PEARL Chan isn't dancing much these days. But the baroness of ballroom dancing is hardly standing still either.
She's staging dance presentations, corralling dancers, jetsetting and thriving as dance's unofficial ambassador and administrator.
''I hate failure,'' announces the former ballet dancer who does however claim two failed marriages. ''I refused to be a housewife.'' She left the barre after 30 years of teaching and relishes her current role of impresario.
The growing numbers of young Hong Kong Chinese trying ballroom, tango, tap, you-name-it, invites the kind of grin coaches flash when their team nail the championship.
When the curtain of the Cultural Centre's Grand Theatre stage rises this evening on a dozen dancers in the International Ballroom and Latin American show, familiar faces, as well as younger ones, will dot the audience.
For the interview, Ms Chan - a tiny woman bathed in rose-coloured cotton - sat in the lobby of a hotel, reigning over a marble-top table, her mobile phone momentarily lying in repose next to her coffee cup.
Her favourite indulgence (cream-filled almond rolls) brings out ''I shouldn't, really, but . . .''. The finger-sized pastries wreak havoc on the 1.53 metre tall frame, it's owner still grappling with a five-pound souvenir picked up on a recent trip.