Dancing at a stand still in the West.

But in Town things are looking up all around. Just take a look see in Honolulu Dance Guide and you can see evenings in Town are jumping. In the West the "schools" are getting to want a little more of the action. We must make contact with District Parks and Community Centers, they should be more pertinent to adult dancing.

 

"Blogger's Law #41: All things being equal, you lose."

I don't believe any dance club has ever convinced a Community Center to kokua. Still the long deterioration of "Ballroom dancing" in the last twenty years has been reversed this year and renewed hope exported to the neighbor islands. And on the island of Oahu the cultural dancers are getting more cohesive and recognizing their own group.

The "hazards of the trade" for our dance teachers are still there. Many students want to learn very advance moves too soon, also known as LAGS. (Latest And Greatest Syndrome.) Often times, dancers who concentrate mainly on performance routines don't develop good leader/follower skills, making it difficult for them to dance with others outside of their group and have their own "standard" steps and routines.

"You Are My Sunshine"   ...   Jimmie Davis

This in turn leads to the "clique-ish" behavior of some groups that stick together and don't branch out. Many new dancers become indoctrinated into small social groups that tend to be rather exclusive. Not too bad until they start to talk stink about the other groups.

And it is quite normal for some teachers in the "exhibition disciplines" to forbid their students from dancing with others because they may pick up bad habits, (like dancing naturally.) We are gradually accepting that we must separate ourselves from these people and stick to our own groups.

"Daydream Believer" by Anne Murray

And you over there, holding your hand up at a 47 degree angle. Ya Dumb Dodo, that is incorrect, should be 45 degrees and you should know better.

The dancers will increase in number when they learn to pay more attention to dancing to music than without. Let's face it, without music it is something else. The Universal dancers will also pay less attention to the flashy, deluxe, exhibition moves and more to the natural "feel good" moves instead.

The Exhibition and the Competition dancers play their part in the scenery, but make no mistake they are a small part. And it is as it should be, humans dance for a more natural reason than to exhibit or compete. I am glad most of us are finally discovering this.

Pub's Side Note: Through these blogs read the most informed cultural dancers in the Pacific.