Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Weekend Ramblings…Mother's Day

We meet the most interesting people while the kids are performing different venues. These "chance" meetings often result in some great musical fun. This past Saturday was no exception. Haley and Dylan had a gig playing two shows for an Irish music dance school in PA. They were to play a set for the school to dance along to live and then do a couple other sets throughout the show to give dancers time to change costumes, set up the stage, etc…

We arrived early for a rehearsal since they'd not played the music for the dancers so timing needed to be worked out and they needed to know when to come on and when to play. After all the rehearsing, we went backstage to the "green room" where we met a former lead Riverdance dancer, Jason. He was also doing similar to Haley and Dylan, a couple numbers on his own, but also dancing along with the dancers for a couple of their numbers.

Jason is also a co-founder/co-director of the new group, Hammerstep, which combines Irish dance with tap, hip hop, and other styles of dance. His solo numbers included beat boxing with Irish dance and he asked Haley if she'd like to join him on one and combine her fiddling with his beat box and dancing. They worked on putting something together for a few minutes and decided they could pull it off for the first show. (I didn't do such a great job capturing it but you'll get the idea…my first attempt at recording video with an iPad. Sorry.)



The shows were well put together and the dancers talented. They were huge productions with costume changes and props. Between shows we were fed and were able to meet and talk with a number of the dancers. It was an enjoyable day!

Last weekend I was sick so we didn't make it up to Brian for a fiddle lesson. We decided to drive up on Mother's Day…because what else would I want to do but listen to Irish music on Mother's Day? Haley and I enjoyed the day together with a drive, a lesson, and a session afterward.


My Mother's Day gifts? My husband gave me a clean house and the soup I ordered, plus the iPad. Newt gave me a funny card and frozen Snicker's Bar. Dylan left me a lovely heart felt post on Facebook. Haley made me homemade, gourmet, chocolate-covered strawberries, and other hand-made gifts (Irish breakfast tea bags with little hand-made tags, a sweet card, a jar with many reasons why she loves me inside, and some scrapbooking stickers. I am a spoiled mommy!

No comments: