Got all duked up for the Ilima Ballroom Dance Club 27th Anniversary Ball at the Palladium last night. Got my ticket and got my girl Lani to the Ballroom a little after 5PM. A lot of parking space available but there were busy people at work upstairs in the kitchen as they prepared the evening snack of turkey (or was it chicken?)sandwich, fresh lettuce salad topped with dressing, and a good serving of sliced peaches. Diane Wong, President of Ilima Dance Club was there pitching in with the kitchen crew. There were the early dancers in the foyer chomping down their meal as they waited to enter the Ballroom. JoAnn and Betty at the reception table greeted us with a smile.
Dance music was already playing and a few dancers getting warmed up for the evening of dancing and the Showcase. Lani and I have been to a few dances hosted by clubs that teach only the International style. So we had expected, like the other clubs, to be only International style tempo. But not so with Dr. Wong's selection of dance music....slow tempo Waltz but the Foxtrot, Jive, Tango, West Coast Swing, Cha Cha, Mambo, Rumba, etc. were in tempo with the International and American style. There was also Merengue which is rare. Thanks, Dr. Wong! And also thanks to the Setup Crew (Club members and Ronald Kim & Robert Lai).
Now to the main event. EmCee for the event was Roger Izumigawa, a well known celebrity in the dance community, who kept the audience in tuned with the Dance Exhibition part of the program. Club President Diane Wong gave a Welcome message. Then Roger acknowledged the Presidents of Aiea Ballroom Dance Assn. (Deanie Bates), Aloha Dance Club (Gladys Lee), Friends of Ala Wai Dance Academy (Warren Mitsunaga), Gardenia Dance Assn.(Ivan John), International Ballroom Dance Inc. (Chris Jay), USA Dance Honolulu Chapter (Glenn Okazaki), and Pan Pacific Ballroom Dance of Hawaii (Rudy Luat) who attended as Ilima's guests. Also acknowledgement went to Herbert Omizo & Annie Furguson and the many individuals that helped with the ticket sales.
The Dance Exhibition started with Kay Yahiku & Warick Sargent dancing the International Foxtrot. There were some lifting in the dance as Warick twirled Kay about shoulder height that wooed the audience.
Nice moves by Hami Draper & Tom Sutton as they danced their interpretation of the International Cha Cha. We hope to see more of this couple in other showcases.
Aileen & David Hashimoto soon followed with the International Tango. Lani and I thought that David had full control of the dance as he masterly lead Aileen in the dance of passion.
Now every dance showcase has a THRILLER or two. But I gotta hand it to Charlotte & Edwin Bugarin for their performance of the International Cha Cha. They were there to entertain and please the audience with their terrific expertise in showcase dancing. In fact they were the only dancers who performed in the middle of the large dance floor so everyone could see and enjoy their performance. That's akamai Exhibition Dancing!
As a finale, there was an International SURPRISE Dance. It started as a skit with three guys arguing (Nancy Luckie impersonated as a guy) with no audio. Almost like watching the first black and white movie of the early 1900's. A lot of animation going on by Don Smith as Ivan John (dressed like a drag queen) enters the scene. A little confusing of what's going on at first but as the story unveils, Ivan John teaches the three guys (sorry I didn't get the name of the third guy but I'm guessing it was David Mayman) how to dance the International Tango. Maybe that's what the argument among the three guys were about. Anyway, Ivan got to dance with the three guys. No more arguments...just entertainment that got the audience a belly full of laughter. (I couldn't get a good photo of the group of Ivan John, Nancy Luckie and Friends but you can view Ivan John all decked up sitting on my friend Calvin Ota's lap in one of the photos).
So it turned out to be any evening of fine dancing and an entertaining showcase by the Exhibition Dancers. This photo pictures some of the dancers that were happy to be at the Ball. Hopefully, someone will remember to turn up all the lights in the ballroom when there is a Dance Exhibition. After all, the beautiful costumes and the expressions on the dancers' faces and eyes are 50 percent of the performance.
(Left click on photo to zoom in).
