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Thursday, October 11, 2018

Social Dancing

On Oahu we have other very good dancing groups, the same as in the rest of the US. Exhibition, Acrobatic, Theatrical, Cabaret and Competition dancers who do everything so it will look pretty and the idea is to paint pretty pictures. Most of the time they succeed and they can make their own interpretations of what is "pretty." Most of us clap enthusiastically, in appreciation, at the end of every presentation. Social dancers accept the fact that we do not dance that kind of stuff.

“Social dancers may think that dance is a game of extreme emotions
and freedom of the soul, where nothing is ever the same.”


Then right about the Palladium time, the Competition Dancers decided that the term Ballroom rightfully belongs to them. Why? Because they really dance in Ballrooms and therefore they are truly Ballroom Dancers. Most of "us" have concurred, a school cafeteria is not a ballroom and we know that the era of the Big Ballrooms is over. It has left us to look for an acceptable terminology for our type dancing. Yes, it is purely social dancing and based on the American Style of Dance. But most dancers would like a different term and it is a Work In Progress.

"Time After Time" by Cyndi Lauper (1984)


In the last twenty or thirty years another group has been growing. The spectator or viewer group that has been created from TV shows and these new people want to see. Of course most dancers on Oahu have also liked to see. These are specified audiences that look at Television shows or are paying money to see these type of shows and whether they know little or much, they will still judge. If they don't like it for whatever the reason, they will look elsewhere.

"Social dancers think that you should not be not afraid of growing slowly,
be afraid only of standing still or worst."