UK Dancing

Francis Toinkey, Kahala
From the London News.

Hip-hop to the foxtrot, American Style dance fever is sweeping the nation, fueled by popular TV shows such as Strictly Come Dancing and Britain's Got Talent. Dance is the UK’s fastest growing art form. More than 4.8 million people regularly attend community dance groups each year in England alone.

"Just know that, when you truly want success, you’ll never give up on it.

No matter how bad the situation may get.”

Whether you like to jump or jive, tap or tango, shake your belly or your booty, dancing is one of the most enjoyable ways to get some exercise. Regular social dancing is great for losing weight, maintaining strong bones, improving posture and muscle strength, increasing balance and co-ordination and beating stress.

One of the best things about dancing is that while you’re having fun moving to music and meeting new people, you’re getting all the health benefits of a good workout. The guide will help you get started in dancing, introduce you to some of the most popular dance styles taught in the UK and help you find a dance class in your area.

"The World Is Waiting For The Sunrise" by Les Paul and Mary Ford.

Before you start

Most accredited dance schools hold beginners courses and welcome people with disabilities. Schools are friendly and a great way to socialize. If you don’t want to go on your own, get a friend to go with you. Classes can cost as little as £5 to £10 for a 90-minute session. If the first class you try falls short of your expectations, don't be put off. It's worth trying a few different classes until you find the right one for you.

Wear comfortable clothing that gives you freedom of movement and shoes appropriate to the dance style. Some classes, such as ballet, tap or jazz, may require specialist footwear depending on your level. Avoid wearing jewellery, such as earrings, rings and necklaces, which can scratch you or get caught in clothing.

And don't stop, enjoy the journey.

Latest Scoop

WBDC remains the best Two Center we got, willing to share with their fellow dancers.

From Aunty Maile:
Please come and enjoy with us, and bring all your friends too!

"When Irish Eyes Are Smiling" by Bing Crosby

Richie Fun in Town Dancer picking up some good dance information for the reader/dancers. No wonder Town Dancer is the top blog in Hawaii. And folks, we cannot be everywhere so when you have a chance, tune into The Dance Connection blog. Frank has some nice presentations of people having a ball. And dancing is what we are all about, isn't it?

Latest Scoop

WBDC remains the best Two Center we got, willing to share with their fellow dancers.

From Aunty Maile:
Please come and enjoy with us, and bring all your friends too!

"When Irish Eyes Are Smiling" by Bing Crosby

Richie Fun in Town Dancer picking up some good dance information for the reader/dancers. No wonder Town Dancer is the top blog in Hawaii. And folks, we cannot be everywhere so when you have a chance, tune into The Dance Connection blog. Frank has some nice presentations of people having a ball. And dancing is what we are all about, isn't it?

Nanakuli

I am still finding it difficult to give things away. There must be some kind of gimmick behind it all. You have to be careful nowadays because salespeople are far different than in my time.

“Being in a minority, even in a minority of one, did not make you mad. There was truth and there was untruth, and if you clung to the truth even against the whole world, you were not mad.”

And the cartoon discovered in the internet. That's Oahu.

So I meet very good people every day on the Waianae Coast.

Pub's Side Note: Three of the most powerful tools for marketing a dance organization's services and products is through their Newsletters, Web and Blog sites. The benefits are many. They keep the organization's Name out in front of potential and current members, the media and Ballroom Dance Professionals. The least expensive PR.

WBDC Anniversary

This was one of the first Dance Clubs on this island to set the pace for the others to follow. Things slowed down many years ago when the new dance clubs were being established in town. But this one has been holding just fine and is bound to get better and there is new interest to dancing in the West. Unfortunately, the Dance Pavilion scheduled to be built at the Patsy Mink Recreation Park has been cancelled to pay for the Rail Disaster.

This have excellent teachers in the American Style of Dance and some of the best social dancers on this Island. Their music ranks up at the top in classes and their socials. They have good workers such as Carol Kohagura and Maile Yagi. You want answers? What else do you need?

There have been two groups in town that have consistently produced the best International Style dancers on this island. By the same token there have been two groups that have consistently produce the worst International Style dancers on this Island. Who? Ha Ha! We are talking competition here are we not? That is the name of their game. Happy Dancing.

Allegro Poster

It is looking more likely that another new dance club will form without the "hangers on" that have hampered things for too long and we all know who they are. The real problem is finding a place to dance. The fusion as to the different styles has evolved and becoming more evident as we get better dancers in the “fun” dance group.

"A lie can go around the Palladium dance floor three times

before the truth can get up the stairs."

However most of the movies that have been made, have the hero and heroine ending up winning the championship. And that is not social dancing. There will be a movie one of these days that will depict   the pure unadulterated joy of dancing. We in our dance blogs will have our work cut out for us.

First there are the disco (young) dancers, that are still so prevalent in many night clubs. They drink and find that they do not really need a partner. They adjust readily to the music and the rhythm and just enjoy movement. Of course the Rootzi-Tootzis look down upon all this type of non-structured dancing.

But we can see that it is just a beginning, wanting to move to music is very natural. It should be quite easy to go into Line Dancing but apparently not many line dance groups are willing to take beginners. Then there is relatively little line dancing in Night Clubs. A likely place I think. And what about that guy that says he would like to establish a "Mens" Line Dance Club?

And what about Argentine Tango? Seems to be a growing interest in this. Might get a good crowd of "aficionados" going. Some night club in town having the "Last Tango in Honolulu." We don't read anything on this very often.

"Blue Tango" by Frankie Laine

Pub's Side Note: A dance blog is what all "dance websites would like to be" updated on a regular basis, containing various points of view that are of interest to a select or target audience, before and after the occasion.. Information easy to update and change. Our reader/dancers are gradually picking up on this action. Hopefully we can get one more Guest Author here and plan the independence.

Mardi Gras

Mardi Gras which means Fat Tuesday, refers to the practice of the last night of eating richer, fatty foods before the ritual fasting of the Lenten season, which begins on Ash Wednesday, this year on March 5th. It is mainly a Catholic activity and not taken too seriously on Oahu.

But we always need an excuse to party and dance, and this is as good a time as any. There always has been a little in Waikiki but now it is going to be happening in the West. Why not? There are plenty of Catholics and the rest would be willing to join in on the fun of Dining and Dancing.

I am curious as to which one the clubs in the West

will have the first Mardi Gras Dance.

Much of the dance action is still moving in a Westerly direction in spite of the Rail Disaster that  has screwed everything up in that section. And the East is showing some signs of reawakening. Who knows? "So we lives and learns."

Mardi Gras

Mardi Gras which means Fat Tuesday, refers to the practice of the last night of eating richer, fatty foods before the ritual fasting of the Lenten season, which begins on Ash Wednesday, this year on March 5th. It is mainly a Catholic activity and not taken too seriously on Oahu.

But we always need an excuse to party and dance, and this is as good a time as any. There always has been a little in Waikiki but now it is going to be happening in the West. Why not? There are plenty of Catholics and the rest would be willing to join in on the fun of Dining and Dancing.

I am curious as to which one the clubs in the West

will have the first Mardi Gras Dance.

Much of the dance action is still moving in a Westerly direction in spite of the Rail Disaster that  has screwed everything up in that section. And the East is showing some signs of reawakening. Who knows? "So we lives and learns."

Our dancing structures itself

For over thirty years my curiosity of dancing on this Island has kept me very interested. I find that with about one million inhabitants on these Islands, we have had a very low percentage of dancers compared to other places in the world. The normal percentage of our kind of dancers should be at least two percent of the total. In some places throughout the world they have 3 and even 4% of the total.

"He who hears music, feels his solitude peopled at once." ~Robert Browning

At two percent, it should give us somewhere around 20000 dancers on these Islands and though I am not that sure of the neighbor islands, we are no where near it. I believe that percentage of social dancing on Oahu started climbing in the sixties, then in the 1990s it began to deteriorate.

The over control and the cliques began to have a telling effect. Then we had a kind of "Goat" social structuue which didn't help. And of course none of the "know it alls" realized that this was happening.

 "Painted Ladies" by Ian Thomas

The results evolved into an overabundance of women, we have a much higher women/men ratio than just about anywhere.  In the nineties the process of differentiation also began.  This, of course, is still in the process of changing for the good with a good influence of the Night Club groups.

Of the dancers we now have, most men and women are “fun” dancers for want of a better word. We will also use other terminology such as Social, Fusion, Cultural, Free Style, Recreational and even Universal.

With time we will eventually get the right word, designated to exclude the Internationals and Night Clubbers. They have both made it very clear that we are not in their class. So be it, no hu hu. We must facilitate the provision of more dance venues to accommodate the increase in dancers that we are going to have and we will naturally get many men in the newer clubs that will not resemble the “goat” social structure.

This is a story about four dancers named: Everybody, Somebody Anybody and Nobody.

There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. - Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. - Somebody got angry about that because it was Everybody's job. - And Everybody thought Anybody could do it. - But Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn't do it. - It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did it what Anybody could have done.

Everybody got that?

From Aunty Maile

Thank you for sharing Dave! I finally got around to viewing these pictures.

Pictures of the Aiea Ballroom Dance Association,s Valentine's Dance held on Thursday, February 13, 2014.

Mahalo nui

Maile Yagi for WBDC

Sent from my iPad

Subject: Pics of Aiea Valentine Social;

Just sending to the ones I have email for, maybe you guys can forward to others.

"Young At Heart" by Frank Sinatra

So many good people, I had to post Da Bodadem.

And a puzzle too.

"Of the dancers, by the dancers and for the dancers" All the

dancers? Of course not, they do not all want to be

involved and we must respect.

From Aunty Maile

Thank you for sharing Dave! I finally got around to viewing these pictures.

Pictures of the Aiea Ballroom Dance Association,s Valentine's Dance held on Thursday, February 13, 2014.

Mahalo nui

Maile Yagi for WBDC

Sent from my iPad

Subject: Pics of Aiea Valentine Social;

Just sending to the ones I have email for, maybe you guys can forward to others.

"Young At Heart" by Frank Sinatra

So many good people, I had to post Da Bodadem.

And a puzzle too.

"Of the dancers, by the dancers and for the dancers" All the

dancers? Of course not, they do not all want to be

involved and we must respect.

Hey, Hey, Moving Nice

Those of you who wish to write a several-thousand-word opus about something should be able to see that our blogs cannot be the place to do it. If you just want to share a little information of your dance environment and some pictures of your friends enjoying themselves then our blogosphere is a good place to do it.

"To handle yourself, use your head;
to handle others use your heart."

 

Oahu West is firmly in third place with average hits per day, and right behind Blogging Hawaii. That one person that we have been waiting for will make the difference very clearly for either one of the blogs. And yes we do accept just about any dancer out there. No rules or regulations, you will be on your own but it will be under your name.

"That's Amore" by Dean Martin

Other dance blog users who like the same things are sure to see, in all our posts, their fellow dancers enjoying themselves in a dancing environment too. And with a few honest and individual opinions, (all of us are different,) it would be the max. That’s the social networking aspect to our blogs and we let you, with little effort, share anything with our fellow dancers.

The end goal for all my blogs would merely be a new beginning. It would be complete independence from the original blogger. All the guest authors would be in charge, evolving their own rules for their own blog and each one blogging their own honest opinion. It would supplant the clique inaccurate dictation that has failed so miserably in the past. The new bloggers will exist very nicely and spread the good influence around.

Hey, Hey, Moving Nice

Those of you who wish to write a several-thousand-word opus about something should be able to see that our blogs cannot be the place to do it. If you just want to share a little information of your dance environment and some pictures of your friends enjoying themselves then our blogosphere is a good place to do it.

"To handle yourself, use your head;
to handle others use your heart."

 

Oahu West is firmly in third place with average hits per day, and right behind Blogging Hawaii. That one person that we have been waiting for will make the difference very clearly for either one of the blogs. And yes we do accept just about any dancer out there. No rules or regulations, you will be on your own but it will be under your name.

"That's Amore" by Dean Martin

Other dance blog users who like the same things are sure to see, in all our posts, their fellow dancers enjoying themselves in a dancing environment too. And with a few honest and individual opinions, (all of us are different,) it would be the max. That’s the social networking aspect to our blogs and we let you, with little effort, share anything with our fellow dancers.

The end goal for all my blogs would merely be a new beginning. It would be complete independence from the original blogger. All the guest authors would be in charge, evolving their own rules for their own blog and each one blogging their own honest opinion. It would supplant the clique inaccurate dictation that has failed so miserably in the past. The new bloggers will exist very nicely and spread the good influence around.

The Kids.

By Franklin Coiner, Waialai Iki:

This is about the music genre in general, and the young have definitely taken over a huge amount of diversity in dance. Around the world too. Korea, Gangnam and Mexico, Free style. and so on.

"Dancing with the feet is one thing. Dancing with heart is quite another."

Hip hop and its stylistic origins: Funk, disco, dub, rhythm and blues, reggae, dancehall, toasting, performance poetry, spoken word, scat singing and talking blues with cultural origins in the 1970s among the blacks. However, the Rap was actually first introduced in 1937 by Fred Astaire in the movie Second Chorus.

"Well, Get it" by Tommy Dorsey

Subgenres include over 60 types of dance and most of them are "performed" solo. If they wish to call it dance we should not disagree, that is their interpretation of whatever music they get for it. Hip hop music, also called rap music, is a music genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted. It developed as part of hip hop culture, a subculture defined by four key stylistic elements: MCing/rapping, DJing/scratching, break dancing, and graffiti writing.

We must definitely distinguish our dancing from any of this. In our culture, we may hear a beautiful Waltz that we are already acquainted with, and lucky enough to dance it with our favorite dance partner. Each of us knows that we will be dancing different halves of the same dance. I will lead the basic movements to what I feel to that beautiful music. She will interpret the movements beautifully in her own fashion and we will be "dancing" in the ultimate sense of the word.

Pub's Side Note: Blogs are more personal, direct and more current communication, They leave an opening for comments in each blog and they are receptive to more formal answers and opinions in the blog itself. The hits go through the ceiling. Real Social Media is much different than anything we have ever come across.

Central Valley

 

Sakura With Love Dance
February 7th.

And WBDC coming through like champs. Could there be another Central Valley blog? With these people willing to share their happiness with their fellow dancers, it would be easy.  And they could "contaminate" others. The reader/dancers are all for it and they are the ones that count, the ones that come first, we try to please them.

Let's have a drum roll.
"The stars of Central Valley are arriving."

DJ Leland Yagi and Treasurer Ray Ballungay. All these
good people and Tons of deeelicious foods, taking
Dine and Dance to new heights.

"Stranger In Paradise" by Tony Bennett.

After the voting, they crown the Valentine King and Queen!

Leo and Charito Delgado!

Charito shared that many years ago, her aunty and uncle was

also crowned Valentine King and Queen at Wahiawa Ballroom Dance Club. Coincidence?

The Royal Couple, Mr. and Mrs. Leo Delgado, with WBDC President Rod Sabug and Mrs. Rose Sabug,

Maile: We had a large turnout! THANK YOU ALL FOR COMING!