Feis

***BELT INFORMATION***


Gerry Campbell Perpetual Senior Belt 2010 hosted by Feile Samhain in Portland Oregon on Oct 30-31, 2010

Robert Garbor Perpetual Junior Trophy 2010 hosted by Feile Baile Ros in Windsor, Ontario on August 14, 2010

George Sweetnam Perpetual Minor Trophy 2010 hosted by Chicago Autumn Feis in Lynwood, Illinois on November 6th, 2010

Judges for 2010: Marie Moore, NJ, Noreen Smith, MA, Maureen Green O'Leary, MA, Noreen Melvin, MA, Kathleen Keady, NY, Erin Pender LeVine, CT, Maureen Cunniffe, Ireland, Michael Meehan, Ireland, Musicians: Billy Furlong, Nial Mulligan, Michael Fitzpatrick, Karen Conway, Kevin Forde "THE FEE FOR CHAMP HARD SHOE IS $8"

ADDED COMP #409 17+ (408 IS UND 17)

***2010 Feis Syllabus : Click HERE**

 *GYM & SMALL AUDITORIUM SCHEDULE (all times approximate)*
9AM Novice Boys & Girls in Gym and Small Auditorium
Following Novice in Gym will be Open Champion Hardshoe round
comp #'s 450/452 J combined, 453 HP, 454 J, 455 HP
11AM  Traditional set in GYM
12:30PM  Prizewinner Boys & Girls in GYM
1:30PM  Pre Beginner/Beginner Boys & Girls in SMALL AUDITORIUM
2:30pm  Open Champion Hardshoe round Comp#'s 460 J, 461 HP, 458 J
459 HP, 456 J, 457 HP & Prelim comp# 348
3:30PM  Adv Beginner Boys & Girls
Following Adv Beginners will be Comp # 404 Open Champion girls 

***2010 Feis Preliminary and Open Championships Approx. Schedule Click Here**

***Dresses for sale on photo page***

Local Hotel info
Farmington Courtyard by Marriott
1583 South East Rd.
Farmington, CT 06032
860-521-7100

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IN HOME DANCE FLOORS:  If interested email Shamrockbarry@comcast.net

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A Little History of Irish Step Dancing

By many accounts, the modern form of Irish dancing dates back to the appearance of Dance Masters about 1750. Forerunners of today's Irish dancing teachers, they typically traveled within a county, teaching their repertoire of dance steps and participating in competitions with other Dance Masters. Each step is eight measures or bars of music, hence the term step dancing.

Beginning dancers first learn the soft shoe dances. Girls and women wear soft shoes, or gillies. Boys and men usually dance the soft shoe dances in shoes with hard soles. All dancers use hard shoes with a sort of tap on the toe and heel for hard shoe dances.

Students soon learn two steps for the reel and two more for the light jig. Both women and men dance the reel to music in 4/4 time. As students advance and learn more complicated steps, the dance takes on lots of kicks and leaps. The light jig, and another soft shoe dance, the single jig, are danced to music in 6/8 time. The graceful slip jig, danced only by girls and women, is in 9/8 time. In the tradition of the dancing masters, each Irish dancing school develops its own steps to be used in each of the dance types.

After a student has mastered several soft shoe dances, s/he moves on to learn hard shoe dances such as the hornpipe, treble jig, and traditional set dances.

Competition is a major component of today's Irish dance world. A competition is known as a feis (pronounced "fesh", plural feiseanna, "fesh-anna") and usually sponsored by a local dancing school or Irish cultural association. Dancers advance to participate in regional competitions known as Oireachtas(pronounced "o-rach-tas") and at the highest levels to the World Championships in Ireland (Oireachtas na Cruinne). While competition among the young dancers is keen, the bottom line is that for each of them Irish dancing is FUN, and a link to their Irish heritage.

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