WHEE, THE PEOPLE: Tatiana Echevarria, a 16-year-old Kamehameha junior and student director of the Kamehameha Dance Company, is attending the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre's Summer Intensive Program in The Big Apple. She's been staying with brother Isaac Calpito, who is appearing in Broadway's "Mamma Mia," while she soaks up her dance lessons. ...

Kelvin Y.S. Chun, Nu'uanu Elementary School teacher and off-hours magician and balloonologist, has been tapped for the 2006 Japan Fulbright Memorial Fund Teacher Program, a three-week work-study program in Japan. ...

Jazz drummer Noel Okimoto, who underwent a kidney transplant (the donor was his wife, Liane, a perfect match), is making remarkable progress, says his good friend, Roy Sakuma, the 'ukulele festival organizer. ...

SMALL WORLD: We recently returned from Croatia, and guess who also took a trip there (and to other parts of Eastern Europe)? The Mike Rosenbergs and the Jeff Portnoys. Rosenberg, general manager of KITV-4, said Portnoy, the lawyer, was checking this column out (via the Internet) when the foursome were in Dubrovnik and saw our return-home column about that fabled walled city. ...

AROUND TOWN: Pianist Alex Rybeck, a New Yorker who has performed with Tommy Tune, Kitty Carlisle, Ann and Liz Calloway and other Broadway stars, was a recent houseguest of Joy Abbott. Rybeck was here with Faith Prince, the Tony Award-winning actress ("Guys and Dolls"), after a concert tour of Australia. Abbott, whose late husband George Abbott was a legendary Broadway figure, took her guests to hear pianist Betty Loo Taylor play at the Kahala Hotel's Veranda, where Prince shared some Broadway tunes. Rybeck took over keyboards and Prince's husband, trumpeter Larry Lunetta (who gigs with Paul Anka), sat in. Abbott, a sometime performer herself (she and Taylor are bonding on a new CD), joined in on a number with Prince. They had so much fun, they returned a second evening, enjoying singer Loretta Ables Sayre, with lots of local notables either performing or watching, including Les Benedict, the trombonist; Murray Tanner, the horn player; singer Jimmy Borges; and Jim Hutchison, who directed "Damn Yankees," the Abbott musical, earlier at Army Community Theatre. ...

TRADE WINDS: Mihana Souza's "Chucky's in the Kitchen" and "Chant" have had ample exposure on HGTV's "House Hunters" show. Aside from earlier June airings, the show rebroadcasts one more time July 30. ...

Actor-singer Joey Caldarone, who met up with publicist Lisa Josephsohn in New York, attended an exclusive party at the United Nations, which required his Social Security number to clear security. They've taken in Broadway shows galore. Josephsohn had a lox-and-bagel fix at Carnegie Deli with Gideon Toeplitz, the Honolulu Symphony's interim honcho, who ventured to Manhattan from his home in the Berkshires. Josephsohn also caught up with Wendy Porter (from the "In the Mood" show at the Hawai'i Theatre) and with Bob Billig, who is currently conducting "Wicked" and who sat in on "Les Miserables" and "Miss Saigon" auditions earlier in Hawai'i. ...

Keith and Carmen Haugen's forthcoming anthology CD, "A Lifetime of Hawaiian Music," is to be released this month, but the manufacturer (XL Media Solutions) in Vista, Calif., has done the unusual, providing a sneak listen on their telephone system, which you can hear if you're put on hold. ...

CALENDAR CUE: Maunalua performs at 5:30 p.m. Saturday at the Hawaii Kai Towne Center waterfront stage. ...

Eddie Griffin uncorks the laughs this Friday at Blaisdell Concert Hall. You may have seen him in "Scary Movie 3" and "Deuce Bigelow: European Gigolo." ...

And that's Show Biz. ...

Show Biz is published Tuesdays and Thursdays. Reach Wayne Harada at 525-8067, wharada@honoluluadvertiser.com or fax 525-8055.