Sheahan-Gormley/Orange County Feis Recap
Pro tip: It's probably not the best idea to decide to go to a feis the week of, but here we are.
Last weekend I decided nearly at the last minute, aka Tuesday evening during my regular solo class, to go to the Sheahan-Gormley/Orange County Feis (seriously, I don't know what name to call it - it's one thing on FeisWeb, another thing on Facebook/Twitter, and both on the NAFC website). It's run by the same people who run the Big Apple Feis in Manhattan, which is notoriously under-staffed. This feis I feel has a similar problem (one of our school's moms had to step in to help out all day), although due to the fact that it is much smaller, it's not as serious an issue as at Big Apple.
Venue
The feis was supposed to take place at the Monroe-Woodbury school, but unfortunately some last-minute issues with the venue caused the feis to be moved to another high school 20 minutes away. Hopefully, some of the issues that I felt arose from this venue would have been different at the original location.
Getting to the feis without a car wasn't too strenuous, although I would certainly recommend driving or hitching a ride (like I did on the way home). From New York, it was simple enough to take NJ Transit/Metro North up to the closest town, and catch a cab from there. "Fun" fact, even though the station is a Metro North station, everything is run through NJ Transit.
Due to the very small size of the school (I honestly think the elementary school I went to as a child is bigger), there was not a lot of space out in the halls, which led to the very well-enforced camping rules. I don't know if the organizers had gone around earlier in the day to really enforce it, or if families were self-policing, but either way it worked. There were a couple of side hallways that were set aside for camping, as well as certain areas in the gym, and everyone stayed within those areas. Vendors were in the main halls, which were a little tight for space but not uncomfortably so.
The championship stage was in the cafetorium (for those of you who went to much fancier schools, it's a cafeteria combined with an auditorium; basically a cafeteria with a stage in it). The gymnasium was on the other side of the stage (walled-off), and was where the other 3-4 stages were for grades.
The atmosphere in the cafetorium was actually a lot more focused than any other feis I've been to, possibly because it was so separate from the rest of the feis. Even dancers who were getting ready in the room seemed more attentive than usual to the competitors on stage. I actually spent a decent amount of time watching other dancers while I was getting ready, which oddly helped me focus more.
The gym was a lot more crowded, especially earlier in the day. Thankfully I wasn't competing there, but I did go to watch my fellow adult dancers compete in grades. I was standing as close to the stage as you could get without actually being on stage, and it was very difficult to hear the music, mostly because you could hear the music coming off of two other stages at the same time. I saw more than one dancer get confused, which to me is a clear sign that something needed to be reconfigured. Again, I understand the venue change was last-minute and that may have contributed to the issues, but I would have hoped they could have had a contingency for that as well.
Competitions
I only competed in the adult championship (2 rounds), although they did have grades for adults as well, separated by level. There were only 5 adults total in the entire feis, including both grades and championship, so I personally felt that entering grades wasn't worth it, especially considering I entered last-minute and there were no other novice competitors.
We had three competitors in adult championship, which means, paraphrasing from my 13 year old cousin, at least everyone gets a trophy! Even though there was such a small number of competitors, it still felt decently competitive on stage, which probably had a lot to do with looking down from the stage at the panel of judges. For the music, there was some slight noise coming from the gym on the other side of the wall, which did cause me to have to strain more carefully for my own music, but after watching grades competitions, I think we got off light in that regard.
Personally, I danced fairly well, especially considering that I only decided to go four days before. I did notice one thing, that I think contributed to my overall placement at least a little bit, is that I let one of my competitors control the stage rather than taking the front myself. I guess I would generally consider myself an aggressive dancer - not in the sense that I will purposely run into people or anything like that, but that generally, if I'm dancing, I will project a large presence and take to the front definitively - but when I'm dancing at the same time as someone who is at a higher level than me, or who I perceive to be much better, I won't push to the front as much, or I'll move behind them rather than in front if we're heading towards a collision. I'm glad I figured that out at a low-key competition, so that I have time to work on that before my next feis.
Awards
Last weekend I decided nearly at the last minute, aka Tuesday evening during my regular solo class, to go to the Sheahan-Gormley/Orange County Feis (seriously, I don't know what name to call it - it's one thing on FeisWeb, another thing on Facebook/Twitter, and both on the NAFC website). It's run by the same people who run the Big Apple Feis in Manhattan, which is notoriously under-staffed. This feis I feel has a similar problem (one of our school's moms had to step in to help out all day), although due to the fact that it is much smaller, it's not as serious an issue as at Big Apple.
Venue
The feis was supposed to take place at the Monroe-Woodbury school, but unfortunately some last-minute issues with the venue caused the feis to be moved to another high school 20 minutes away. Hopefully, some of the issues that I felt arose from this venue would have been different at the original location.
Getting to the feis without a car wasn't too strenuous, although I would certainly recommend driving or hitching a ride (like I did on the way home). From New York, it was simple enough to take NJ Transit/Metro North up to the closest town, and catch a cab from there. "Fun" fact, even though the station is a Metro North station, everything is run through NJ Transit.
Due to the very small size of the school (I honestly think the elementary school I went to as a child is bigger), there was not a lot of space out in the halls, which led to the very well-enforced camping rules. I don't know if the organizers had gone around earlier in the day to really enforce it, or if families were self-policing, but either way it worked. There were a couple of side hallways that were set aside for camping, as well as certain areas in the gym, and everyone stayed within those areas. Vendors were in the main halls, which were a little tight for space but not uncomfortably so.
The championship stage was in the cafetorium (for those of you who went to much fancier schools, it's a cafeteria combined with an auditorium; basically a cafeteria with a stage in it). The gymnasium was on the other side of the stage (walled-off), and was where the other 3-4 stages were for grades.
The atmosphere in the cafetorium was actually a lot more focused than any other feis I've been to, possibly because it was so separate from the rest of the feis. Even dancers who were getting ready in the room seemed more attentive than usual to the competitors on stage. I actually spent a decent amount of time watching other dancers while I was getting ready, which oddly helped me focus more.
The gym was a lot more crowded, especially earlier in the day. Thankfully I wasn't competing there, but I did go to watch my fellow adult dancers compete in grades. I was standing as close to the stage as you could get without actually being on stage, and it was very difficult to hear the music, mostly because you could hear the music coming off of two other stages at the same time. I saw more than one dancer get confused, which to me is a clear sign that something needed to be reconfigured. Again, I understand the venue change was last-minute and that may have contributed to the issues, but I would have hoped they could have had a contingency for that as well.
Competitions
I only competed in the adult championship (2 rounds), although they did have grades for adults as well, separated by level. There were only 5 adults total in the entire feis, including both grades and championship, so I personally felt that entering grades wasn't worth it, especially considering I entered last-minute and there were no other novice competitors.
We had three competitors in adult championship, which means, paraphrasing from my 13 year old cousin, at least everyone gets a trophy! Even though there was such a small number of competitors, it still felt decently competitive on stage, which probably had a lot to do with looking down from the stage at the panel of judges. For the music, there was some slight noise coming from the gym on the other side of the wall, which did cause me to have to strain more carefully for my own music, but after watching grades competitions, I think we got off light in that regard.
Personally, I danced fairly well, especially considering that I only decided to go four days before. I did notice one thing, that I think contributed to my overall placement at least a little bit, is that I let one of my competitors control the stage rather than taking the front myself. I guess I would generally consider myself an aggressive dancer - not in the sense that I will purposely run into people or anything like that, but that generally, if I'm dancing, I will project a large presence and take to the front definitively - but when I'm dancing at the same time as someone who is at a higher level than me, or who I perceive to be much better, I won't push to the front as much, or I'll move behind them rather than in front if we're heading towards a collision. I'm glad I figured that out at a low-key competition, so that I have time to work on that before my next feis.
Awards
The general awards aren't nearly as cool as ones for the Big Apple Feis, which is entirely expected and I'm sure also relieving to parents who are running out of room for those damn apples, they're just feis-standard medals. For championship, however, holy cow are those big trophies.
I ended up tying for second place in my competition, which was both disappointing and relieving - disappointing in the sense that I wanted to place second outright, relieving in the sense that at least I didn't come in third outright.
For me, the best part was finally getting up on the podium! It's probably a bit silly to be this old and get excited over something like that, but I can't fix how I feel!
Again, I'd just like to point out how monstrously big those trophies are. Standing on the ground, it comes up nearly to my waist. A ridiculous number of people both on the subway and in my neighborhood (including a bunch of dudes in front of one of the bodegas I pass by on the way home) congratulated me - for what, they had no idea, but they knew a big trophy is worth congratulations!
It literally dwarfs every other trophy I have, and kind of also dwarfs my tv. My teacher thought I won first place when he saw the thing. I could probably go on about how almost obnoxiously large this trophy is, but I think the point has been made.
Overall, I did have an enjoyable time at this feis, but considering the distance and low turnout for adults, I probably wouldn't make the trip again unless I was traveling with others, and/or driving up. It has a lot of great potential, and hopefully it runs much more smoothly when there's not last-minute venue changes on top of everything.
I ended up tying for second place in my competition, which was both disappointing and relieving - disappointing in the sense that I wanted to place second outright, relieving in the sense that at least I didn't come in third outright.
For me, the best part was finally getting up on the podium! It's probably a bit silly to be this old and get excited over something like that, but I can't fix how I feel!
580 results pic.twitter.com/6UuXao4VOK— Orange County Feis (@OrangeCoFeis) May 7, 2016
(Me on the podium, finally! Check out that smile!)
Again, I'd just like to point out how monstrously big those trophies are. Standing on the ground, it comes up nearly to my waist. A ridiculous number of people both on the subway and in my neighborhood (including a bunch of dudes in front of one of the bodegas I pass by on the way home) congratulated me - for what, they had no idea, but they knew a big trophy is worth congratulations!
It literally dwarfs every other trophy I have, and kind of also dwarfs my tv. My teacher thought I won first place when he saw the thing. I could probably go on about how almost obnoxiously large this trophy is, but I think the point has been made.
Overall, I did have an enjoyable time at this feis, but considering the distance and low turnout for adults, I probably wouldn't make the trip again unless I was traveling with others, and/or driving up. It has a lot of great potential, and hopefully it runs much more smoothly when there's not last-minute venue changes on top of everything.
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