the swords are really gone

I don't see why this is such a question... the blade/bladedancer has been around since at least the Complete Bards Handbook (1992) and yeah it's crazy epic

They've gone too far.

RAH RAH RASPUTIN, LOVER OF THE RUSSIAN QUEEN!

Almost any Shaw Bros kung fu movie from 1970s or 1980s was as much dance as fight. My favorite is “The Buddhist Fist”. Plot is ridiculous but the fight scenes are magnificent!

rasputin is a bard makes so much sense

sword dancing is surprisingly common in some cultures

The answer to ”How would that work?”, when relating to bards is generally ”Magic, silly!” or sometimes ”Silly magic!”.

In a Pathfinder Game I told the GM I wanted to play a sword dancing bard. She used the power of dance plus swords in combat. We also house ruled that you need to see her instead of hear her for bardic inspiration.

Surprisingly it just works.

Monk/Bard would be scary.

Um, College of DANCE you mean...