Kauai Ballroom Dance Club - Lynn Nakamura

Subject: Kauai Ballroom Dance Club's 9th Anniversary Ball

Hi Everyone,

We want to thank all the Honolulu people that attended the Kauai Ballroom Dance Club's 9th Anniversary Ball.  As usual, it was a great and fun evening.  Everyone there enjoyed themselves thoroughly.  Thank you also for the beautiful leis that were given to all the Honolulu guests.  It was such a wonderful evening.

We also want to thank the Kauai Ballroom Dance Club members (Lihue & Hanapepe Chapters) for hosting the get-together pot-luck on Friday night.  It was so much fun seeing old friends and making new friends.  There was a lot of delicious food that we took some leftovers to the hotel to eat the next day.  The game that Alton Miyamoto conducted, pricing 13 items sold at Kauai prices, was very challenging and fun.  Whoever guessed the closest price of the item, without going over, got to keep the item (only the Honolulu guests were allowed to win).

Best item of the evening was the cookbook, which was personally autographed by Chef Helen, which sells for $15.  The big winner was Candace Yap.  Candace and Yvonne Jorge Cuan were the big winners winning more than 2 items for the evening.  Almost everyone won an item.

The Kauai people are such gracious and very friendly people.  They made all of us feel very welcome.

We wanted to mention that we really enjoyed staying at the Kauai Marriott Hotel.  The hotel property is really beautiful.  We really enjoyed the rooms as it was very spacious, had air-conditioning, and had a mini-refrigerator to store our drinks and food.

Connie Laderta, Dance Magic 808 member, was the lucky winner of the 1 night hotel stay.  There was a contest for the 1 night stay (Oct. 5) if you paid for your tickets in advance by Aug. 29.  We were all so happy for Connie because she is just an awesome person and is a very special Dance Magic 808 member. She's one of the main reasons we have such great refreshments at our dances at the palladium.  Don't forget to come to our Masquerade Ball on Oct. 26 at the palladium and if you are one of the lucky ones (purchasing tickets in advance), you'll be able to taste Connie's delicious mini Hawaiian plate.

Kauai Ballroom Dance Club's 9th Anniversary Ball was attended by about 200 people and even the Mayor of Kauai, Bernard Carvalho, Jr., was there to entertain the audience with his singing and do a special presentation to the Kauai Ballroom Dance Club.

The evening started at 5:30pm with no host cocktails and general dancing.  Around 6:30pm, Emcee, Alton Miyamoto, asked Paula Schultz & Dr. Douglas Duvauchelle to do the blessing, which was a treat for everyone.  They had guitars and sang the English and Hawaiian version of "The Prayer".  It was really beautiful.  You had to be there to appreciate it. Dinner and general dancing followed the prayer.

After 8pm, the program began.  Hanapepe Chapter opened the program with their group performing the beautiful American Waltz, which was choreographed by Roy & Glenda Tamashiro. The dancers were Taylor Campbell & Lynn Jackson, John & Brenda Visitacion, Tomas & Adela Chavez, Mike & Violet Bucao, Roy & Glenda Tamashiro, and Dan & Cornelia Works.

Next to perform was the Dance Magic 808 Members who performed the dramatic International Tango.  The dancers were Larry Arinaga & Candace Yap, Richard & Lynn Nakamura, and Carlos & Chiye Higashide.  Dance was choreographed Richard & Lynn Nakamura.  It was a challenging dance for all of us because we had to rearrange some of the steps.  When we first performed this dance at Dance Magic 808's 2nd Anniversary Ball in August, we had 6 couples and now we had only 3 couples.  The routine looked quite different from the original dance but it was executed well.

  There was some general dancing before the next performances that was great since it gave me a chance to change from my darker blue gown to my lighter blue gown for our next performance.

The Lihue Chapter of the Kauai Ballroom Dance Club was the next group to perform.  They did a lively American Cha Cha which was choreographed by Ken & Ellen Kitabayashi.  The performers were Bryon & Medina Cabalteja, Juanito & Amelia Duarosan, Ken & Ellen Kitabyashi, Eddie & Fely Ibanez, Mac & Dely Layaoen, and Thomas & Marites Yano.

Last was the International Quickstep which was choreographed and performed by us, Richard & Lynn Nakamura.  We did our best to make our moves impressive on a smaller dance floor than what we are used to.  We danced to the very edge of the dance floor to utilize all the floor space.  We were very happy that we could perform this dance for the Kauai people.  Quickstep is our favorite dance but this routine was a lot harder than the other quickstep routines.  We always want to do our best and present a good show with our quickstep and with our International Tango group routine.  We especially wanted to perform really well for the Kauai people because they are always supportive of us.   

All the performers did very well and we wish you could have been there to see and experience all the wonderful performances and be part of all the excitement.

The Mayor was celebrating his birthday that evening so he arrived after the performances and as I had mentioned earlier, he sang some songs that everyone danced to and gave a special presentation.  He stayed and talked to everyone and there was also a photo opportunity with him.  He is a very, very big man but very, very nice and friendly.  He remembered us (Richard & me) from all the years we've attended the ball.

Besides general dancing, there was also some line dancing and just about everyone got on the floor to dance.  We even did the wobble and wild wild west.   Everyone from Honolulu can tell you that they had a great time and that they would want to attend next year's ball if they can.

We have been attending their anniversary ball for 9 years and they have always made us feel very special and welcome.  We always look forward to attending their anniversary ball and we invite all of you to attend next year's ball with us. 

This year there were 23 people from Honolulu that attended the ball.  Thank you to the Ladertas for inviting their friends to this ball that we all appreciated.  Here are the names of the Honolulu people that attended the ball:

Dr. Paul & Marie Laderta and Connie Laderta (Paul's mom)
Fel Padilla & Elvie
Edward Nishimura & Maggie Deng
Tito Magsanoc & Hae Yun
Ed Brion & Remy
Candido & Yvonne Cuan Jorge
Jan Matsuura
Eileen Nakano
Rodney Lee & Shirley Zhuang
Carlos & Chiye Higashide
Larry Arinaga & Candace Yap
Richard & Lynn Nakamura

Thank you to all of you that attended Kauai Ballroom Dance Club's 9th Anniversary Ball.  We hope that you'll be able to join us again next year.

Thank you to the Kauai people for making our weekend in Kauai so much fun.  We enjoyed your gracious hospitality.  You always make all of us feel so very special and you know you are all very special to us.

Mahalo Nui Loa,

Richard & Lynn Nakamura

Co-Founders of Dance Magic 808

cell 808-372-2256 (Lynn)

www.dancemagic808.com