Harp, belly dancer and fire juggler.

[Ken H.]

Hi Curly!

[unknown-user]

Hi Ken,

Good of you to check in with me! Hope you are well!

Well, firstly, I took John’s advice and put my foot down about the times…insisted that I have a firm start and finish time as said I had another engagement in the evening…which was a fib, but thought it necessary. They agreed to have me for an hour and a half before the dancer arrived.. which seemed more logical. So, I did not play in her breaks. And when she arrived I was so glad that I had done this, as she seemed to have an immensley flexible idea to times…arrived late, was not ready to perform, and 20 minutes later when I’d packed up the harp and said my thankyous and goodbyes, she was still not ready to perform, drinking champers and socialising….hmmmm. I would have been playing for hours extra!

They must have realised I was a bit cranky, as they paid me on arrival without a problem. And were attentive, made sure I had water, and kept offering me food in my breaks. Really lovely older women that had lived a life on the land. I was playing a selection of classics, when one woman came up to me in the middle of Clair de lune and said in a loud voice “you don’t just play classical do ya??” And I stopped and said no, I played jazz standards and some folk. And she said in determined

[unknown-user]

Hi Ro –

I’m so glad it went well.

[Leigh Griffith]

Hi Curly,

I’m glad it went well! My hubby and I have the same problem in our
respective businesses. We tend to want to be a bit too reasonable with
clients. My husband agreed to do barter with a client in exchange for
work on a laptop, then it was two laptops, then it was, “Where’s the
network card that was with it?” (neither of us remembers seeing a
network card), then it was, “There was a flash drive in it” (there
wasn’t that we saw), we bought ‘replacements’ so he would quit calling
about them, then the kicker was he figured his very rough carpentry
skills were worth $20.00/hour. We ended up paying him!

My bad was selling a quilt and then backing down when the buyer balked
at the 5% sales tax! I mentioned it to a friend and her response was,
“You WHAT?”

Live and learn,

Leigh

[barbara-low]

Enjoyed reading about your adventure, and glad it turned out well for you, too. Sounds like it was fun.

[Ken H.]

Hi Curly!

I’m so happy you survived, you are a real professional!

[Elizabeth Volpé Bligh]

If you had your Kim Robertson books with you, did you play “Oopla”? That one always reminds me of a belly dancer. I would have been tempted to pretend I had misheard them and show up with all kinds of ballet music. “Oh! I thought you said BALLET dancer!!” There was a great skit on SNL many years ago in which Steve Martin, dressed in tights, parks cars while he spins, leaps and poses. Valet parking=ballet parking; wonderful visual pun.

[unknown-user]

..now I wish you had have told me that before the gig! I could have ripped into the Nutcracker cadenza as she

[unknown-user]

Thanks Carolyn,

Yes, I know not all you bellywood gurls are not unreliable! I think its a Tasmanian thing, some people just seem to work on “island time”.

I did see a connection – in that context – of belly dancer and harpists. It was a womens association, honouring women in rural communities. And both are considered

[Cheryl Roeske]

I am a harpist and a belly dancer (I’d prefer to call it Raks Sharki which is the proper name for it). I’ve done shows with a dance theater in Germany playing Salzedo’s Night Breeze, and Scherezade. Belly dance with the harp is very beautiful especially if done with a veil.

[unknown-user]

Hi Cheryl,

Thanks for that! I’m glad that the Raks Sharki dancers of the world are not cross with me for being cheeky! When you say Salzedo’s Night Breeze, I assume you mean from his short stories in music? I did consider his Salomina from the Pathfinder,

[Author]

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