Fred Astaire

I have made contact with Fred Astaire Dance Studios on the Mainland along with Arthur Murray through my Twitter accounts and they have their hands full where they are at. I have almost deleted all of them, I am doing them no good and it is the same in the other direction. In fact I will concentrate on only Hawaiian Island Twitters. And I have more than one thousand that I am following in four Twitters. I will gradually prune this down to make it really social media.

"The mind is like a parachute, it doesn't work if it is not open."

West Oahu is developing into one of the wealthiest sections on these islands in spite of the Rail Catastrophe. Much interest in ballroom dancing has been aroused. Kapolei Chapter is now the largest chapter in HBDA. And there is a new one Ewa Chapter, HBDA in Ewa Beach and they will make it with our help maybe. And the only Dance Studio in Kapolei does not cover ballroom dancing at all.

"Here In My Heart" by Al Martino

The Oahu West Sector has two Dance Studios, Nix Performing Arts Center and Rosalie Woodson Dance Academy. Both catering to the young and in the performing or exhibition type dancing. With the Arthur Murray Dance Studios in the center of town and in the Windward side, it is more than natural if a new Fred Astaire studio were to be installed in the West Oahu somewhere away from the Rail Disaster.

 "We cannot hold a torch to light another's path,

without brightening our own."

Fred Astaire, born in 1899, began show business at the age of 5, performing on Broadway and in vaudeville with his sister, Adele. Then he headed to Hollywood where he began a successful partnership with Ginger Rogers for nine movies. By 1976, he had made 33 musical films with esteemed co-stars such as Joan Crawford, Rita Hayworth, Ann Miller, Debbie Reynolds and Cyd Charisse. He also co-starred with the biggest actors of that time, including Bing Crosby, Red Skelton, and Gene Kelly.

Fred Astaire died in 1987 from pneumonia. With his passing, we lost a true dancing legend. His effortless lightness and grace may never be seen again. Very few are aware that he invented "Rap" in the movie Second Chorus in 1937. As Mikhail Baryshnikov observed at the time of his death, "No dancer can watch Fred Astaire and not know that we all should have been in another business."

All the present Fred Astaire studios are in the Mainland USA.