The Music Is Always Right.

The Music, Wrong?
By Judie and Stan Martin

Dancers just know when the music isn’t comfortable, so they say the band is no good. If you heard a new band play your favorite piece of music at half speed, would you think to say, “If they played it twice as fast it would have been great.”

"Music is the wine that fills the cup of silence."
~ Robert Fripp

As classic American style social dancers, (Universal) we are the last ones to demand limited “strict” tempos, but many people today study English/International style with its very limited tempo ranges and American Social dancers have gotten used to the limited tempos played where English style is danced.

A resolution is if band leaders adjusted their tempos to please dancers. If the band referred to had gone to the ballroom before hand and listened to the tempos of the tapes dancers prefer and then play their arrangements to those tempos, the dancers would have loved them. Dancers are not preoccupied with sound or style so much as tempo.

"Brown Eyed Girl" by Van Morrison

Perhaps, where live bands are employed for ballroom dance music, employers should consult dancers and give the band a list of suggested tempos ranges. Unfortunately, some uninformed musicians may take offense at what they regard as in intrusion into their domain. We suggest they step back and look at what has happened to live bands & the growing popularity of taped music.

Q: Where did the hamburger go to dance?
A: At the Meat ball

It’s Friday night and you have danced up a tsunami. You get home and realize that your dancing shoes are a tad, um, aromatic. And there is another good dance Saturday night. No problema. Pour a couple teaspoons of baking soda in two squares of cotton cloth. Tie the corners tightly, tuck the balls into the shoes and leave'em overnight. The next day, your shoes will be fresh as daisies.

New Dance Night Club in Kalihi? Sounds all right with me.