Divino Ritmo Presents House Warming Party

This past Saturday (July 12) Lani and I attended the "House Warming Party" as guests of our friends Paul and Marie Laderta. The "party" was held at DRD's Aloha Dancesport Center, owned by Lucas Jaime and Yanna Samkova, on Ward Avenue. If you haven't been to the newest dance studio in Honolulu, then you should, even if just to look  in on the spacious main ballroom. As we entered the ballroom on the 2nd floor of 350 Ward Avenue, beautiful Yanna Samkova greeted us and escorted us to our assigned table. We were sitted at the Ewa end of the huge ballroom with a large wall mirror in back of us. The tables were situated in "U" shape facing the wall to wall mirrors. I couldn't resist taking this photo using the reflection from the mirror to show the size of the main ballroom after our table mates Jerry & Violet, and Bosley & Terry went on the dance floor. 

Social dancing went on for a while until Lucas Jaime welcomed everyone and invited all to the buffet table in the main ballroom. The buffet dinner included many of the delicious Filipino entries that one would think Lucas and Yanna have a Filipino chef under wraps. Any way there were a large selection of delicious items to filled the plate. And I gotta mention among the different dessert was the giant strawberries with a machine churning melted chocolate. Yummy!

The music players for the evening were Lucas Jaime and Susan Park. The music they played had all the makings to bring all sorts of dancers to the dance floor...International style tempo and American style tempo, the many Latin rhythms including the Argentine Tango, Bachata and Merengue. And there was the Polka, also. Social dancing continued on and to get some of the guests who were not dancing to get off their seats, Lucas led a Conga Line Dance to the Merengue beat. That was fun dancing for everyone.

The DRD Students Performance was a preview of the upcoming DRD Showcase. The DRD Formation Team performed a Rumba/Jive Medley. The Rumba was smooth and very well done and closing the dance with the energetic Jive added entertainment to the performance. 

Concluding the performance part of the program, Lucas and Yanna performed a cabaret dance with a Latin flavor. It was hot, it was dynamic, and filled with spectacular cape twirls, lifts and drop moves. It was a performance that was enjoyable to watch.

After the performance, Lucas thanked everyone for coming and helping celebrate this "house warming party".  The DRD Aloha Dancesport Center was a seven year dream that came to reality.

Line Dancing dominated the closing of the "party" starting with the Electric Slide, followed by a line dance with a Cha Cha beat, and more new line dances. It was a fun "house warming party" with a lot of time for social dancing, a good preview performance program, good company, and onolicious buffet. When I asked a DRD helper, "who prepared the buffet?", he replied, "Everybody!" Fo' sure you can't have it any bettah than that. 

Divino Ritmo Dance hosts social dancing also at the Cupola in the Honolulu Design Center on Kapiolani Blvd. For current info, please click on "That's Dancing" on the side bar.