Posted on: Friday, February 11, 2005
For that ageless joy — 'Shall we dance?'
By Treena Shapiro
Advertiser Staff Writer
Geri Farley had just been admiring the high school boys on the dance floor when one of them surprised her by asking for a dance.
Photos by Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser "He was such a gentleman," she gushed afterward. "He was so cute!"
Farley's partner was one of about 75 Waldorf High School students who attended the city's 2005 Senior Citizens Valentine Dance yesterday morning at the Blaisdell Exhibition Hall.
The annual event usually draws hundreds of seniors, but this was the first time the teenagers made an appearance.
Beth Allingham, Waldorf High School chairwoman, said the event was an opportunity for the students to practice the ballroom dancing moves that they are required to learn during their freshman and sophomore years. "They learn how to ask somebody to dance and they learn how to say yes," she said.
Farley said her partner held out his hand when he invited her to dance, and afterward held her hand when he walked her back to her seat once their slow dance ended.
During a line dance, 15-year-old Emily Peck and 89-year-old Joseph Tson became partners, a happy surprise for Tson, who had brought a date closer to his own age.
"I asked him to dance," Peck said. "We were told to mingle and it's really fun."
Not all the Waldorf students danced with seniors. Katelyn Ching, 17, pointed out: "There are way more (senior) women than men. I danced mostly with my classmates."
But even if all students didn't partner with individual seniors, at many times the students and seniors took the floor together for line dancing, when people of all age groups mixed together.
Shanha Rohter, 18, enjoyed the unique experience. "It feels so good to dance with the seniors and it makes them happy," she said.
Reach Treena Shapiro at tshapiro@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8014.
It hadn't been that long since Farley had danced with a handsome young man, but it had been a while since the septuagenarian had such a young partner who wasn't one of her grandchildren.
Christopher Matar, 15, of Honolulu Waldorf High School, takes 71-year-old Emiko Soto for a spin around the dance floor during the city-sponsored Senior Citizens Valentine Dance. Yesterday was the first time that the annual event included young dance partners.
For senior citizens, it brought back memories of those proms at the gym. For young students, it helped prepare them for the big night ahead.
