Get ready to swing! The Moanalua High School Swing Dance Society is headlining a fund-raiser for Moanalua's Project Graduation 5:30 to 9 tomorrow night at the Palladium Ballroom in the Ala Wai Golf Course Clubhouse. Teens swing for
Project GraduationThe event will feature a 1940s best dressed contest, swing exhibitions and a dance contest.
In its first year, the school's Swing Dance Society attracted 50 members. The group's 17-year-old president Rachel Uchida says that dancing is a positive influence on youths, and even if the swing trend fades, dance skills can last a lifetime.
"It is something that you can keep on learning and keep on adding to what you know," Uchida said.
She started dancing swing last summer. During the previous school year she had been sitting in a assembly watching a jazz band perform and thought, there ought to be some students out there dancing. She later read about swing dance and modern dance styles and started listening to the music.
"I started appreciating slower music. I started reading a biography of Benny Goodman," said Uchida. She bought a couple of '40s-style dresses and now enjoys learning about the 1940s. "It was so exciting," she said.
"Swing kind of bridges the gap between the old people and the young people."
Tickets for the fund-raiser are $6 pre-sale, available at Jelly's Pearl Kai and Market City, or $8 at the door. Call 836-4891 for more information.
Stephanie Kendrick, Star-Bulletin
It’s swing time
in Hawaii
Lessons are available for
By Stephanie Kendrick
those who want to
dance along
Assistant Features EditorWhen the Lindy hop gave Americans their first taste of swing, Ron Okubo was ... well, actually, Ron Okubo wasn't.
Okubo, who teaches swing at Arthur Murray's Dance Studio in Waikiki, was born 47 years after the first incarnation of the swing, but that hasn't stopped him from being a part of the latest movement.
Swing got Okubo into dance. He was inspired by movies like "Swing Kids" and "Grease," which features jive, a type of swing.
"Swing is just something that exudes energy," said Okubo.
The style of swing that is taking Hawaii and the rest of the country by storm is an acrobatic version of single-time swing. It is very fast paced and involves moves in which the dancers actually become airborne.
Okubo, who is 24, doesn't really get into the flips, turns and lifts swing aficionados call "aerials." But he agreed it's what most of the younger dancers are getting excited about.
The aerials take strength. There is a misconception that the guys are throwing the girls, he said. In fact, both dancers have to be strong enough to launch themselves into the air. The current craze also seems to be as much about a lifestyle as a dance.
"I did sort of buy a whole new wardrobe," said Okubo. 1940s-style fashions are de rigueur at swing parties. And Okubo is hanging out in different places than he did in his pre-swing days. Hawaii swing clubs include the Pier Bar at Aloha Tower Marketplace on Wednesday nights; Field's Dining & Dancing, Thursday nights, on Ena Road in Waikiki; The Shelter at 1739 Kalakaua on Saturdays; and Wave Waikiki on Sunday nights.
But swing comes in a lot of shapes and sizes and you don't have to aspire to aerial lifts to taste a part of the trend.
The Hawaii Ballroom Dance Association sponsors swing classes statewide. The nonprofit association has 3,000 members who range in age from teens to those in their 90s in 23 chapters on Oahu, Maui, Kauai and the Big Island.
Association member Curt Young, 45, attends a Tuesday night class at Royal Elementary. He describes the swing being taught there as more traditional (and sedate) than the dance the kids are doing.
"This has always been here, but it's exciting to see what the kids are doing." Young often goes down to the clubs and finds it fun just to watch. "We'll do some of that stuff, but we're older."
Older couples are less likely to do the aerials, he said, adding "we're more likely to drop our partner."
Young said knowing the basics in ballroom dancing would help young people pick up swing steps faster, and he said the association classes were packed this summer with local kids home from college.
It's also possible to learn as you go. "If you're a young kid, go with your peers," said Young. He said a lot of the better club dancers are willing to teach newcomers.
Richard Murphy runs the Arthur Murray dance studio in Hawaii. He said there are some excellent young amateurs in the clubs who are serving as instructors, but the renewed interest in swing also has been good for professional dance instructors.
" 'Swing is the thing' as they are saying," said Murphy. "It's been great for us."
The studio has added three instructors to meet the growing demand and is holding a training class for more. Nine to 10 trial lessons are being booked a week; last year's average was three and a half.
And Murphy also teaches swing classes at the Pier Bar on Wednesday evenings and at Koolau Country Club on Friday evenings. On any Wednesday, he said, 60 to 80 Pier Bar patrons will jump up for the free swing lesson. Before the craze hit, you'd be lucky if 20 people would get up for a free dance lesson, said Murphy.
He thinks the trend is here to stay, at least for a while. "When you see the bands are trying to hook in, the radio stations are trying to hook in, the bars are trying to hook in, and places like Koolau Country Club are trying to hook in, that's when you know it's the real McCoy," Murphy said.
Jump right in
Arthur Murray: Open 1 to 9 p.m. Mondays through Fridays. First lesson is free. Follow-up package, $100, consists of one private, one group and one dance party lesson. Call 941-5007.
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