| When: | January 14th, 2006 |
|---|---|
| Where: | Hilton Memphis East Memphis, TN |
| Competitors: |
Ges (dancing) Devonna (dancing) Rebekah (dancing) Rachel (dancing) Luke (dancing) |
| Why We Went: | It was on our way back home from Houston/Galveston. |
| Previously Reviewed: | 2004 |
FOREWORD
This feis was originally the Feis Louisiane and Lagniappe, last held in New Orleans in 2004 and since reorganized under different management. After Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005, it became impossible to run this feis as originally planned. At their national convention, the NAFC voted to move this feis to Memphis and run it as a fundraiser to help out Irish Dancers displaced by Katrina.
ORGANIZATION
WHAT WENT RIGHT
- The committee ran a well-stocked silent auction all day (and all night). Some of the things offered (such as the design and creation of your own solo dress and the prepaid registration for both the Badger State and Cream City feisanna) were really clever.
- Contributions and sponsorships were actively solicited nationwide to pay for adjudicators and musicians, so other money collected could go to the feis' intended purpose
WHAT WENT WRONG
- The web sites seemed weak on the usual details I like to see in advance of a feis, such as adjudicators, musicians, or quirks of the surrounding highway network.
- Turnaround times with emailed questions to the committee were a little too long for my liking. Given the highly unusual nature of this feis, I can forgive them this point because of the stress under which they had to be operating.
- The number of vendors was a little on the small side, but could be forgiven considering the circumstances surrounding this feis
- The times listed for various competition blocks in the feis program bore little resemblance to reality on feis day.
GRADE
SCHEDULING
WHAT WENT RIGHT
- Same stage scheduling for almost all solo competitions. Some of the Adult competitions (especially Open/Prizewinner) moved between softshoes and hardshoes to rebalance the stages.
- A lot of adult figure competitions
- Every level, youth and adult, had a special trophy competition of some sort. The one for Adult Open was a Waterford Crystal bell
- Competition levels were run just like at Houston the week before: Beginners first, then Non-Champions, the Prelims and Champions.
- Mass and ceili scheduled for after the feis.
WHAT WENT WRONG
- There were some competitions in the U12 and U14 age groups which could have been split into single-year age groups. All three Clan Seger children were in very large competitions even for an off-season Southern Feis because the Southern Region splits age groups on two year intervals.
- The Non-Champion Treble Reels should have been run before the Prelim and Champion competitions started instead of at the end of the night
GRADE
FACILITIES
WHAT WENT RIGHT
- A ballroom with four stages in the middle
- An adjacent ballroom was set up as the vendor's area and silent auction site.
- Two sets of bathrooms were real close to the feis ballrooms
- There was plenty of space to get warmed up for your competition
- Water service was good all day
- Mike Shaffer was set up along the back wall between two of the stages so he could play for all four of them. No problems with sound interference or headaches here. It did look like he was playing in a roll cage, though, which led us to wonder if he was expecting hard shoes to be thrown at him :-)
WHAT WENT WRONG
- The hotel staff's safety training needs serious work, judging from the lack of help or information we got from them when the building had to be evacuated for an elevator fire late in the afternoon.
GRADE
OPERATIONS
WHAT WENT RIGHT
- Instead of the usual tabulation/results posting/awards operation one finds at feisanna, this committee took a great leap back to how things used to be run years before Riverdance. The adjudicator presented awards and comments to dancers after each competition. It made for a much, much longer day -- but I don't have the heart to score this as a What Went Wrong. We all liked it here at Clan Seger.
- Follow-on corollary to the previous point: adjudicators did award Honorable mentions to those who almost placed
- The committee realized during opening ceremonies that they hadn't gotten anyone to do the Irish National Anthem. They had the presence of mind to ask for a volunteer, and the good fortune of having an adult dancer in attendance who just happened to know it in English :-)
- A big kudo to the stage monitor on the Adult Open stage for getting the adult open hornpipe competition checked in and run before it could be disrupted by two unethical instructors and their student (more on them below). I'm glad somebody else recognized what was happening was wrong.
- The committee took the initiative in evacuating the feis site when the hotel staff proved inadequate for the occasion. The evacuation itself was handled in a calm and orderly fashion, which flowed from how the committee announced what was happening and ordered what to do next.
WHAT WENT WRONG
-
As the music started for the Adult Open Treble Jig, a dancer that had been competing in novice earlier in the day ran into place in our competition and danced it with us. Her instructors had decided in mid-feis that she could be moved up a level. Just so you're all clear on what went on, she wasn't changed before her first competition that morning -- she was changed on the spot at 2:00 PM. The stage monitor had absolutely no clue what was happening, because she was never brought into the loop. While technically within the letter of this feis' rules as written, this was a serious abuse of their intent -- and just plain wrong from a moral standpoint. The feis committee, however, stuck to the literal interpretation of their rules.
Judging from my conversation with this dancer's instructors, neither the intent of the rules or the morality of their own actions ever occurred to them. If you're from the Southern Region, pray that these two individuals do not represent your region's future.
GRADE
AFTERWORD
Given the noble cause for which this feis was being run, the response of the Irish Dance community nationwide could charitably be described as "underwhelming." Devonna was actually ashamed to be an Irish Dancer, because she felt that more people should have come -- or failing that, more schools and feis committees should have been more supportive with their money and resources. A big thumbs-up from Clan Seger to those of you who did show up or provide something of use for this feis.