Results and Goals

Feile Denver.
The venue was great, plenty of stages, plenty of room... the fiddle player left something to be desired (I have the same complaint with him from every feis I have danced with him at - I cringe when I see him next to the stages).  I had a blast with all my dance buddies (thanks for the pics, Stace!)

Cool dude Olivia and I and the cool kids below

I missed it last year with my broken foot and am highly disappointed with this year's results. The recap:
Reel: 5th of 10
Light Jig: 4th of 7
Slip Jig: 4th of 9
Single Jig: 4th of 7
Treble Jig: 5th of 10
Hornpipe: 2nd of 8 (Hooray!)
Trad Set: 6th of 7 (not sure how that happened)
Treble Reel Special: 8th of 21

Despite starting 2 hours behind the original schedule, I felt good when I executed my steps. I thought I danced well, my fellow dancers told me that I looked good, but it all comes down to the subjective decision of the judges and I apparently did not have what they were looking for. 


Hey! thats me :) I felt good when I was dancing... must remember to smile the WHOLE time

Judging is the worst and weirdest part of Irish dance. I mean, places are awarded based on scores from the judges. But, just like in figure skating, gymnastics, diving, etc., the judges scores are all subjective. Based on how they felt the dancer, skater, or gymnast did. Its not based on the fastest time, winning goal, 2 point basket, highest jump, longest throw....
In my B.I.D (before Irish Dance) life, I played soccer. I swam on the swim team. I ran track. I played basketball. All of those activities had a specific set of rules in order to win. Score the most goals. Swim the fastest, run the fastest. Score the most baskets. Simple. Straight-forward. I think the thing I struggle with the most in ID is that I can't please all the judges all the time. I just need to hit the stage every time and do the best I can and hope they score me high enough.

BUT.... there are things I can do to make each dance and each step and each competition better. For me!

So... my goals (since the one comment I got on the results was for my reel : stamina)
Conditioning - running, biking, dancing -- work to build up my endurance
Drills - I know I need to work on turning out my back foot and really loosening up my feet and ankles
Height and Bounce - I dance like an adult. 1 foot off the ground at a time. (Not really) But I do need to work on making my steps bouncier and getting more height on jumps, leaps and other tricks.
Placements - Better placements, but really my ultimate goal would be to move all my dances into Prizewinner by the end of 2011.
4 dances, 3 feisanna, 1 goal...