finally achieved what no adult dancer at this feis ever accomplished in competition. I'm mailing my trophy back rather than defending it.
Kansas City If we were heading west for our vacation this year, we would have gone here again. This year, we're headed south instead.
Minnesota Feis It was rough to leave for this feis a week after we had returned from our big yearly vacation last year.
Wanted to But Couldn't
Nashville We were actually signed up, but had multiple medical crises at Clan Seger World HQ in the week prior to us going. Given the Blizzard of 2006 started winding up around then, it's debatable whether we would have made it through Kentucky had we attempted to go.
Twin Cities We were intrigued by the prospect of a springtime Minnesota feis, enough so we opted to put it on our schedule instead of Syracuse. For whatever reason, it got cancelled for this year :-(
Rochester, NY With Indianapolis moving up a month, this weekend was free. We were seriously considering going here as an Oireachtas-qualifying contingency for Rebekah, but their feis committee this year was missing in action until late May.
St. Catharines, ON Our intended July feis if IDTANA-Midwest had changed Oireachtas eligibility requirements. Given the anticipated schedule for our County Fair, it's doubtful whether we would have actually been able to go.
Orlando, FL (South Florida) One of the reasons we chose Orlando after Labor Day for the annual vacation was the possibility of dancing at this feis. Unfortunately, the feis site was going to be two hours away from our villa (earning a veto from everyone except me) on an Atlantic coastal island (earning a veto from me based on when the Atlantic hurricane season statistically peaks).
Additions
Little Rock We had originally ruled this feis out because of IDTANA-Midwest's refusal to allow Southern Region feisanna to count for Oireachtas qualification. Rebekah, however, wanted her first post-injury feis not to be Queen City. We've been thinking about coming here for years anyway.
Somerset, NJ (Peter Smith) Ran an Adult Championship competition last year. Since everybody except Detroit, Lansing, and Cincinnati seems to think the standard Midwest Syllabus only allows two levels of adult competition, Devonna and I would rather go someplace worth dancing this particular weekend. It's also a qualifying feis for Rebekah and the Oireachtas, too.
Binghamton, NY (Southern Tier) The weekend was free since we weren't going to Great Lakes, and we felt Rebekah needed a contingency feis for her Oireactas eligibility.
Dayton, OH (Gem City) Clan Seger normally opts to work here instead of compete, but Rebekah was told by her instructors that she was required to dance here this year. I may dance myself if there is a dedicated Adult Open/PW level
Blasts From The Past
Crescent City (formerly Feis Louisiane) At its 2005 convention, the NAFC voted to hold this feis in Memphis during its usual weekend and use the proceeds to help New Orleans area dancers affected by Hurricane Katrina. I sort of hold a Perpetual trophy from the last time this feis was held.
Detroit The kids have done well here before, and we needed an extra Oireachtas qualifier for Rebekah.

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:

I almost promoted Cincinnati on the strength of their new stage schedule, but decided against it after further review.

I'm also aware I had promoted Louisville once previously (2003), but keep in mind I rescinded it because of their choice and usage of facility. That problem solved itself last year.

Honorable Mention: Cincinnati, Cincinnati (Queen City). 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! If you're looking for information on feisanna not visited by Clan Seger, consider the following alternate sources of feis info:

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:

Any questions?