2020 November Feis has been cancelled due to necessary restructuring and improvements. We're continuing to work on shipping awards and the 2021 calendar.

Age Categories: How does Digital Feis choose acceptable age ranges?

Digital Feis begins with these age categories for each feis:

  • Under 6
  • Under 10
  • Under 13
  • Under 17
  • Under 21
  • Under 25
  • 25 & Over

When we’re gathering entries, our database puts everyone into one of these categories.

Our Head Adjudicator can also see individual ages as of January 1. She looks through each competition to see if any age categories should be split or combined based on number of competitors.

Though any dancer with a score of 80 or above can advance in Digital Feis regardless of competition size, outside organizations require a certain amount of dancers in each competition. We try to combine competitions for the benefit of the dancer — but we need to be careful about combining too large of an age range for younger dancers.

Under the 18–21 Range

Our rule of thumb is to take the age of the oldest dancer, and subtract the age of the youngest. For Beginner and Primary, if that range is 5 years or less, the competition can be combined. If the age range if more than 5 years, the competitions stay separate. For Novice and up, the range may but is not required to be extended to 7 years. Updated September 22, 2019.

Over the 18–21 Range

As adult dancers are often piled together regardless of age, our 5-year rule of thumb doesn’t apply to adults. However, if we were to receive a significant number of entries from adult dancers per competition, we would still assess the need to split age groups. Dancing when you’re 20 is quite different than when you’re 60!

Digital Feis tutorials, results videos, and feis reminders

You can now follow Digital Feis on Pinterest for all things Irish dance. What’s your favorite social media platform? We’re on a bunch:

  • Our email newsletter gives you reminders and feis results, right to your inbox
  • The new Pinterest board is a hub for Irish dancing stuff to make and do
  • Instagram for reminders, 60-second feis results video clips, and general fun stuff
  • YouTube for full results videos and tutorials
  • Facebook and Twitter for announcements, reminders and results videos

Our primary goal in 2019 is to share more — reminders (without driving you nuts), results videos, rulebook updates, and more. (You can also see dated updates at the top of The Rulebook, so be sure to check)

While you’re at it, don’t forget to join us for the 2019 January Digital Feis! We’re crossing our fingers (and our feet) for some team entries. And we always love our solo dancers. Digital Feis Fun Fact: Our biggest registered age group is 11–16 year olds, and our largest level is Novice (Beginner is a close second).

Digital Feis Pinterest Board

Light Jig now available for Prizewinner dancers; traditional set options expanded

In order to assist dancers in four-level organizations reach Championship, we are adding light jig to our Prizewinner options.

Also, we have expanded the level options for the traditional set dances to better suit open platform dancers. As follows:

  • Beginner: St Patrick’s Day, The Blackbird
  • Primary: St Patrick’s Day, The Blackbird, Job of Journeywork, Jockey to the Fair
  • Novice: St Patrick’s Day, The Blackbird, Job of Journeywork, Jockey to the Fair, Garden of Daisies, King of the Fairies, White Blanket, Three Sea Captains
  • Prizewinner: Job of Journeywork, Jockey to the Fair, Garden of Daisies, King of the Fairies, White Blanket, Three Sea Captains, The Hunt (WIDA), The Humours of Bandon (CRN)
  • Champion: Garden of Daisies, King of the Fairies, White Blanket, Three Sea Captains, The Hunt (WIDA), The Humours of Bandon (CRN)

Medals stuck in transit in United States

We apologize for the awards to American dancers that are still stuck in transit during the holiday season. Four of our tracked packages from our September & November feiseanna continue to be marked as not yet delivered. We are working with the postal service on this issue, and will send out new awards if they are not found by the second week of January after the holiday rush quiets a little. Thank you for your patience.

Update December 25: The mystery of two packages have been resolved. Though it was not marked as such in tracking, one was received; the other was returned to sender. Now to track down the other two!

Rulebook Update: Advance by rank as well as score

There are now two ways to advance in Digital Feis: by score and by ranking. We recommend but do not require a dancer to advance by score. Advancement by ranking is based on a balance of the requirements from research into all open platform organizations.

Using scores for advancement

An important aspect of Digital Feis is our emphasis on raw adjudication scores and comments, not just Irish points, for advancement. Dancers earn scores out of 100; these scores are used to advance levels. Dancers are first assessed in Knowledge, Timing, Lower Body Technique, Upper Body Technique, and Presentation, and are given a score out of 20 in each category.

  • 18–20, Outstanding. I have mastered this category, for this dance, at this level.
  • 15–17, Strong Area. I am accomplished at this; it is one of my strengths.
  • 12–14, Satisfactory. I am doing a good job of learning this, and will keep improving.
  • 7–11, Weak Area. I am having trouble with this right now, but I am looking forward to getting better.
  • 0–6, Incomplete or inappropriate. Used when a dancer is dancing unsafely, when a dance is not the required length, or the dancer has insisted on competing in an inappropriate level after being warned.

Using ranking for advancement

  • First Place: Beginner, Primary, and Novice dancers must have 7 dancers in a competition to advance with a first place.
  • Second Place: Beginner, Primary, and Novice dancers must have 10 dancers in a competition to advance with a second place.
  • Third Place: Beginner, Primary, and Novice dancers must have 15 dancers in a competition to advance with a third place.
  • Prizewinner dancers must earn a first place in the following dances in order to advance to Champion, which must have at least 7 dancers in them: two soft shoe dances of contrasting rhythms, two hardshoe dances, and one traditional set.

Teachers and dancers may choose to advance a dancer in the way that most benefits the dancer’s progress and education. We hope this helps our dancers advance in the way they need.

For more Digital Feis rules, see our Rulebook.

Six competitions announced for Digital Feis in 2019

Six competitions have been announced for Digital Feis in 2019. Below, you’ll find a detailed schedule with shortened turnaround times for results and medals to assist you in planning your dancing year.

2019 Entries Due Entries Public Adjudication Tabulation Results Announced Awards Mailed
January Jan. 20 Jan. 22 Jan. 23–26 Jan. 27 Jan. 28 Jan. 29
March Mar. 24 Mar. 26 Mar. 27–30 Mar. 31 Apr. 1 Apr. 2
May May 19 May 21 May 22–25 May 26 May 27 May 28
July July 21 July 23 July 24–27 July 28 July 29 July 30
September Sep. 22 Sep. 24 Sep. 25–28 Sep. 29 Sep. 30 Oct. 1
November Nov. 17 Nov. 19 Nov. 20–23 Nov. 24 Nov. 25 Nov

You can also view our newly-updated Worldwide Open Feis List, which lists open platform Irish dancing competitions hosted around the world.

Keeping track of Digital Feis Irish dancing levels, plus gorgeous new results sheets

Juggling open platform levels driving you crazy? Let us keep track of your Digital Feis levels. Our gorgeous new official records are updated after every Digital Feis you participate in — and shared with you via easy-to-print PDF.

We’ve also given our scoresheets a serious upgrade! No more hard-to-read spreadsheets: look at these gorgeous things! So pretty.

They even include enough of a margin to hole-punch and put in a binder. If you don’t think that’s exciting, well — it’s at least super convenient.

February Digital Feis wraps up, April’s coming up fast

Whew! February Feis is judged, medals are shipped, and we’ve just sent out our February Feis survey — which we’ll be doing after every event. Did you compete in February? Take our survey here:

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I’m beat, but I always feel good after running a feis. Every event is a chance to learn something new for a dancer, and that’s definitely still true for myself and our judges.

How well are we communicating a dancer’s needs? We want a dancer to walk away from this experience empowered to make change. They should feel secure about where they are, and where they can go.

How was the process? Tutorials for recording and sharing videos are still on our always-extending, never-ending to-do list. There are lots of things I’d like our website to do, and every feis, we get one step closer.

How useful is this for the open platform and independent Irish dance communities? The more dancers that join us, the better the odds of having enough dancers per competition to advance a level in an outside organization. Many independent schools have found their way to Digital Feis — they’re actually our biggest group — and I’m so happy they’re feeling confident here. Independent schools are often removed from open platform competition hubs, so Digital Feis is a great way to stay connected with others.

What are your thoughts? Anything we could do better? Join the Digital Feis Community on Facebook to ask questions or share your system. Faster turnaround time for results is big on my list, and we have a few new judges lined up for training later this year.

Ashley

Find your June, July & August feiseanna — and make sure Digital Feis is one of them

There are so many summer feis options for open platform and independent Irish dancers! (We’ve only seen one winter feis for our Australian friends so far; make sure to add Digital Feis to your winter calendar.)

Don’t miss the next Digital Feis on August 24

Date Name Location Organization
August 24 2017 August Digital Feis Anywhere you want it to be! Independent

This quarter’s Digital Feis is due on August 24, 2017. We’ll start taking entries on August 1, but you can start planning and recording any time before the due date.

Looking for a live feis near you? Here’s the list of live events we’ve collected: Continue…