Tuesday, August 07, 2012

IBDI 4th Term Begins

The International Ballroom Dance Inc. began their 4th Term schedule of dance classes last night at the Palladium. Lani and I got to the Palladium just as the new BACHATA dance class by Ed Ho and Veronica Munez started. Lani  and I were curious about this Dominican Republic dance that we had heard so much through the grapevine. And also because the Merengue that we were going to teach was originated from the Dominican Republic. We weren't the only ones curious about the BACHATA because the Ewa Ballroom was pretty full with student dancers. Ed and Veronica taught a series of basic steps with some underarm turns for both the gals and the guys. They did a good job teaching that made the BACHATA look and felt like a fun dance.

The second period found Lani and me at Jim Prado's FOXTROT II dance class at the Diamond Head Ballroom. It was pretty much full with dance students, also. Jim taught FOXTROT I during the last term and this new class was a continuation to the Intermediate level. Our first night's lesson consisted of the Progressive Step, the Left Turns, and the Right Turns with all ending with CBM. We enjoyed Jim's class as we did years ago when he had a dance class in the Pearl City area. He still have that special way of making learning to dance fun.

The third period started at 8:10 for Lani and me to teach CLUB MERENGUE at the Ewa Ballroom. We weren't sure if we were gonna have any students in our class since Merengue was taught a while back by our dancing friends Sergio and Renna. They are both excellent teachers and following them was gonna be a tough act. I'm not sure how many students were there for the Merengue but it was enough to have two rows of couples stretched from one side of the ballroom to the other side. I gotta thank Joella for playing the music. She was on cue all during the period. Also many thanks to my son, Dean who served as Teacher Assistant in this class. He bounced around as a partner to the ladies who came without a partner. I think Lani and I did pretty good this first lesson teaching the basic link steps of Forward and Back, Side Rocks, Rotations, and Separations with strong emphasis on the Latin dance hold and Latin movements; and lastly the Spiral.

Three other dance classes were going on in the International style at the same time. The above three were the only ones that Lani and I were involved with.