There was Hawaii Opera Theatre director Henry Akina wrapped in Lady Luck's (Geneva Rivera) cherry-red feather boa; designers Takeo and Eric Chandler and model Alika dancing around a table with chanteuse Cathy Foy in glitter makeup; while Paris Chai, executive director of the Judiciary History Center, compared tiaras with Her Majesty Princess Yada Yada Glamourella Belladonna (Chandra Miars). Fur, feathers and ritz
By Nadine Kam
nkam@starbulletin.com
Guests had been invited to dress in "top hats, white tie and tails or otherwise excessive."Where else could they have been but at another Iona Pear Dance Theatre fete, "The Ritz"? The fund-raiser for the troupe, staged at the Diamond Head Grill at the W Hotel Nov. 11, ended up with the announcement, delivered via postcard, that the company would be dropping the "Pear" from its name in accordance with a shift in the alignment of our planet.
Reborn as Iona Contemporary Dance Theatre, the dancers nevertheless put on a show arts patrons have come to expect from the colorful assortment of characters such as the King and Queen of Siam (a k a Gary Higashida and Helen Lee), Baron von So & So XIIII (Mark Ropp), Richy Rockefeller 242 (Eric Burns), and what Iona event would be complete without Cocoa Chandelier (Sami L.A. Akuna).
Funds raised will go toward production of the company's newest evening-length work, "Destiny," which will premiere in May 2002 at Hawaii Theatre.
Guests were photographed upon arrival for "passports" into a fantasy world which began with dancers strutting to the Irving Berlin tune "Puttin' on the Ritz" -- Ritz crackers on diners' plates, that is -- complete with Cheez Whiz.
From that point on, it was a whiplash kind of evening as patrons heads turned 'round and 'round while trying to keep up with the mad swirl of dancers delivering wine, salads, chicken and fish (chicky and fishy in their universe) to tables without uttering a word, but sneaking in a tickle or back rub or two.Akina was surprised by the attention in the form of hugs, kisses and massages lavished upon his head. "I've worked with these dancers, and in rehearsals they never touch me!" he said.
By the end of the evening, University of Hawaii Art Department Chairman John Wisnowski was dancing with Roxy the Cigarette Girl (Jamie Nakama), while Lady Bee (Laura Brucia) had lost almost all the party favor bees attached to her body to nimble-fingered hive robbers.
But the party wasn't over before Miss Kitti Kat Karmichael IX (Summer Partlon) had done a table dance preceding dessert of a delectable Chocolate Valhrona Cake.
Meow!
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