What is a Feis?
How to enjoy and surivive your first Feis
How to surivive and enjoy your first feis A Feis (Irish word for festival, pronounced FESH) is an Irish Dancing competition. They are noisy, hectic, exciting, fun and tiring (not just for the dancers!).
Feiseanna (plural of feis) are run by dancing schools, sometimes just for their own dancers called 'Class Feis', but mostly they are open to dancers from other schools, called 'Open Feis'. They are usually held in schools or sports centres and can have hundreds dancers or more!. They are a wonderful place to see lots of dancing, meet friends, hear live musicians and look at stalls selling all sorts of things to do with ‘Irish dancing’ and even have your photo taken in order to capture that special moment. To get the most out of the experience you need to be organised, flexible and patient as they often run late!
Entering a Feis
To be eligible to compete in most feis your teacher needs to be registered with the organisation to which the Feis is affiliated. and your teachers feel that you are ready. Being ready to compete is an achievement in itself!
Once you are entered there are a number of things you can do to get ready;
'Always Dance as if the whole world is watching you'
Feiseanna (plural of feis) are run by dancing schools, sometimes just for their own dancers called 'Class Feis', but mostly they are open to dancers from other schools, called 'Open Feis'. They are usually held in schools or sports centres and can have hundreds dancers or more!. They are a wonderful place to see lots of dancing, meet friends, hear live musicians and look at stalls selling all sorts of things to do with ‘Irish dancing’ and even have your photo taken in order to capture that special moment. To get the most out of the experience you need to be organised, flexible and patient as they often run late!
Entering a Feis
To be eligible to compete in most feis your teacher needs to be registered with the organisation to which the Feis is affiliated. and your teachers feel that you are ready. Being ready to compete is an achievement in itself!
- Feis details are shown on the Feis & Oireachtas calendar page so you need to check regularly for updates.
- In the UK entries are usually submitted by post with all the dancers from a school being entered on one form, signed by the teacher.
- You will need to pay in advance, by cheque, a fee of generally between £2.50 & £3.50 for each dance you enter. There will also be a small entrance fee which sometimes you pay in advance and sometimes you pay when you get there. The fees go towards the running costs of the feis, which can be very high. They usually sell programs at the feis which list all the dancers in each competition and these are useful for getting to know the names of dancers in your age group (and what school they dance for).
Once you are entered there are a number of things you can do to get ready;
- Practice your dances! You will probably also have the opportunity to practice feis etiquette (bowing to the adjudicator etc.) at a lesson before your first feis.
- Decide what costume you will wear and make sure it is ready. Some Feis's allow you to wear solo costumes while others will only allow you to wear class costume
- For girls, decide what you will do with your hair. It is customary, but not compulsory, for it to be curly for feiseanna, (speak with your teacher for more information). If you are going to curl it, it may be a good idea to have a trial run beforehand.
- Make a checklist for everything you will need to bring and start to gather up things on it. For some ideas for a checklist . It can be useful when you compete in a lot of feiseanna to have a 'feis bag' in which you keep packed all the things you only use for feis.
- Make sure you know where the feis is and that you have directions how to get there. It is a good idea to have a map as backup if you are using directions from the feis information in case of diversions or other problems.
- Have a look, if you can, at the feis syllabus (the document with all the information about the feis, usually on the calendar page). This will give you more information about finding the venue, catering arrangements etc. plus it will say who the musicians and adjudicators (judges) will be, if this information has been made available.
- Sometimes your competition number – a piece of white card with a big black number on - will be sent to the dancing school before the feis. If you are given this - look after it carefully - you cannot dance without it!.
- Finally remeber most of all enjoy it, don't go out chasing medals, go out to win yes, but take the loosing with grace and as long as you have danced your very best, hold your head up high and work hard for the next Feis.
'Always Dance as if the whole world is watching you'
