Dance Las Vegas 2012

Aloha Dancers! Lynn Nakamura, President of Dance Magic 808, has got a good handle on the Dance Las Vegas event. So please read and enjoy her wonderful write-up that follows. I'll just add the photos........

Hi Everyone, We had such a great time at the International Ballroom Dance, Inc.'s (IBDI) and Dance Magic 808's 1st Las Vegas Dance Event on Sat., May 19, 2012 in Las Vegas. Everyone who attended had so much fun socializing, eating (delicious buffet), watching the performers, participating and dancing. General dancing started at 6pm and continued throughout the evening before dinner, during dinner, and after the exhibitions.

The dance was held at Sam's Town Hotel & Casino in the Red Rock Room and our Master of Ceremonies was the President of IBDI, Chris Jay, who did a very good job as our MC.

Welcome address was made by Chris Jay and yours truly. I was kind of nervous because it's not my thing to be up there giving a speech. I'm usually the one behind the scenes making sure everything is running smoothly. I get nervous just dancing in front of people (it doesn't look like it but I do) so to speak in front of everyone, makes me even more nervous since I don't feel confident speaking in front of a crowd. I had my notes so this is how it went: Chris Jay made his welcome address and called me up to the podium to do my welcome speech. I welcomed everyone to IBDI's & Dance Magic 808's 1st Las Vegas Dance Event and thanked everyone for coming and said," we know that you'll all have a great time eating, dancing and socializing". I also mentioned that I wanted to take this opportunity to thank a few people in advance and to make two announcements. I thanked Dance Magic 808 members, Sandy Hamasaki, who helped with the dinner ticket sales and also thanked her husband, Roy Hamasaki, who helped us with arranging the Vacations Hawaii package for most of the attendees and for providing transportation to/from the hotel to the dance function by driving his van back and forth. He made sure that everyone had transportation to/from the dance function.

A big "Mahalo" was given to UNLV Dance Coach, Gail Michael-Parsons, who provided most of the dance music for the evening. Our music man's flight was delayed so he could not be there from the start when the doors opened but was there just before the performances started around 8:30 pm. My 1st announcement was to remind everyone about Dance Magic 808's 1st Anniversary Ball on Friday, July 6, 2012 and that we hoped that all of them could attend and advised them that the deadline for ticket sales is June 1st.

The 2nd announcement was that we wanted to "Congratulate Bob & Elsie (McGrew) Oyama" who just got married on May 18, 2012 in Las Vegas, a day before our Las Vegas Dance Event. Their wedding ceremony at the Chapel of Flowers was beautiful with a few close friends and relatives. Since they did not have an opportunity to have their first wedding dance, we asked them to come up and dance their wedding waltz. They did an American Waltz to Edel Weiss. It was such so nice to see two people in love dance for us. Some of you may know Elsie because she's Dance Magic 808's volunteer line dance instructor. She and Bob were just dance partners but now they are lifelong partners. Congratulations again to Bob & Elsie!!! Next, Marsha Ninomiya, 1st Vice President of IBDI, came up to the podium and gave a beautiful invocation that it brought tears to my eyes, because I felt so much love and support for us and for everyone. Everyone enjoyed the delicious buffet and just enjoyed socializing.

Next, our MC, Chris Jay, started the program around 8:30 pm. He introduced Andy & Monica Pascuas, Dance Magic 808's Volunteer Instructors who teach the American Style of dancing and also teach the Filipino Tango. They are long time dancers and instructors and are currently choreographing a group mambo routine for Dance Magice 808's 1st Anniversary Ball. Andy & Monica did a lively American Cha Cha with lots of spins. Everyone enjoyed their dancing. Thank you Andy & Monica!!!

Next, we had an impromptu dance by Robert & Vanelle Hirayasu, another volunteer instructor from Dance Magic 808. They did a very romantic Argentine Tango. Thank you Robert & Vanelle!!!

Chris introduced our final solo couple, Joshua Manzano, Dance Magic 808's volunteer instructor who will be next year's Team Captain of the UNLV Rebel Dancesport, and Sonya Petkova. They both competed in 3 competitions this past semester at UCSD, UCR (winning numerous awards at Deser Callenge hosted by UNLV. They took 3rd place in Viennese Waltz, 2nd place in Foxtrot, Waltz, Cha Cha, Samba & Open Merengue, and 1st place in American Tango, American Bolero, Quickstep, Tango, Rumba, Paso Doble & Open Night Club 2-Step. Unfortunately, Sonya was in New York and was unable to perform with Joshua so Polina Petkova graciously agreed to perform with Joshua at the dance. Polina Petkova is the President of the Rebel Dancesport and she coordinates all the social dances and organizes their events. Joshua & Polina demonstrated the exciting and dramatic American Tango. The crowd was really impressed by these young performers. Thank you Joshua & Polina!!! The evening didn't end yet as we had one more entertainment and it required everyone's participation; it was called the Wild Wild West Mixer.

We called everyone to the dance floor and the only requirement was that they bring a partner. Richard Nakamura gave the instructions and we showed everyone what to do. We did the steps a few times before we actually put on the music. It was a lot of fun. We had 2 circles, men on the inside facing out and women on the outside facing a partner. We would run through the steps and at the end the steps we would end up with a new partner and continue dancing the steps again.

Everyone all moved to the right and ended up with a new partner after a set of steps were performed. The song was about 5 minutes long. At the end, everyone was laughing and saying how much fun it was. You had to be there to really enjoy all the fun that everyone had. The mixer ended the formal part of the program and Chris & I gave our thank you to everyone that helped to make this dance a very successful and enjoyable event. Here is a list of the people that were acknowledged:

DJ, Allen Amazaki and his wife, Chudy. She sang a song for us. Reception Desk ladies - Charlene Jay & Vanelle Hirayasu Marsha Ninomiya for the beautiful invocation UNLV Dance Coach - Gail Michael-Parsons for bringing some dance music Roy & Sandy Hamasaki - Vacations Hawaii Package, transportation, and ticket sales All the dancers that performed and we thanked everyone for coming. I did thank our Chris Jay for being our MC and for doing a great job. If we forgot to acknowledge someone, we apologized and said that we appreciated everyone's help. One person that was not mentioned at the dance was Nancy Shen, who we want to thank for getting the tickets printed and the programs printed on such short notice. She was just awesome and was able to get the programs to us in time. Thank you so much!!! As the evening came to a close there were so many people at the end of the dance. I guess everyone was having such a good time that they didn't want to leave. We all eventually left. Some of us changed our clothes and went straight to the slot machines. Some of us were lucky but most of us just enjoyed donating our funds to the casinos. All in all it was a very enjoyable dance event and the whole trip to Las Vegas was a lot of fun. There may be another Las Vegas trip being planned for the end of April 2013. More details will be announced later. For those of you who attended this year's dance event, thank you so much for coming and making it a successful event and we hope that you'll join us again next year for an even bigger and better dance event and trip. For those of you who were not able to make it this year, we hope that you'll be able to join us next year. Mahalo to all of you for all your support. Lynn A. Nakamura President, Dance Magic 808 www.dancemagic808.com cell 808-372-2256

Aiea Ballroom Dance Association 57th Anniversary Ball

WOW! 57 years and still counting and still going strong, too. I won't go into the history of the Aiea Ballroom Dance Association but I gotta mention that it is the oldest non-profit dance organization in all of Hawaii Nei. What a treat it was last Saturday for those attending the Anniversary Ball. And there were more than 400 dancers. (How you figgah that, Frank?) Well let's do the math. Rudy Luat the Prez of Pan Pacific Ballroom Dance Society (dis guy gets around helping other dance clubs besides his own) ordered 400 bentos and they were all gone by 6:30P and still more dancers were coming thru the ballroom door. There were no showcase of exhibition dancing on the program. Prez Deanie Bates said, "it's a night to have fun and celebrate the Anniversary with more time for dancing." I believe that the 400 plus dancers were in full agreement with the idea of more dancing time cuz they sure looked a happy bunch.

Climbing up the stairway, I was greeted by Herbert Omizo (here's another guy who really gives a hand in supporting the dancing community). He's made a lot of contributions for door prizes and this time it was a table full of potted gardenia plants.

My presale tickets were waiting for me at the Reception Table. Happy people wearing a smile were busily checking in the guests and handing out tickets for the door prizes.

Lucky dancers who held presale tickets made a bee-line for the bento. It's no wonder cuz the onlicious bento was dished out by some happy people, too.

Prez Deanie Bates personally greeted everyone that came through the entrance of the ballroom with a hug and a few happy words.

I wasn't sure at first who the VIPs were that night but one thing is sure...if the VIP Table is manned by important people as John, Sue, and Harriet, the VIPs gotta be "persons of interest".

I'm glad DeeJay Bert Burgess dug deep into his awesome collection of good dance music and played them at the Anniversary Ball. The music was suited for everyone....both International style and American Rhythm. Dat's cool!

Dancers were just getting warmed-up as they trickled onto the dance floor. It didn't take long before the entire ballroom floor became filled with a sea of dancers.

EmCee for the evening event was the "small package" but dynamic Kay Yahiku. You know...da gal with the big voice and who can talk anyone into volunteering to start in the "Snowball" ice breaker dance. Dat's what she done to me and I was glad to oblige...and so did over a dozen couples gladly. With a short introduction of some important people, the calling of lucky ticket numbers for the door prizes followed.

Prez Deanie Bates gave the Welcome Message and introduced the Presidents, Representatives of the various dance clubs, and owners of professional dance studios who were present. Now they gotta be the VIPs.

Another bunch of VIPs were introduced. But this time they are the staff of dance instructors for the Aiea Ballroom Dance Association with Dance Director and DeeJay Bert Burgess. Then it was time to stretch the legs and get the seat-warmers and everyone else onto the dance floor. You know...the "Snowball" dance is getting to be much more fun now that the good ole Waltz is put on the back burner for a while and replaced with the good fun and energetic Cha Cha. It turned out to be a classic evening of fun dancing for everyone. (Left click on photo to zoom in)