Riverdance

So have you heard of Riverdance? You know, the Irish dancing, jigging, musical number that tours the globe? I had heard of them, but had never watched or listened to any of it personally. Well, that changed after Chris got a call from the composer of Riverdance a few weeks ago, asking if he could help him find local musicians who played traditional instruments to accompany their shows here in the city. Chris was easily able to connect them with some musician friends and has now been hired to translate for the musicians at their practices, concerts and a video recording.

So, before they arrived we borrowed a friend's DVD of "Best of Riverdance" so we could familiarize ourselves with it. The opening night is tonight and it will run for another 6 nights. Chris is enjoying it immensely- loving being able to use his love of language and music to do something like this. And it is a great opportunity to meet people both locally and international. ANOTHER really fun thing he got to do was this:

Chris' upright bass had its public debut, along with the Irish fiddles, saxophone and some kind of Irish bagpipes that you pump with your elbow. And the Chinese dulcimer. So, as Chris pointed out, it is a good thing he got this very-large-in-a small-apartment instrument. He is already quite good at playing it.

He got to know some of the musicians during practice and they actually have a lot of time on their hands in between shows and wanted to jam together. So Chris and 2 of his band mates played with 3 of the Riverdance musicians at an Irish pub last night. I was able to find a sitter and several of our friends went too. It was lots of fun, even though the Riverdance musicians came over an hour late (almost upsetting the pub manager into thinking they weren't really coming) and they all decided it was too noisy an atmosphere for great jamming. However, I think everyone enjoyed it.

Chris is getting a couple of comp tickets, so are going to the show next week. Fun.