Forgive me followers for I have sinned – it has been one month since my last confeission. While I had planned to Blog about my experiences at the Louisville, Dayton and Cincinnati feiseanna I can’t. The truth is I did not go to any of them as planned. I had to cancel plans to go to the Louisville Feis because of my work schedule as a part time merchandiser for American Greetings and the Father’s Day holiday took precedence. (After the week I had at that job I’m actually starting a Blog about my experiences there called Seasoned Greetings - coming soon to a browser near you.) The Dayton/Cincinnati weekend was called off to due to being feised out.
I never thought that would happen to either my daughter or me. Both of us love to feis because of the fun aspects of it – hanging out with and seeing friends we’ve made along the way, making new friends and meeting people we’ve met on social media sites. However, after going to seven feiseanna in five months plus an Irish dance filled month of May neither one of us could face another feis. The summer’s here and the time is right for playing in the street and that’s what my daughter decided she wanted to do rather than face a back to back feis weekend - not mention spending 8 hours in the car driving back and forth across the state of Ohio. OK she wasn’t really playing in the street but she wanted and needed to spend time with her neighborhood friends. After all we are feising in Columbus, Ohio and Niagara Falls, NY in August and after three disappointing feiseanna in row it was time for a break. Although even I type this we are mulling over the Rochester, NY feis next weekend so maybe she has come up for air and has enough time off.
My question is how much is too much? My daughter will be nine at the end of this month and only needs her Slip Jig to be in all Open/Prizewinner but do we really need to feis so much given her young age? Maybe. Maybe not. It depends on how much she wants to move up and then the fun really begins. As many of you know in order to get in championship level dancing a dancer has to get first place in all for dances to make the leap. Then you really have to feis in order to get to that level. I’ve different things but I believe the criteria are that a dancer has to get all the firsts within a year’s time. So why not take a break now and then to stop and smell the shamrocks. I have a feeling both she and I will have a renewed feising spirit for it. Until next time – Slainte!
