MANCHESTER – Grass skirts, soft music, delicious food and great weather were all elements of “A Night in Paradise” one of the most popular events of the summer, provided for free by the township Recreation Department.
Harry Wright Lake Park was filled with people sitting in beach chairs for the annual event that featured hula dancers, a live luau band, Tahitian drummers, and fire knife warriors provided by Paradise Island Entertainment based in Berlin, New Jersey.
They performed before a big audience at the same location last year for the event as well and they first visited Manchester in 2024 at the Manchester branch of the Ocean County Library providing a luau show in honor of Asian Pacific Month. Their program shared some tropical island culture which was something touched upon during the evening’s program.
Paradise Entertainment has a literal family history that brought them altogether. Their origin includes an interesting love story. The host from the Paradise Island Band told the audience “Almost all the dancers you see here today are related. We have every combination of brothers, sisters, husbands, wives, cousins – you name it we have it.”
It all started with drummer Sefo Valinote’s family. His uncle moved to Hawaii and he was the main fire knife dancer in the show there. One night at the show when they brought all the ladies up from the audience to learn how to hula, sparks flew between one of the ladies and him, literally. “She was from the beautiful tropical island of Deptford, New Jersey” a narrator recalled.
They fell in love and they wrote letters back and forth for about six months. He then followed her to the Garden State and before long his whole family followed them over gradually and they all ended up having children and starting their new show and new life. One of those young children was part of the night’s show.
“Forty years later their children, nieces, nephews are proud to carry on the family tradition and represent their culture for all of you tonight,” the band leader added.
The narrator provided some background on common Hawaiian words such as hula and aloha. Aloha is the Hawaiian word for love, affection, peace, compassion and mercy. It is commonly used as a greeting but is also found in all Polynesian languages and always with the same basic meaning of love, compassion, sympathy, and kindness.
Along with Hawaii and Tahiti dances the performers also showcased some of the culture of New Zealand which is the sixth-largest island country, and the third-largest located entirely in the southern hemisphere. In New Zealand they do a dance with the poi ball which is a braided string with a pom pom at the end and a ball.
Fire knife dancers brought some heat to the event as they danced while spinning flaming batons set aflame from both sides. After a few other acts and costume changes it was time to bring audience members up to teach them dance moves.
Recreation Department Director Kaitlyn Sloan was there to overseeing the activity and enjoying the show.
