Sugino Goodwill Dance Showcase

Last night I performed my "Chairman Waltz" routine at the Pacific Beach Hotel.  My friend Sandy took the picture below and my friend Emi sent me home with a bunch of beautiful red roses.  The performance was decent although I stumbled rather awkwardly during the easiest pose of the performance.  I was really trying for fluidity and poise, but the easiest part of the performance exposed my failing....go figure?  I did however rapidly recover and the remaining moments were uneventful from a botched up index point of view and I think it ended with the audience forgiving me for my mess up.  The two lifts went well and the ending which I also ruminated about over this last week was devoid of major defects.  I was a little concerned that I would not keep my balance after the last lift leading to rapidly turning spin that I had to accomplish, but somehow I kept my composure having already broken the ice to receive a less than stellar final grade because of the hiccup already mentioned.   The other thing was that despite my greatest attempt to try to keep on time with the music, when I get a little nervous, time speeds up for me, so my dance teacher told me I was a little fast, not off music but nevertheless a little rushing.....SHIT!    Oh well, I did try my best and no one is going to post this performance on face book.  Its also interesting that I'm OK until I get on the dance floor, then I go into a zone.  I cannot for the life of me remember the details of the dance and whether I accomplished what I intended..... except for the stumble which will now be embedded in my cerebral cortex for eternity.

Here is Bella (second from left) and her three friends who did a dance routine together that was fun to watch.  Then Bella did a solo with dance teacher Lucas and she was truly spectacular.  In addition to showing poise and advanced dance skills for anyone at any age, she kept perfect time....something I could not do in my performance.  Bella is destined to be one of the best ballroom dancers in Hawaii if she keeps this up.....great work Bella!

I was very happy to complete my performance and get back to the table where a bottle of wine was waiting for me to inhale.  When I calmed down, I had some wonderfully enjoyable dances with Emi spiked by a rising blood alcohol level that made me feel like Fred Astaire.







The company was not too shabby; these were the three lovely ladies sitting closest to me during the event.  

 






I don't look too miserable, do I? 

Overall, the Showcase was very well done and the quality of the dance performances were considerably better than usual.  The Showcase was also not in the exclusive domain of the organizer and in addition to the lovely finale by Mr Sugino and Grace, both Yanna (my teacher), Lucas, and Christopher danced with their students to add variety and community spirit to the event.  We need more of these in the future, in addition to the Studio-centric focus that characterize most showcases in Hawaii.