Saying Goodbye to Philippe

Before P left, we had a party with the music group and the dancers to say goodbye. Every two weeks, the main dancer holds a dance workshop at his home, where anyone who so wishes can turn up and learn a few traditional dancers. Usually, a couple of musicians from the group turn up as well - whoever's available, really, not usually P and I because it's a bit far away. This time, we rescheduled the workshop so that everybody could be there. We played the pieces we felt like playing, rather than the pieces the dancers felt like dancing, and sang a few popular songs together as well.

  

P's going-away present was a Mahorese percussion instrument made out of bamboo strips with seeds inside that rattle when you shake it. Now, the group as a whole has its work cut out: we have to replace P's accordion and guitar playing with the instruments we have. One of the accordionists has now started playing rhythmic chords, and I've started jazzing up the pieces we play using the violin. P says he'll try to come back for when we play at the annual folk ball or for St Patrick's Day, but we have a lot of work to do in the meantime. Underneath is a photo of the dancers, it's really nice playing for them because they're happy dancing and don't seem to mind the odd wrong note or mistake.