Rehearsal Photos (Updated 5:00pm)

Rehearsal photos from Centennial Theatre yesterday. It's going to be a great show on Saturday! (Click to enlarge any image).

Check Out the Silent Auction on Saturday!

EBIDS is hosting a Silent Auction on Saturday during the NPIDA Celtic Celebration at Centennial Theatre. EBIDS and the Silent Auction Coordinators (Leanne A and Barb P) would like to thank everyone who generously donated items and cash for this fundraiser!

Doors open at 1:30 and at that time the Silent Auction bidding begins. Bidding will close during intermission; make sure to head back to the lobby during intermission! Winners' names will be posted at the Silent Auction table. All items must be picked up by the winners before leaving the theatre after the show.

Here are some of the Silent Auction items you could win:

- $150 gift card for NPIDA
- Gift cards and Lexi-luu dancewear from SophiaBella Tween Clothing in Edgemont Village
- Floe Fitness boot camp session
- Cosmetic Gift Basket: 3 Chanel nail polishes, Chanel Chance body lotion and 3 lip glosses, valued at $150
- Cosmetic Gift Basket: Kiehl's bath and body products, valued at $160
- 2 Cineplex movie passes
- Gift Basket from Murale at Oakridge Centre: cosmetics/skincare
- TNA hoodie
- Stella and Dot jewellery, valued at $100
- Autographed picture of Brent Seabrook - Chicago Blackhawks 2010 Stanley Cup Champions, priceless!
- Assortment of Irish Bubble Socks
- Gift Basket of kids books, valued at over $100.

Interesting Blog Statistics! (*Edited)

Edited May 17: For your interest, I've added a Blogger "gadget" over on the right hand side which shows a running total of the all-time page views of this blog. (Look under "About This Blog" up near the top).

As the moderator of the Pickett Line Blog, I'm able to access a lot of statistics about the viewing of the blog, for example: posts with the most number of "Page Views" etc. Frankly I had mostly ignored checking the blog statistics until I got curious and had a closer look today. (For those of you who know me, you won't be too surprised to hear that I haven't paid much attention to a tab labelled "Statistics")!

I'm rather tickled to discover these statistics about the Pickett Line Blog:

Recent popular posts:
Feb. 20/11 post about Shannon at All Irelands: 178 page views
Apr. 17/11 post about our dancers at Worlds: 92 page views
Mar. 29/11 post about Courtney's engagement: 81 page views
Apr. 21/11 post about Catalina competing in Berlin: 76 page views

Countries Where This Blog Was Viewed From:
Canada: 53,469 times
USA: 4,545 times
Germany: 435 times (hi Claudia!)
UK: 335 times
Ireland: 145 times
Singapore and Malaysia: 169 (hi Lisa!)
Interestingly, there have also been blog views from The Netherlands, Australia, India and Iran! (who knew!)

Page Views By Operating System:
Windows: 60%
Mac: 31%
iPhone: 3%
iPod: 3%
iPad: 1%

Page Views:
Total Page Views Today: 107
Total Page Views Yesterday: 318
Total All-Time Page Views: 60,908 (!!!)

I guess these statistics answer the question that I have occasionally wondered; "Is anyone reading this thing?" Thanks - I know you are! To all of you who have offered such wonderful feedback about the blog since its inception, I offer my sincere appreciation!

Clip art from Google Images.

Eire Born at Capilano Mall

Back row: Esme, Rachel, Laurel, Mackenzie and Maria. Front row: Taigen, Gemma, Alannah, Emma, Olivia, Camryn and Anna

Anna

Anna, Camryn, Laurel and Mackenzie

Laurel

Esme, Taigen, Emma and Alannah

Mackenzie

Olivia, Gemma and Anna

Eire Born at Capilano Mall

Eire Born in perfect formation! May 14 2011

Thanks to all the Eire Born dancers who performed at Capliano Mall yesterday! Thanks to Rachel (team captain) as well as Andrea C and Emma M (tech liasons with the in-house sound crew). All photos by Jennifer R - thank you!

One Week 'Til The Show!

"Cotton Eyed Joe" -  2010 Ceili

"Capone" -  2010 Ceili

- have you checked the list of costumes and fees that Nora sent via e-mail on May 12? Please pay all costume fees during class this week.
- do you know what time you need to be at the rehearsal at Centennial Theatre on Wednesday?
- parents: do you have your tickets yet?

All information about costumes, the rehearsal and the show can be found in the "Dancer Info" section of the NPIDA website: www.eireborn.net

Let's have some fun next Saturday - see you there!

Photos from the 2010 Ceili.

Technical Difficulties - All Better Now

You may have noticed that there were problems with the blog since yesterday, and my most recent post (see below - Hebert family photos) was missing over the past 1-1/2 days. This was all due to widespread technical problems at blogger.com. ALL blogs hosted by blogger.com were having problems, and apparently ALL blog posts since Wednesday were temporarily removed by blogger.com (imagine how many hundreds of thousands that must have been!)

The technical difficulties appear to have been fixed, so everything here should appear back to normal. (Go ahead and leave a comment for the Heberts now if you like!) Thank you for your patience.

Clip art from Google Images.

Hebert Family Dublin and Paris Photos

Rosalie, Jessie and family members in Dublin

Rosalie, Scott and Jessie in Paris

At the Champs Elysees in Paris

Jessie at the Louvre in Paris!

Scott and Jessie sharing a laugh at dinner in Paris

Thank you to Scott and Rosalie (Jessie's parents) for sharing these great photos taken during their family trip to Dublin for the 2011 World Championships, and their subsequent sojourn to Paris.

NPIDA in Feis America Magazine

Coco and longtime NPIDA friends, July 2010

Eire Born Shamrock Troupe at Rosewood Manor, March 2011

The May-June 2011 issue of Feis America magazine has started arriving in subscribers' mailboxes this week. There are several mentions (and photos) of NPIDA dancers in this issue:

1. In the Feis Follow Up section, there is a 2-page article about the Van Eire Feis. Article by NPIDA's Maeve M and photos by Cheryl G.

2. There is a feature article about supermodel and former NPIDA dancer Coco R; written by Feis America staff writer Kate E, with input from Moira S. Photos by Moira S and Linsey H, including photo #1 above; left to right: Natalie P, Devon H, Kelly D, Coco R, Hanna S, Natalie S and Kali M. The article is question-and-answer style with Coco.

3. In the March Madness Photo Contest (2011 St. Pat's photos), the 1st runner-up photo is of Eire Born's Shamrock Troupe, performing at Rosewood Manor in Richmond (see photo #2 above, by Moira S). Dancers, left to right: Hanna S, Lauren N, Mikaela P, Shannon G, Morgan G, Jessie H and Jadyn M.

4. In the First Feis section on the final page of the magazine, there is a photo of Leila K at her first feis last summer in Seattle; photo submitted by Nora.

More Victoria Feis Photos

Nora and Jadyn



Sage with her 1st Feis medals

Sage: 1st in the U-6 1st Feis Trophy Dance

Leila: 2nd in her Adv. Beginner Treble Jig



Sage and Leila in their "Tacky Tourist" costumes



Mckenna in action

Sage in action at her first feis

Courtney helping with Sage's hair

Sabine in action



Sabine and Leila in action

Thanks to Sue (photo #1), Nora (photos #2-5), Krista (photos #6-8) and Marion (photos #9-10) for these photos taken at the Victoria Feis! The "Tacky Tourist" competition (photo #5) was a trophy dance on Sunday open to all ages - Sage won 1st place.

The 4 "action" photos were taken by OnSight, the professional photographers at the Victoria Feis.

Ads for Ceili Program

The 12th annual Ceili/NPIDA Year-End Show is fast approaching: Saturday May 21! As noted in Nora's e-mail of April 29, as in past years we are accepting ads (business and personal) for the 2011 Ceili progam.

The deadline for ad submissions is this coming Saturday May 14. If you own a business or work for a company that might like to submit an ad for our program, please submit it this week. As for personal ads, you are welcome to submit an ad for your dancer(s). (Please; no full-page personal ads for individual dancers). The entire Ceili program will be printed in black and white; please note that non-professional photos generally do not reproduce well. If you absolutely want to include a photo in your ad, please ensure that it is very high resolution. Otherwise, please stick to text only.

You can submit your Ceili program ads to me via e-mail at pickettlineblogAThotmail.com. You can also give a paper copy of your ad to Paula at the North Van studio, or Christine B at the Richmond ballroom. All business ads must be print-ready. As for personal ads, print-ready is best but please e-mail me at the above address if you need some (very basic!) help formatting your ad.

Prices for ads are the same as in prior years (please note 2 minor corrections below from the prices stated in Nora's April 29 e-mail). All ad proceeds go directly towards paying for the cost of printing the program; any surplus ad profit goes to EBIDS.

Business Card: $10.
1/4 Page: $15.
1/2 Page: $20.
Full Page: $30.

Thanks and we'll see you at the Ceili next weekend!

Victoria Feis Results: Sunday

Sophie and Catharine: They have both advanced to Prelim!

Today the Pre-Beginner to Prizewinner dancers competed at the Victoria Feis. Congratulations to all the NPIDA dancers! Thank you to Catharine A for submitting this photo of her and Sophie! Parents - please submit your Victoria Feis photos for the blog at pickettlineblogAThotmail.com.

Courtney has advised by e-mail that, based on their results today, we have 3 new Preliminary Championship dancers! Big congratulations to Sophie R of North Van, and Catharine A and Mckenna L of Richmond! Courtney also mentioned special congratulations to Sage L, who won 1st-place medals in both of her 1st Feis solo dances as well as 1st place in the U-6 1st Feis Trophy Dance and 1st place in the "Tacky Tourist" Trophy Dance!

Here are all the NPIDA trophy dance results from today;

1ST FEIS REEL TROPHY
U-6
Sage L: 1st!

NOVICE/PRIZEWINNER TREBLE JIG TROPHY
U-8
Kyla F: 1st!
Mckenna L: 2nd

U-11
Sophie R: 2nd

U-13
Rhiannon M: 4th

NOVICE/PRIZEWINNER TREBLE REEL TROPHY
U-10
Mckenna L: 3rd

12+
Rhiannon M: 2nd

PALADINI MEMORIAL BEG/PRZW REEL TROPHY DANCE (All ages)
Mckenna L: 1st!

TACKY TOURIST TROPHY DANCE (All Ages)
Sage L: 1st!
Kyla F: 2nd

COSTUME TROPHY DANCE (All Ages)
Mckenna L: 1st!

ART COMPETITION (All Ages)
Leila K: 3rd (tie)
Kyla F: 3rd (tie)

Scroll down to the post directly below for 10 more Victoria Feis photos from parents, taken on Saturday during the Prelim and Open competitions.