The Viewers View

Has ballroom on Television lost its sheen? The Big Shots are still thinking it over. According to ABC, the "Dancing With The Stars" has been slowing down for a couple years. The other Ballroom exhibitions have also lost something. However the spectator scene in social dancing is still appreciated by all.  How much of this is apparent to the social dancers on Oahu?

"Unfortunately our dancing lives will be surrounded by a few gossiping

people who will judge us according to their standards."

All over the island of Oahu there are dances to be seen and enjoyed. The Hawaiian dances leading all the rest and not too many fancy moves. The ethnic dances are still much enjoyed all over the Islands, from Kauai to the Big Island and none of them have too many fancy tricks. And there are many other dances from outside this realm that the people have loved for decades. The natural inclination of the people in Hawaii is good feeling towards music and the dance to be enjoyed.

"My Sweet Lord" by George Harrison

The thing with the dance scene on Oahu is the the dancers are developing a keen understanding of social dancing and what dancing for fun means. They do not hear the term "junk dancer" much any more and we can have some respect for those not inclined towards our type of dances.

"Hale'iva Hula" by Amy Hanaialii

"Fortunately for us, the Internet has destroyed most of the barriers to publication. The cost of being a publisher has dropped to almost zero with two interesting immediate results: anybody can publish, and more importantly, we can publish whatever we damn well please." 

"Rock Around The Clock" by Bill Haley and His Comets

Now I will have to start flowering up the blogs a little better, and work to get steady information contributors that could possible work themselves into Guest Authors. From the entire social dance enchilada we have good prospects. We just have to find out which ones "are" and which ones "are not." And we must respect the wishes of those that "are not." Meanwhile back at the ranch.....

Waltz in Guadalajara

A Mexican waltz danced in a night club in Guadalajara, Mexico. Just beautiful but I could not copy it using my software. I use the one for You Tube and is doesn't work for all. If someone out there knows of one not too complicated or too expensive, please let me know.

"What that? You have heard nasty rumors about us?

If those people hate us, they must be true. No?

The music was by Mariachis and just terrific with a Viennese swing to it. The dancers were not dancing the 1,2,3 steps as we know and love them. Most of them seem to start with a rock step - that is the lead rocks forward for a three count and rocks back for a three count. When the tempo changes, the lead goes forward in a chassé and back in a chassé.

"Sobre Las Olas" por Juventino Rosas

Normally, the rock step is used in the faster tempo and the chassé in the slower tempo. However in social dancing, the lead may go into rock tempo in a slow tempo to exaggerate the feeling in the slow movement. The same applies to the fast tempo and using the chassé to exaggerate the happier music. This is social dancing to da max.

 "Alejandra" por Enrique Mora

There are left turns and right turns and hand to hand with the lady making an underarm turn. All simple moves that are done in dozens of other dances. How about a cross body lead? Why not? Of course, they can be done by anyone of our night club friends that could enjoy this music. Unfortunately we have a long time to wait for Mariachis.

"Dancers know that you cannot find happiness at the bottom of a wine bottle.

Of course not, who is happy when the wine runs out?"

Mariachis, Why?

Prior to the arrival of Cortes the music of Mexico, played with rattles, drums, reed and clay flutes, and conch-shell horns, was an integral part of religious celebrations. Quickly, however, as Christianity spread, in many areas these instruments gave way to instruments imported by the Spanish: violins, guitars and harps, brass horns, and woodwinds. They were readily accepted in all the Americas.

"Dancers don't repeat gossip - so read this very carefully ---"

The Indian and mestizo musicians not only learned to play the European instruments, but also to build their own, sometimes giving them shapes and tunings of their own invention. Music and dance were important elements of Spanish theatrical productions, blending with the establish Indian music. They became enormously popular throughout the Spanish speaking world during the colonial period.

"La Golondrina" - (The Swallow) a song written in 1862

by Mexican physician Narciso Serradell Sevilla

The typical Spanish theatrical orchestra of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries was comprised of violins (usually two), harp and guitars (or guitar variants). It was from this group that several of the most distinctive regional ensembles of Mexico developed, including the Mariachi, who added the horns.

"Cien Anos" por Pedro Infante

We have not been able to make contact with Live music on Oahu. They are doing well with their own public relations. And they have more fans in the listener faction than in dancing. So we must make offers to the next one that will be coming in and that is the Mariachis. I just saw my first Mariachi group represented by one violin, one guitar and one trumpet. You cannot get any smaller than that but we will help them all.

I was just informed of the new Trump dance step. "All you have

to do is take three steps forward, two steps backward,

then side-step, side-step and turn around."

 

Social Dancing

From what I hear from various sources, most of the dancers night clubbing can pretty well dance with each other, just moving to the music of their choice. Fortunately 99 per cent of the movements are in the Bronze and Silver levels. Which is about right. The Gold is for the exhibition and competition dancers.

In the Internet, Attitude at the Dance.

"Take control of your attitude - Be solution oriented not problem focused -

avoid whiners and complainers - Be constructive, productive

and pleasant - Stay away from gossip and never criticize."

There may be 600 documented steps in Cha Cha Cha. The man has his routine of perhaps twenty five good solid moves, which he finds easy to lead. The next man may have a slightly different routine and the third man has an even more different routine. In night club dancing the KISS method is preferred. (keep it simple, stupid.) The thing is enjoy moving to the music.

"Fly Me To The Moon" by Jimmy Borges

So for the follow, it is much more difficult. If she is lucky, all of her partners will keep the same routines within 35 or 40 steps. She has to follow them all. And bless them, these ladies are good followers and many make good use of the parts assigned to them. Most Latin Dances are for the lady to shine while the lead does the basic.

"Morning Dew" by Melveen Leed

Now that I am getting out more, I must plan on visiting some night clubs and blog'em. My usual equipment is a camera, and which I take the first picture to make sure the camera is working. I just have to be very careful because I have butterfingers. Then I find a couple dancers that can take few pictures of their favorite people. Then I take some blank paper and a couple pens to see if I can get somebody to share something for the readers.

"Yes, Wine is the answer. Now, what was the question?" 

Latin Music And Dance

Many people realize that not many know what Latin music and dance is. I have been in and around it for 9 decades and I am not sure. But there is a lot of stuff that is definitely Latin coming from the ancient Mexican Indian Civilizations. They had real professional musicians and dancers in which all they did was play music and dance, seven days per week.

"In our dance world, rumors can be carried by haters,

spread by fools and accepted by idiots."

From there evolved most of the music and dance in the Americas. Then the Spanish. the first illegal aliens arrived and for the first  200 years they influenced the music more than any other group. They were the power and everyone tended to look up to them. The rest of the Europeans followed them in changing a little here and there. And the new music evolved into "Latino" but the fundamental remains, the Indian music and dance that had been there for hundreds of years in all of Latin America.

  

"How High The Moon" by Les Paul and Mary Ford

The Africans were not picked as slaves for their musical or dancing abilities. They avoided taking anyone over 20 years old so for sure the slaves had a very limited culture. Most of their dancing was just up and down like we see it on TV even today. They may have been ignorant but they were not stupid. They learned the Indian dances and the simple musical instruments used by the Indians. There may have been ten million native inhabitants in the Americas when all the illegals arrived. Ten thousand outsiders were not going to teach them much.

"Contigo A La Distancia" por Lucho Gatica

To this day, with all the choices in Mexico, the music and dance remains very fragmented. There are many styles and many are terrific for dancing. Even in the US, Latin dancing in Florida is very different than Texas and/or California. Mexican has been tried in Hawaii, but not enough people that are fans of so few styles. The best bet for Latino dancing is probably to accept most of the "Ballroom" styles as Latino and then let it evolve. Latin Waltz, Rumba, Cha Cha Cha, Samba and let it roll. We can add the first solid one that appears. We will have our "Latino Music" night clubs for the over thirty, naturally, It is coming.

"Five rules for happiness: Free your heart from hatred - Free you mind

of worries - Live simply - Give more - Expect less."

Hits as of the 20th.

Town Dancer still on top after all these years - got loyal readers. But now Platinum Horseshoe is coming on strong. My attendance at HBDA Studio and at Wahiawa Ballroom Dance Club has made a difference. I personally get the information and the photos. Dancing Nights is the most solid one to be third, if we can get a little more news from the night clubbing in town. Social Media, Brah!

Before you speak, THINK: T - is it True?  H - is it Helpful?
 I - is it Inspiring? N - is it Necessary?  K - is it Kind?

Most of the dance web and blog sites have always been in the single digit average per day hits. That is nine hits per day average, about 270 hits per month. Not too bad. They have their own group to cater to - all understandable. It took Platinum Horseshoe only one month to get into double digits per day average. And another two or three months to get into the 20s.

"Tell Me Why" by the Four Aces

The magic number is 33 average hit per day, which is 1000 hits per month. Town Dancer has rarely been that low. But Platinum Horseshoe may be getting into the 30s by the end of this month. And that leaves Blogging Hawaii and Dancing Nights to settle for third place. The difference will be the information contributor. No dance news, no reader/dancers. Simple?

Blogger's Law #31C: On Oahu we can count on our leaders, if they are

in doubt  they will always predict that the trend will continue.

New Band

They are a fairly new band on Oahu and their band has only played a handful of shows.  They have a three or four song demo CD they recorded on their own and that they distribute (for free) at shows to try to gain some notoriety.  They are playing shows as often as venues will let them and are outgoing and friendly with the audience at shows.  They have put their songs up on Pinterest and/or Facebook, and yet, they don’t seem to be gaining any popularity.  The band is bamboozled.

"If some dancers have to gossip to you about other people to make

themselves more interesting. Guess who they talk about

when they are talking to other people."

Does anyone know that their three or four song demo CD is up against 100 million other songs that have been produced?  That’s some pretty tough odds against anybody. Then think about the local bands that don’t have music online.  Think about street performers who don’t care to make a CD. What does this 100 million number mean, though, to a musician?  It means that if you aren’t somehow tapped into mainstream radio crap, if you don’t have connections with the higher-ups, your chances of becoming known, much less popular, are now worse than ever.

"Fly Me To The Moon" by Jimmy Borges

Sure, Twitter and Facebook can help, but they are still competing with millions of others just for attention (good, bad, or indifferent).  The market is so saturated, even the good unknown bands are having a hard time getting an audience.  Additionally, it doesn’t help when today’s society puts more emphasis on dancing, dressing vacuously, and acting like a stripper than on having actual musical talent. So how about the Island of Oahu? We are looking into it. Where can we help?

"Dancers may have been clever yesterday and wanted to change their

dance world. Today they are wiser and want to change themselves."

Lucky

Lucky me, I will be able to go to the Wahiawa Balloom Dance Club Ocktoberfest dance on Saturday. Since it is difficult to get night club action from town, perhaps I can make contact with Dot's In Wahiawa. I hear they are doing good and perhaps we could help and make them better yet. This is slow going and I accept.

"Happiness is a function of accepting what is."

Seeing more people dance the Reverse cross body lead in the West. If you have some nice Rumba music and you know your basic Mambo movements, try it, You can do the basic, go into American style cross body lead, then to the reverse cross body lead, then flesh it our with an under arm turn, hand to hand, spot turn and you are back to basic. Just a beautiful basic routine. I am getting convinced that the best American Rumba dancers are in the West. Yes, I know, many of them were taught by downtown teachers.

"Stranger In Paradise" by Tony Bennett

But then what do I know, I get very few items of interest from town. Many have their own Web Sites and they are getting thousands of hits per day. They cannot be bothered with a hinky dinky blog so we cannot blame them. We must keep beating the bushes and find the Two Centers that we need desperately to share the information with our fellow dancers and we will have Social Media at last.

Dance as if there is no one on this earth to see you,

Love as though you have never been hurt,

Sing as though no one out there can hear you,

Live as though everyone in heaven is watching.

Progressing

Live Music and the Dancing to go with it, is what I have suggested in this blog from the very beginning. However it is not doing too good because it is only me and SOS. We need the information contributors to share the Live Music scene with our fellow dancers. Then and only then can we say that this blog is Social Media.

"Dancers know that the things others hear about us, might be true = But

then again, they might be as fake as the person who told them that."

Then there is the Night Club scene and even though it is quite a separate information center it melds easily with our social-recreational dancing. And an added point is that Dancing Nights blog can include both Live and Recorded music. I just have to take them one by one and continually test to see if they are compatible. Many people on Oahu still consider Web sites as the max in Social Media and Blog sites as junk. We are all learning to identify the good qualities of each.

"Somewhere Over The Rainbow" by Bruddah Iz

All of our blogs should continue to try to help everyone that we can. However, they must know that the blogs are helping. If they do not know, then it stands to reason that there is nothing we can do for them. We will be too busy helping those we can help. Simple? And sooner or later we will get our first steady information contributor and everyone will see the difference.

"Fly Me To The Moon" by Jimmy Borges

Ragtime: Highly syncopated music developed by US Negros a decade after the Emancipation. They loved the Indian music and the Marches of the Day and combined both musical styles into their thing. It was soon followed by Jazz, Swing and the rest of the Rhythm and Blues.

Solid Blog

This blog is doing all right for the time it has been in existence. I stated from the very beginning that it would have the night club action on Oahu and perhaps the neighbor islands. And it has remained more or less in the same vein. However it is only me and my SOS keeping it going and that is not Social Media. I am walking again, with a walker, and I will be able to visit a few places in the near future. We still welcome any information contributors that are willing to share their dance information with their fellow dancers, just email it in.

"Most dancers know that others will only rain on our parade because

they are jealous of our sun and tired of their shade."

I have butterfingers and when I first go someplace I take my time and get one photo just to make sure the camera is working. Then I look for a couple people that know where to push the button to take a picture. Eight to 10 photos from each is good enough and I can make a collage of the six best in each. I also take some blank paper and pens to get a little information from anyone willing to say something to their fellow readers. I can round it out and make a nice blog out of it.

"Tiny Bubbles" by Don Ho

There may be some night clubs that would prefer to keep this more private and do it their way. We can certainly respect that and never bother them. But fortunately we are going to find many that are more than willing to share their night club dance items with the reading public. And we will have Social Media. So come on somebody - help us and your favorite club.

"In Social Dancing, we do not have to dance better than anyone else.

We just try to dance better than ourselves."

Down

Down but not out, -- yet.
It is quite apparent that most of the live music in downtown Honolulu is pretty well covered with web sites. And most think they get millions of hits per day. However the fact remains that they do not know simply because they do not have counters. Very basic on the Mainland for not only themselves but also as information for the readers of the Web or Blog sites. Granted, counters are far from perfect but you can sure get an idea in comparison with others.

"There will be times when they will break us down, but grab a seat and watch us pick up the pieces, rebuild and come back stronger than ever."

So now that I am beginning to walk again (with a walker) I plan on going to see the Live Music in the West and many do not have Web or Blog sites. And when I get the information to share with our fellow dancers, watch the hits go up through the ceiling. The main thing will be to get someone's individual opinion to share, and there are plenty out there. You figure, this is not gossip.

"Sobre Las Olas" por Juventino Rosas.

And our biggest audience of readers will be just ordinary dancers none of these big stars being featured in other social media. It has been mentioned often that we have, small, medium and large, always three categories in everything. We have the Bronze, Silver and Gold. Good enough. Most of out readers will be in the Bronze and Silver. Any others up higher will have their own agendas. No hu hu.

'So let our enemies say what they will, for our sins are many, and

perhaps because of their back biting and slander, our sins wlll

be lightened and instead fall upon their shoulders." 

Slowing Down

This blog on Live Music is still showing flickers of life. Quite a few already know what should be included in a Live Music blog only they don't know what they themselves could do. For a blog in Social Media to do good it must get pertinent dance information from readers willing to share with their fellow dancers. We do not have that.

 “You can have everything in life that you want if you will just

help enough other people to get what they want.”

Comments at the end of each blog are ready and willing to accept your comments. That is the easiest communication to the reader/dancers. Next is emailing, whatever you wish to share with your fellow dancers you can email it to me. This includes photos and I will post everything to the blog of your choice.  And the "Oldies But Goodies" are still very much in favor of everyone.

"I've Got You Under My Skin" by Jimmy Borges

Next, since the downtown Live Music seems to be well taken care of, we can most help the new ones in the outskirts, the Waianae Coast and the North Shore. They do not have much Public Relations but many are beginning to know that blogging can be a big help. Kapolei is being held back by the Present Rail Party. It's the bread, Fred. The good thing is that we are all getting to know that Blogging is Social Media.

"To be the greatest dancer on earth is for OP (other people.)

Social Dancers have a much different agenda." 

The Oldies

Slowly in the last few years, the "oldies but goodies" have been emerging. They have always been there but it has been live bands that have led the way. The "oldies" have been mainly Swing and Foxtrot. Fortunately along the way, many people had been willing to include more oldies. Mainly the music in the sixties in the new dance clubs in Hawaii and the introduction of the Latin dances, the Rumba and the Cha Cha Cha, predominantly. These oldies are solid in our kind of dancing.

"Attitudes are often much more important than intelligence."

 

It is all unfolding very nicely. For the old time Social Dancer the music has been primary and the dance has followed naturally. The Universal dancer wants to find a method of enjoying the music, so the music is first, then you apply the proper movement to feel the best of the music. Steps and figures are danced to the rhythm and for the beginner will have no relation to the harmony or the lyrics. That is social dancing.

"Imagine" by John Lennon

This is far different than Exhibition or Competition dancers. They are in a different realm. If they wish to call it dancing we should not complain, much of it is beautiful, but it is not something you want to see everyday on the ordinary dance floor. That is a different kuleana and they know it. Teachers? We have the best in the world right here on Oahu.

"A lot of problems in our dance world would disappear if we

talked to each other instead of about each other."

Dead Music?

On this blog "Live Music" appears to be close to death, so far. There is plenty of live music out there and dance news in five hundred other avenues of advertising on Oahu. We agree that they should do as they please, it is their time and money.  But many do not know the wonders of Social Media. It may not be advertising but it is communicating to our fellow dancers. Patience the dancers will eventually know.

 "If nobody is perfect, perhaps we are perfect for we are nobodies.

And many of us are willing to go that extra mile for the club

but the rest of the group will pull us back."

For sure, it is coming out that we have two different types of fans of Live Music - the Listeners and the Dancers. Both agree on one thing, the existence of the "oldies but goodies." There are a million records produced every day throughout the world and most do not even get near to be an oldie but goodie. It is a personal matter and yours will probably not be the same as mine. No hu hu, the top ones are close enough that when we hear and dance them we get just about the same feeling of satisfaction.

"Stranger In Paradise" by Tony Bennett

Then we can get some news in here from the Information Contributors to share with our reader/dancers. A few photos and we got a blog - Social Media.  The entire enchilada of music and dance on the Island of Oahu is evolving into a better environment where we can communicate with each other and respect each other's preferences.

"Dancers can all move their bodies to a beat but not everyone

can become one with music all the time and stir their

emotions  and shift their energy with the dance."