King O'Sullivan Feis ATL

Hi,

So I am feeling very victorious in a little bit of an 'I don't deserve it' kinda way. I went to Atlanta on Friday, taking a half day off work, and entered a Feis, the last before our wedding.

In case you aren't aware, this word means an all things 'Irish' competition, but most especially, Irish step dancing. I have been dancing for 1 year and 3 months so far and have entered a total of 3 feis. This time I decided to enter the singing competition also, and so entered 4 events, 1 musical and 3 advanced beginner soft shoe dances. These were the reel, the slip jig and the light jig.

I was up against one girl in the singing, and 2 others in each of my dances the competition was few, but not easy.

I find it a strange feeling then to come home with 3 gold medals for dance and a first place trophy for singing, I could have worked harder for it, and I would feel more victorious if there had been more participants, however those I was up against did put up a fine showing, and so I am still proud of having stood out as the winner. The win would ordinarily mean I was ready for novice however there needs to be a total of 5 competitors for the win to matter, so all adult dancers, how about entering a feis or 2 huh?

In the vein of 'I can always work harder' and more in the vein of I wish I had, the results were still wonderful to get. Dana, with whom I have carpooled with to the last 2 feis, got all silver, and one gold, so as we discussed, I am her only hurdle, we are still friends though, safe to say :)and a little healthy competition didn't hurt anyone, next reel step, here I come.

This comes on the heels of a similar win at the last Atlanta feis (all golds in 4 dances) but I really enjoyed the singing portion of it this time. There were mostly fiddle players and another girl from our school Niamh, won the under 13 musical instrument with her rendition of a lively song called Christmas eve. The winner of the over 13 played a large wooden flute, which made the most beautiful sound, I have heard it before in Irish music but didn't know the instrument, but she did a great job, so it was really fun to listen to the few people that entered the music, although I wish there was more to it (i.e. more participants and audience) and that the whole event were more festive, than competitive. I sang a song in Gailge (Gaelic) called Teir abhaile Riu, which means, marry the piper, a song I had performed and may perform again in our dance schools yearly show, called Celtic Rhythms on Fire. It went down well, and I suppose the Irish really struck a chord, and got me the win with the judge.