Competitions at the feis

SOLO Most Dancers take part in several different competitions at a Feis and some Feis have more than others to take part in. Generally the dancers do the following SOLO dances :
Light (or Soft) shoe REEL SLIP JIG LIGHT JIG SINGLE (or HOP) JIG	Heavy (or Hard) shoe HEAVY JIG HORNPIPE
Normally, in the Solo competitions, each dancer dances a dance that has been choreographed by their own teacher to include as much difficulty and grace as possible. There is usually a LIGHT TROPHY competition where sometimes a Reel *has* to be danced and sometimes the dancer can choose any soft dance that they have already done. There is also a HEAVY TROPHY where sometimes it *has* to be the Jig and sometimes you can choose to do the Hornpipe instead. There are also TRADITIONAL SET DANCE (TSD) competitions at some Feis. Sometimes there is also a Treble Reel Competition, which is a Reel danced in Heavy shoes
SET DANCES There are several Traditional Set dances performed at Feisanna, the most common being the St. Patricks Day and the Blackbird. These are all Heavy shoe dances. The set dances are performed with exactly the same steps by every dancing school so are a very good way for adjudicators to compare dancers. Sometimes Open Set dance competitions are held as well. (see below)
CHAMPIONSHIPS In Open grade (Click here for Grades system) the Trophy Competitions are replaced by CHAMPIONSHIPS where the dancers do both a Light and a Heavy dance in the same competition. There are different types of Championships, which are dependant on the Age Groups and number of judges. Usually there are three Judges and they each score each dance separately, (using a complicated scoring system) and then all the scores are added together. Then a number of dancers, perhaps the top 30/40% (depending on numbers) are called back for what is known as The RECALL. The dancers then perform one of a defined group of dances called Open Set Dances. For details of these see Set Dances These are heavy shoe dances and can be Jigs or Hornpipes. The dancer will be expected to dance a Jig if they performed the Hornpipe in the first competition and vice versa. These dances are then scored again to decide the winner. The younger dancers do two light shoe dances instead of a heavy shoe dance but the competition is run in the same way. This is the way that all the major events are run.