Hong Kong

Hong Kong, in the world of dance:

"Dancing? You want dancing? You follow me." The beaming coat-check man is almost skipping as he briskly leads the visitor down the halls of Hong Kong's Ocean City Restaurant and Night Club. Once inside -- Wham! The blast of music and of rainbow-colored lights hits you square in the face like an epiphany.

"Social dancers believe you will learn. You can’t fall if you don’t climb

and there’s little joy in living your whole life on the ground."

A Chinese band is belting out The Girl From Ipanema as some 30 couples cha-cha their way across the floor. Many of the women are partnering each other, like girls at a village fair. The men, fewer in number, seem to gravitate towards those women who are exotically dressed -- such as one in her mid-30s who has shown up in a strapless, backless, black taffeta number. And this is seven o'clock on a Tuesday evening -- when most of Hong Kong is trapped in the rush hour, weary and concerned with the anxieties of daily life. A Tea Dance?

"Tiny Bubbles" by Don Ho

Ocean City is just one of a number of clubs catering to Hong Kong's growing legions of ballroom dancers. Young and old, first-time plodders and nimble twirlers -- they are all there, cocooned in the 1990s as the 2020s seethe outside. And it is not just in the evening that these gatherings take place. From 3 pm to 6 pm daily, Ocean City hosts tea dances, where dim sum is served up with the rumbas. How about that?

"Not everything that counts can be counted, and not
everything that can be counted counts."