Post #731079 by tikicoma on Sat, Nov 8, 2014 1:49 AM

Recently I've met a lady who was a polynesian dancer at the Reef as early as May 1962.
Her name is Tani. (all photos taken at the Reef)

Though she had previously performed modern dance at Stanford U. she first learned to hula in the Seattle area at the YMCA and over the years continued to add to her repertoire from dancers on islands across Polynesia.

She told me that the Reef was small and so was the stage, you can see it's just a spot that two dancers barely can perform on.

It was her first professional hula gig (here doing a Hilo Hattie style comic hula) and before long she put a troop together (Tani and the South Sea Islanders) and they started performing at the Golden Door in Seattle, a gig that lasted fifteen years.

She seemed to recall that the Reef wasn't open long and may have closed after a fire.
Forgive the bad photos, but I was taking shots of pictures with bad lighting.

aloha, tikicoma