Coming Around

By Ray Hanamura, North Shore

For the first 16 years of operation there were monthly dances at Let's Dance L.A. on Main St. Once they moved into the Granada in Alhambra and they focused mainly on Salsa dances but everyone realized that that had left a void for Ballroom dancers in town.

“Live your life each day as you would climb a mountain. An occasional glance towards the summit keeps the goal in mind, but many beautiful scenes are to be observed from each new vantage point.”

Truthfully there are not  many places for people to go social ballroom dancing in the Greater L.A. area. While dance studios traditionally offer social dances, the old way of dressing up going to a nightclub, socially interacting with friends, dancing to a live big band or really good deejay makes for a really special evening.

Why aren't there more social dance events? Many reasons. Most importantly, during the 60's and 70's ballroom dancing took a real hit from the rock and roll era. Ballroom dancing became uncool. After twenty years disco broke through and suddenly everyone was again realizing what fun touch dancing was. Followed very nicely by line dancing, dancing solo.

"Maui Waltz" by Loyal Garner

"Tiny Bubbles" by Don Ho

After disco ran its course, Country Western got hot and a whole new segment of the population started touch dancing. Pretty soon whole new dance genres such as West Coast Swing, Salsa, Lindy Hoppers, Argentine Tango all started surfacing. Today there are too many diversifications with new fads coming in and out regularly.

In the mid 1990s Ballroom dancing started surfacing in colleges and major universities around the US. Around the world ballroom was just under the radar. In the late 1990s there was a huge explosion of ballroom dancing in the former Soviet Republics. Currently ballroom dancing is also huge in Asia. And it is sure waking up in Hawaii.

Dancer's Law No 24B: The optimistic dancer believes we live on the best of all islands. The pessimistic dancer fears that this is true.