PacTravel
Where Cha-Cha Rules
And If You Can't Cha-Cha, Forget It!
Back on Saipan in the 1960s, when I was a teen-ager, I learned a hard and fast rule about getting to know girls. It was this: if you didn't know how to cha-cha, you didn't stand a chance at a dance. Or at a party. Or, for that matter, at any place where live music was played. And since those were the days before DJs spun records or CDs at big gatherings, the link between live bands and girls was strong, indeed.
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Little has changed in nearly 40 years. A couple of months ago, while enjoying a drink at Saipan's popular beachside Sunset Bar and Grill, I was reminded that the cha-cha remains the "national" dance of the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas. Nothing gets couples on a dance floor faster than a band playing a cha-cha.
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In this case, it was The Chosen Fools Band, the Sunset's house group that performs seven nights a week. There was a decent crowd for a mid-week evening. The band was going through the usual set of songs from the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. Good tunes, but no one was dancing.
Then the band broke into a nearly 20 minute cha-cha medley and the joint began to jump. One local couple really put on a show, with the young woman swinging and swaying with skilled abandon. She looked as if she'd been dancing the cha-cha since she was a kid, and no doubt that's true.
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Recently on Guam, I asked the 20-something desk clerk at the Ohana Oceanview Hotel if she knew how to cha-cha. Cathy San Nicolas looked stunned that I would even ask the question. "Of course," she replied.
And when did she learn how to cha-cha?
"Oh, when I was a young girl. Everyone learns how to cha-cha. That's what you dance when you go to local parties."
That's true, of course. While the cha-cha is the signature dance of the Northern Marianas, Guam could also claim the cha-cha as its own. If you attend a big bash on Guam, the really popular dance tunes all have a cha-cha beat. That was certainly the case when I worked there in the 1970s. No company Christmas party was complete without a local band that played lots of cha-chas. (And those were the days when disco ruled!)
But while the Chamorros and Carolinians of the Northern Marianas and Guam lay claim to the cha-cha, Palauans will also insist that they've got their own ties to the dance that originated in the mambo. If you've ever been to a bar in Koror that features a band playing "local" music, you're going to hear tunes with a definite cha-cha beat. And the dancers! They could put Guamanian and Saipanese cha-cha aficionados to shame.
Of course, this is in a country that adopted a military march and snappy salute into "Palauan" dance. But the next time you're in Palau and you're at a bar with live music, if you don't know how to cha-cha, you'll be cooling your heels all night.
It is anyone's guess how the cha-cha became so ingrained into "local" culture in these islands. The dance hit the big time in the U.S. in the late 1950s, and I suppose it wasn't too much later before cha-cha tunes were all the rage on jukeboxes in Agana, Chalan Kanoa and Koror. I suspect it was the Pacific Islands version of what teens used to tell host Dick Clark on the American Bandstand television show when they gave a song a high rating: "It has a good beat, and I can dance to it."
Still, it must be an American thing. I've never come across local music with a cha-cha beat in Pacific Islands that weren't once under U.S. rule.
Of course, the cha-cha isn't the only dance music you hear in these islands. Clubs have proliferated on Saipan and Guam and, unfortunately, the day of the traditional Palauan bar (the Koror version of an Irish pub where all are welcome, and the focus is on socializing and dancing more than drinking) seems to be passing. Still, the music is there to hear, and if you want to get a local's view of fun, ask around for where the live music is being played.
On Saipan, the best place is the Sunset Bar and Grill. It is on the beach right behind the Pacific Gardenia Hotel in Chalan Kanoa. Ron Sablan, the veteran Sai- pan hotelier, runs both popular establishments.
The best night to visit is on a "payday Friday." You'll get the big crowds, and the cha-cha will be a staple of the evening. Sunset Bar and Grill patrons are, as our young host, Marianas Variety reporter Haidee Eugenio told us rather delicately, an "older crowd," but there's no shortage of younger patrons.
Nothing reminds me of why I love Saipan more than sitting at a beachside bar under the stars, listening to a live band play cha-cha numbers, watching local couples moving on the dance floor. Watching the dancing today occasionally reminds me of those times, so many years ago, when I stumbled over my own feet trying to keep up with a pretty girl who seemed born to cha-cha.
I just tell myself that the younger dancers at the Sunset Bar and Grill could be the daughters and perhaps the granddaughters of the girls I danced with back then. And I'm comforted by the knowledge that some things don't change, even four decades later.
The Pacific Gardenia Hotel and Sunset Bar and Grill are located in Chalan Kanoa, Saipan. They can be reached at (670) 234-3455, or on the Web at www.pacificgardenia.com.
