Ending The Week at The Hawaii Gardenia Circle Anniversary Ball

Being American style social ballroom and Latin dancers, Lani and I weren't sure what to expect going to an International style dance club function. We've gone to other clubs' functions of this sort before and came away less than satisfied because although the smooth dancing music played was there, the full range of Latin dancing was lacking. I can understand that because most International style dance clubs do not teach Mambo, Salsa, Merengue, and Bolero, or West Coast Swing. But tonight, the music man was Henry Lee and he played the best all-around dance music for smooth and Latin dancing. Even including Hustle. Now how can any dancers sit throughout each upbeat music unless they ran out of gas?

Lani and I got to the Palladium a little after 7. We met Reggie Gascon and Gayle Kawahakui who greeted us on the stairway and thanked us for coming to their dance. Met Edith, an old friend from our IBDC days at the door. Our presale tickets were waiting for us at the reception desk. Met some acquaintances from our HBDA days and Al Franz, who taught us the Bolero many moons ago, as Lani and I got on the dance floor for the Rumba. The International Rumba music has a slow tempo, too slow for dancing the American style Rumba, so Lani and I danced the Bolero.....and the Cha Cha, East Coast Swing, Waltz, (up tempo) Rumba, and the Merengue. We had to pace ourselves because we did a lot of non-stop dancing the night before at the Rockin' 50's Concert. However, I did participate in the Horseshoe ice breaker dance because they were short of men. Other friends...Richard and Lynn Nakamura, Tom and Bunny Yoneyama, Teruko and her partner (his name escapes me for the moment) stopped by to say hello. Jessie from the musical Gonzales Combo and his partner Nona sat with us.

Refreshments at the intermission was onolicious seasoned noodles with two good size pork hash, and hot beverage, juice, or water. Just enough to satisfy any senior age dancer. Got to have a conversation with Lester and Henrietta Muramoto before going back to dancing.

Now for the show part. There were two exhibition dancing and the mock competition featured dancers showing their skills in the five standard dances. (Hopefully, Calvin Ota will share his views and photos of the dancers in Town Dancer). They were all topnotch dancers...everyone of them...but one couple stood out among the other competitors because they brought showcase entertainment that wowed the audience along with their skillful dancing. Found out their names are Sergio and Renna and with the loud applauses they got, we should be seeing more of Sergio and Renna in the near future. (see photo)


We chatted with Joe Martel a little before leaving the Palladium. Hope you got your ice cubes, Pepe! Anyway, it turned out to be a fun week for Lani and me...Shooting Stars at the Diamond Head Theater, dancing at the Rockin' 50's Concert, and lastly finding a new venue for dancing and entertainment at the Hawaii Gardenia Circle events.