2012 IBDI Inaugural Ball

On January 20, 2012, the International Ballroom Dance Club had it’s Inaugural Ball at the Pacific Beach Hotel. Debra and I attended and I took a lot of pictures. I wanted to share them with you much earlier, but we had a tenant turnover in our rental unit. The last tenant vacated about a week early so I took the opportunity to go in and do some long-needed renovation - drywall, plaster, paint, etc. Some parts of our unit have 20 ‘ ceilings - it wasn’t easy. And, I had to finish by Tuesday night so the new tenants could move in on the 1st. So, I was kinda busy.

Anyway, here are some of the pictures I took. Chris Jay and the IBDI Board did a great job with the event. I won’t go into the details, with all the names of the newly installed officers, etc. Frank did a great job covering that in his timely blog. If you didn’t see it, here’s the link: http://getdancing.blogspot.com/2012/01/ibdi-inaugural-ball.html. After the Installation of Officers by Shawn Ching, and a Snowball Mixer, came a series of ballroom dance performances by some of Honolulu’s more talented ballroom dancers. The music was good, there was lots of general dancing, and Shari Berinobis did a great job of keeping the program moving, as the Emcee.



Opening Part I of the Exhibition Dances was Carlos Chang dancing a Samba with Charlotte Bugarin. Carlos is always a dynamic dancer and great to watch. He's a great competitive professional and some of his accomplishments, aside from competition, have been making it to Hollywood in So You Think You Can Dance and performances in Australia and Waikiki with Burn The Floor, etc. Charlotte has been dancing and performing for a while with her husband Edwin. She's always been a fun and lively Latin dancer, but she's getting pretty darn good under Carlos' coaching. These two burned up the floor with their Samba. Wow!
















Next up was Dr. Michael Uechi dancing a Waltz with his lovely wife, Trudy. A lovely ballroom dance couple, who have competed in many past ballroom dance competitions including, of course, the Hawaii Star Ball. If you go to the Palladium often, I'm sure you have seen Dr. Uechi practicing - sometimes with Trudy and sometimes by himself. :-) You'll also see their lovely daughter Stephanie giving them tips along the way. Recently retired, we hope to see a lot more of Mike and Trudy on the dance floor.
















Gayle Kawahakui and Jun Lim came on with an exciting International Tango. Gail is a seasoned dancer, who has done many performances over the years and her technique and styling shined throughout the performance. Jun has also been dancing for quite some time and no newcomer to exhibitions and competition. He does have a tendency to get nervous, but he had it under control for this performance. :-) Nice job.

Closing Part I of the Exhibition was Lucas Jaime dancing a showy Quickstep with student Emi Matsuoka. Their performance was like a mini-Broadway performance. Great costuming and fun choreography to lively music. They certainly entertained the crowd.
















Between Parts I & II of the Exhibition Dances was more general dancing. The floor was quickly filled by many dancers inspired by the performances by the exhibition dancers.

Opening Part II of the Exhibition Program was Tommy Nakamura dancing a Foxtrot with Stephanie Uechi. Tommy has been dancing for quite a while. He used to compete in amateur ballroom competitions and did quite well. He's trained with a number of top competitive professional coaches and it shows in his technique. He did a great job, even managing to smile during his performance. :-) Stephanie is also a seasoned former competitive dancer and has partnered with some of the greatest ballroom dancers around. Her style and elegance is such a pleasure to watch. Just beautiful.

Edwin and Charlotte Bugarin performed a Jive. Edwin and Char recently started competing as an amateur couple, under the coaching of Carlos Chang. They took First Place in Latin at the Hawaii Star Ball. They have their eye on the USA Dance Nationals in 2013 which will be held in Los Angeles. I'm sure they're going to do great. Carlos is doing a great job coaching them and Edwin and Char practice so hard - and it shows!

Sergio & Renna Villanueva put on a fun and entertaining Cha-Cha in their characteristic style. Sergio always does a great job of showing off Renna, and Renna does such a good job projecting her personality through her dance. These two are always fun to watch.

The final performance of the evening was a vibrant Rumba performed by Carlos Chang and Elizabeth Lawson. Elizabeth is a competitive ballroom dancer and she put on a great performance with good technique that we can all appreciate.

Dancers remained on the floor until the last dance was played at 11:30 p.m. What a night.

That's all folks!

Until next time,
With Aloha

Calvin & Debra

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