Blogs Adjusting Very Nicely

Town Dancer blog is going down in hits very slowly. Of course the blogs have been fewer. Meanwhile the other blogs have been in a period of adjustment too. There have been some dance organizations that have not shown much interest in blogging and their views must be respected. I have no interest in wasting my time or theirs without positive results.

"Blogs, social networks, newspapers, any other form of publication – all have social aspects

to them. It is a spectrum really, with social networks at one extreme and a 19th century

novel at the other. But there’s room for all types of social publishing platforms."

Meanwhile we have been working Oahu and Beyond and that blog has come up from the forties in average hits per day to the seventies. A long ways from Town Dancer but it is surging ahead and still in the process of learning. For now the interest is coming from commercial dance entities. And it may be the first independent. I now have a more open mind on the subject.

We help the dance community wherever we can help. And I must try again with the line dancers at Ward Center. They kokua for taking photos but they will not contribute either photos or commentaries. So we must find a steady information contributor in the Town section to help get the dance news to the reader/dancers.

In the West the blog that needs the most help is the newest one, Oahu - West, with barely 34 average hits per day. Over 1000 hits per month, but at the bottom of the pile. That one steady information contributor is the key factor, and we are looking. Any new dance organizations in the area will be more than welcomed. Kapolei Chapter HBDA just had a terrific blog by Tim Cubero Jr. complete with photos and the hits are going through the ceiling. Check it out, just click the name in the side bar.

Then we are also working to get an increase coverage of the Dream To Dance Studio. There will be some rebuilding around the area but when they get their good space, it will be rolling. She has plenty of connections from throughout the years of good work in the dance community. We have also given them a Mini Web site in the Dance Guide blog.

We have had a very good period of adjustment since the beginning of the year but it should settle down by the end of the quarter on March 31st, The ones that have decided to be weeded out can come back any time they figure it would be to their advantage. We humbly thank all the rest. Then we can work to make all the blogs independent where the administrators together with the guest authors can make their own rules.

The Viennese Waltz

From old Dancing in the Dark mini zine:

The Austrian music scholar Max Graf has written, "If there exists a form of music that is a direct expression of sensuality, it is the Viennese Waltz. It was a dance of the new Romantic Period after the Napoleonic Wars, and the contemporaries of the first waltzes were highly shocked at the eroticism of this dance in which a lady clung to her partner, closed her eyes as in a happy mood and glided off as if the world had disappeared. The new waltz melodies overflowed with longing, desire and tenderness."

The new waltz melodies could trace their ancestry back to the beer gardens of early 18th century Vienna, and to rural inns and taverns situated on the outskirts of Vienna and on the banks of the Danube River. Traveling orchestras, some of them from the ships and barges that plied the Danube, whetted the Viennese appetite for this new dance, and the waltz craze soon reached epidemic proportions.

Into this dance-mad atmosphere stepped Josef Lanner and Johann Strauss, the elder, both band musicians and both one time members of the same orchestra. In the compositions of these two men the waltz gained sophistication and a distinctly Viennese light hearted spirit.

A contemporary music critic, Eduard Hanslick, wrote that "You cannot imagine the wild enthusiasm that these two men created in Vienna. Newspapers went into raptures over each new waltz and innumerable articles appeared about Lanner and Strauss."

"Til I Waltz Again With You" by Theresa Brewer

Even in 1919, H.L.Mencken wrote, "The waltz never quite goes out of fashion; it is always just around the corner; every now and then it returns with a bang ... It is sneaking, disarming, lovely ... "

Shortly before WWI it began to be surpassed by the new slow Waltz in the more Social circles of the middle classes where it remains today. But, it surfaced as other Waltz dances throughout the world. For Now:
The Ballroom waltz - a slow dance with measured steps that moves around the room in a controlled fashion with lots of figures and which are mostly in the International and American Styles of dance.
The Viennese Waltz - a fast dance with lots of turning, the feet positions are based on ballet though for a correct Viennese Waltz, and also featured in International and American Styles of dance.
The Cultural Waltz - what most people know as waltz, and can be done to various speeds of music as is done in Country, Canadian and Latin styles and even more different in other countries.

                                                .

Changes - 2

By Reginald Chang, Kaimuki:

Yes, we rehash. The waltz with its modern hold took root in England right after the War of 1812. in 1819 Carl Maria von Weber wrote "Invitation to the Dance," which marked the adoption of the waltz form into the sphere of absolute music.

"A blog is merely a tool that lets you do anything from change the world to

share your bits of information and a photo or two."

The dance was initially met with tremendous opposition due to the semblance of impropriety associated with the closed hold, though the stance gradually softened. It was all right for the lower classes but not for "ballroom dancers."

In the 1840s several new dances made their appearance in the ballroom, including the Polka, Mazurka, and the Schottische. Mostly as fad dances but many remained as a fun dance a century later.

In the meantime a strong tendency emerged to drop all 'decorative' steps such as entrechats and ronds de jambes that had found a place in the Quadrilles and other dances.

That brings us to the entire 19th century, over great parts of the world people were finding the joy of partner dancing and many were realizing that they did not dance the same or even to the same music.

The Blacks.who had been in the Americas for 3 centuries, were now getting their freedom and in the Americas they began to develop their own versions of the local Indian dances and all of the European and Indian music in general. At the beginning of the 20th century, the US specially was ready for its revolution in music and dance. And was having a good start at the beginning of WWI.

"My Way" by Frank Sinatra

What happened after WWI? Big Changes, naturally!
OK, Just one more after this one. The 20th Century.

Pub's Side Note: Town Dancer blog is still getting one third of the hits of our total blogosphere. Most are reader/dancers from the "to be seen" categories, Acrobatic, Cabaret, Competition and Exhibition dancers, and of course the growing spectator division. The information contributors and the Guest Authors will be from these sectors. The blogs are slowly defining themselves and they will all be different - They will be Social Media.

Wasabi @ SLA, Spin Dr. and CW pau ...again.

Aloha all,

Wasabi

I am an avid follower of Wasabi and check their site regularly. I noticed that March didn't have SLA listed. As luck would have it I ran into Doreen and Milton @ Sams a few days ago and asked, "So wat, how cum no mo SLA on da site?" Turns out it was an oversight.  The good news is that Wasabi will be at the Saint Louis Alumni Hall this Thursday 3/8/12 from 7-10 PM for their monthly gig there.

'nuff said

They have been packing 'em in at the SLA Hall and Gary Moore has been a regular wowing the gang. Nice thing about the SLA Hall is that there is plenty of room to dance.

Wasabi will be Dot's on Saturday for those of you that miss the SLA.

FYI for you newbies:

Saint Louis Alumni Hall=  916 Coolidge Street Honolulu: is the address for the clubhouse.

Actually the Dance Hall is located across from Honolulu stadium park on Isenberg St. next to the First Hawaiian Bank on the corner. In the same building as "Da Kitchen" fronting Isenberg.

St. Louis Alumni Hall, Bar & Cafe. Food/pupus from Maui ’s own “Da Kitchen”, and FREE parking in their lot which is usually full.
There is also free parking available at First Hawaiian Bank next door, (where I park) but you'll need to get a (free) parking ticket from the St. Louis Alumni staff collecting the $5 admission to put into the "park box" for the corresponding stall number.

Dr. Bob AKA da spin Dr. is having his 1st Tuesday of the month dance at the Fleet Lounge tomorrow 6-9 PM. Nice group of people and well worth attending. $5 donation would be nice to pay for gas. There are pupus offered for whatever you care to contribute and the drinks are ridiculously cheap. How can you lose?

So now I hear from reliable sources that Coconut Willy's @ the old Hard Rock is no more. This is very sad news for myself (fortunately all sharp objects and pieces of rope have been hidden from me...) I had attended @ least 4 times and it was great. If I hear that they get it together I'll post the
good news.

The World renowned Dots in Wahiawa

Friends in town have been asking about the Dot's March Calendar. For those of you that might feel like slumming @ the best live music/dance venue going here it is. All the groups this month are great!!! Mark your calendars. What are you waiting for?

"Dot's Restaurant" 130 Mango St. Wahiawa, HI 96786  (808) 622-4115

MARCH 2012  Live Music Line up!

Weekend Dance Music  7:30-10:30pm 

 Saturday 10

"WASABI"

Friday 16

"EASY STREET"

Saturday 17

"OLDIES & GOODIES"

Friday 23

"WASABI"

Saturday 31st

"KONA WINDS"

"OHANA JAM SESSION"  WEDNESDAYS

2nd & 4th Wednesdays of each month 6:30-9:30pm

Open to anyone who enjoys the pleasure of sharing their gift of music!

Dance your okole off. This is a good thing 'cause if you do then you'll have no place to sit so you'll have to keep dancin'!

R

Swing and Live Music

Question to Frankie Manning:
Obviously, there’s been this new swing craze in the last couple years. How does this compare, or does it compare at all to the original swing craze?

Frankie Manning:
The enthusiasm is there. It’s the same as the enthusiasm for the dance when I was coming up because it was something new for them. And now, at this period, it’s something new to these youngsters. It’s just that it’s a different environment altogether. When we were coming up, we danced to live music all the time. There weren’t any tapes and CD’s and all that stuff. We didn’t even know what a disc jockey was.

If we went to somebody’s house, there was someone playing a piano, or some kind of instrument for the rhythm, for us to dance to. If we went to a ballroom… it was unheard of if they just had tapes. So it was always live music, a live band. And by us being able to dance to live music, to musicians, we were able to feed off the music that they gave out and they were able to feed off our energy. So it was an interchange between the dancer and the music and that’s the difference that I see now.

"I Apologize" by Billy Eckstine

Most of the time today, it’s tapes. You can only identify with the music that’s coming over the loudspeaker. Back then we could listen to a record, and we could say, "Oh, that’s so-an-so, that’s Harry James, that’s Gene Krupa, that’s Benny Goodman!" We knew who was playing what, because we listened to these guys impressions so much, we knew how they sounded; we knew what they did.

Now you listen to music coming from the CDs and the tapes and somebody has to tell you who the person is that’s playing. Before we would talk back and forth to these people and we knew them personally. "Hey, how you doin Dizzy?!" And he would holler back, "Hey, Frankie!" That is the difference between now and then. So it’s a different environment.

Guest Authors will make this blog independent.

The enthusiasm is there, but you can’t get the same feeling. These kids nowadays, man; they are something else! I look at these kids, and I say, "Oh man, I sure wish I could dance like that!"

Pub's Side Note: One of  the first things you need to decide when you build your blog is what you want to accomplish with it, and what it can do if successful. I failed with this one. Maybe we can spin off Oahu and Beyond. I would like to see one independent. It needs someone that can find something to say, once a month would be fine.

Changes Are Something New?

By Reginald Chang, Kaimuki:

You think there are too many changes in our dance world? Most of us realize that it has always been that way.

"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams."

The term "ballroom dancing" originates from the dancing in a ballroom, which was a large room specially designed for such dances. And ballrooms continued their existence until well past WWII. Then something began to happen and most of us are well aware of this.

In times past, ballroom dancing was social dancing for the privileged, leaving folk dancing for the lower classes. And there have always been the "lower classes." These boundaries have since become blurred, But the higher levels have always regarded the others as the "hoi polloi." This has been normal social behavior. Even though it should be noted that in times long gone, many ballroom dances were really elevated folk dances.

"On A Wonderful Day Like Today" by Johnny Mathis

Toward the latter half of the 17th century, Louis XIV founded his 'Académie Royale de Musique et de Danse. "Correct" rules for the execution of every dance and the "five positions" of the feet were formulated for the first time by members of the Académie. I believe they are still taught as part of International style of dance. The Academie would continue to dominate ballroom from that time until the close of the 18th century.

Eventually, the first definite cleavage between ballet and ballroom came when professional dancers appeared in the ballets, and the ballets left the Court. They went to the stage and developed a large "spectator" division.. Ballet technique such as the turned out positions of the feet, however, lingered for over two centuries and past the end of the Victorian era. And they developed their own rules of the "correct" way to dance ballet which in turn inspired the spin off of the Modern Dance style.

There is more? Yes.

Pub's Side Note: Blogs are whatever we make them. Exact definitions of a  "blog" is a fool's errand.

Changing Commitment

Yes, I am still shuffling things around for the readers. Town Dancer is slowing down, and with reason. My expectations had been to let them concentrate on their imperial style of dance. They could have gotten independence, made their own rules and have a good platform for their Guest Authors. Together they could have run up the hits to untold heights. But my mistake was that imperialism does not accept dialog. The word can be easily looked up in the dictionary.

"The searching out and thorough investigation of truth
ought to be the primary study of man." ~ Cicero

I will allow Town Dancer to drop to about 100 average hits per day (3000 per month) and it will give the others a chance to get up in island recognition. The next leading blog is Oahu And Beyond with a more extensive coverage. At over 70 hits per day now, it may get to 100 by the end of the year. Could be the one to go independent.

Then I just have to worry about the bottom ones, Dance Guide and Oahu - West. They are struggling to get to the first goal of 34 hits per day. The information contributors and the guest authors will make the difference. The more people with their honest opinions the better for our Social Media.

"The World Is Waiting For The Sunrise." by Les Paul and Mary Ford.

Meanwhile, we must strive to contact more Club dancers, and the other peripherals, such as Country, Line, Salsa, Swing, Tango etc. This information is worth its weight in Palladium. We can round out the dance spectrum quite nicely and everyone can have a chance to get their two cents in.