The Feis

Two of the kidlets competed in the Pacific Northwest Championships held in Seattle this past weekend. The weather was absolutely gorgeous even though we spent Friday afternoon driving north and were inside most of Saturday. We had an impromptu picnic out in the courtyard of the Hilton to take advantage of the blue sky and sunshine. We've had way too much rain and wanted to enjoy a little bit of the turn in the weather.

Finn was dancing first on Saturday. Hubby managed to get on the first flight out of Dallas and show up minutes before Finn's competition was to take the stage. It truly made Finn's day. He was upset thinking his dad would miss it. Finn danced two dances, the light jig and the single jig. He finally learned a hard shoe dance, but wasn't ready to compete. He won a third place with his light jig. He was the only boy in his competitions. Again.

Though there were more boys competing at this feis. Talented ones. It was great for Finn to see them dance. One, Owen Barrington who is 23, won the World Champions this spring. He is incredible to watch. As hubby says, the guy is the total package.

On Sunday, I talked to Owen about boys and Irish dancing since I really would like to keep my son interested in it. He answered my questions and was so nice. I'm totally impressed by Owen's dancing, but his graciousness blew me away. Such a great guy! I found this clip from last year about Owen.



As a funny romance aside, Owen competed against his girlfriend, who is also a World Champion dancer, on Saturday. She won! He came in second.

Later on Saturday, my daughter took the stage. Mackenna danced beautifully. Of course, I'm totally biased. Two age groups were combined for her competitions, but even though she was in the younger group, she placed in three dances, winning one of them. A step closer to her making the Preliminary Champion level! She also won two trophies.

The hardest part came during a hardshoe dance called the Treble Jig. She was dancing great, but the judge looked at her and nerves took over. She forgot her steps and stopped dancing. She tried to get going but couldn't. She bowed and went back to the line. The tears started to fall. It was heartbreaking to watch because there was nothing I could do. Once the dancers were excused, she ran over to me with tears streaming down her face. She still had two more dances left. I hugged her and wiped her tears with my shirt since I didn't have any tissue with me. I asked if she wanted to dance. She nodded with tears continuing to fall and returned to the stage.

The person checking the dancers in for the next dance asked if she wanted to go last. Mackenna said yes. She struggled to pull herself together. She placed fourth in that dance, the Hornpipe, and first in the next one, the Traditional Set. It was hard to see her fall apart like that, but a learning experience nonetheless.

More on the rest of our trip tomorrow!