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Peter Hartjens and Constance Hope,
transplanted bureaucrats from Washington, D.C., moved to St. Michaels,
Maryland in 1999 to do “something” that fulfilled their dream
of being in business together and would be fun and exciting at the same
time. After an extensive search, they opened Tidedancers. The name Tidedancers
was inspired by the words of the Garth Brooks song “The River”
which challenges us not to “sit upon the shoreline and say we’re
satisfied, but to choose to chance the rapids and dare to dance the
tides.” Tidedancers captures their dream of doing something radically
different together in addition to observing the nautical traditions
of the Chesapeake region.
Inveterate shoppers, Constance and Peter love to travel,
seeking out the elegant, the unusual and the beautiful as they go from
one exotic place to another. In their travels, he for the United States
Agency for International Development (USAID) and she for the World Bank
Group, Peter and Constance have toured and shopped in Europe, Asia,
South America and Africa. A native of Liberia, West Africa, and a professor
of African History for 16 years before joining the World Bank, Constance
brings both experience and taste to the identification of high quality
items from her continent for the Tidedancers collection. Peter is just
hopeless. He will buy anything for the store that he finds cool and
which he would like to have personally.
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It would not be much of an exaggeration to state that
Tidedancers is the product of their case of galloping consumption. Or,
as Peter is wont to say, “We had so much stuff, we had to buy a
store!” Peter and Constance currently live by the rule “One
in, one out.” If they buy something for the store, but it ends
up driving down St. Michaels road towards home, then something has to
be identified for the return trip before the new item can leave the
car!
Life is good in St. Michaels. Come on down and see what
the all the fuss is about. You may not leave, but then that’s OK.
Neither did we.
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