Family of the Month (FOM) is awarded to parents that go the extra mile to help other families at Pas De Deux Hawaii! This family will receive a free month of tuition, compliments of owners Wendy and Jeremy Gilbert. Want to nominate a deserving family? Email us!
The Matsuyama-Habit Family
Aloha to PDD ohana from the Habit Family! We are James and Yuko, parents to Sydney(12). We are so happy to be part of the PDD Ohana and are excited to share about our family and our journey.
Yuko is a sales manager of a real state company and James is a retired veteran who has been traveling the states and the world to find the place he likes to be. This is why no one see him around the PDD. Syd has been missing him when he's started his journey but now she used to it and enjoyed his stories where he's been and experienced. Also Syd and Yuko have visited him in many places during Syd's school break such as New York for musical and museums, Orlando for swimming with Manatees and of course Disney World, Glacier National park, Montana for snowboarding and latest trip during summer break was to Bangkok, Thailand for elephant riding and so. We are surprised that Syd is very good at snowboarding after having only a 2 hours lesson then she was ready to be on slope already! A Hawaiian girl on the snowy mountain :) Her dad and mom are experienced snowboarders and it was easy for them to navigate her next level once she knows a basic. Now Syd would like to go to the snowy mountain every winter if she has a chance.
Syd is 7th Grader at Kaimuki Middle school and a member of the orchestra as a Violinist that she really enjoys playing. Also she is a good swimmer, has been a member of YMCA's swim team, participated some races and competitions especially freestyle and back stroke category.
Syd's dance journey with PDD started in early 2021. In 2020, our friend recommended me to try asking if PDD had planned to start in-person class soon at that time everything was shutting down meanwhile Syd was in other dance studio which had been closed and didn't have any plan to open in-person class for a while but Syd needed to explode her energy and passion to dance with friends not just taking remote classes by herself in the living room. Fortunately PDD started hybrid class soon and we really appreciated they had a place where Syd could belong. Since she joined to PDD, she found her passion for expressing herself is much bigger than we expected. Syd started hiphop first, then joined Musical theater that took her to new adventure of tap and sing. Syd played as a thespian also experienced production side which made her understand deeply how to create one musical that was more difficult and hard work needed than she imagined.
This is Syd's first season of Tap and Hiphop Company Prep and excited to be the part of them on the higher level after going through the audition which gave her a big confidence to challenge for her new movement.
We have found the PDD is the place that have great teachers, mentors, administrative staff, dance mates and their parents, all of whom we truly admire. They gave Syd not only dance technique and skill, also improving her confidence and motivation to be a better person (wishing to be selected as a mentor someday) through her experience at PDD.
We recommend to all family to join and experience to be a volunteer for rehearsals and/or recitals whenever they have a chance that we can see and feel how hard all PDD dancers, teachers and staff work for a show!
Thank you to Ms. Wendy, Mr. Jeremy and all teachers, mentors and admin staff for all your hard work and support. We are happy to see the PDD's been growing bigger and appreciate to be part of the PDD Ohana.
