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Re: Dancing Harpists?

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Home Forums Coffee Break Dancing Harpists? Re: Dancing Harpists?

#111039
unknown-user
Participant

I’ve danced in the morning when the Ren Faire was begun…

There I was at the Maryland Renaissance Festival as a street musician (subbing for a guit-picker) in full skirted garb with a tiny harp snugged in a knotted shawl to play standing up (this was pre-harpsicles), when fiddler Cathy Palmer says, “Oh by the way, Mary, we have a dance routine for this set of tunes..” “We WHAT!?! says I?” Sure, says she: step, step, step, turn twice, step, step, step, slide right, slide left, repeat… All this instruction while jamming on dance tunes with half the harp tuned in one key, the other half in the upcoming key, finding the chords on the fly by ear.

Not quite like Monty Python’s Yellowbeard (stagger, stagger, crawl, crawl), but it sure felt like it at the time.

Fun, though. Yes, all those lessons at junior high cotillion came in handy. You never know what will be useful, you never know where your career might take you. Being able to count, having a good sense of rhythm & timing from dancing – perhaps think of it as cross-training for musicians.