Olana Ai
description: OlanaAi is the daughter of hula teacher Blossom Clark Kaipo and has taught hula on 0‘ahu for the last eight years. It’s very exciting to be living during an era of renaissance in Hawai‘i. A time not only of rebirth for the old arts and culture but also a time of new growth and development in these areas. Finally the Hawaiians are dancing for themselves. Not just for the gods, not just for the ali‘i, not just for the tourists but finally for themselves. My mother Blossom Clark Kaipo is my kumu and she is the source, the teacher, and the inspiration for all that evolves in our halau. When I was growing up, our home was a stopover place for strangers as long as I can remember. Strangers were welcome and they would return again and again. My mother taught hula so there were hula skirts on the walls, and music and the implements surrounded us. She never prodded my sister and I to dance but once we showed the interest she began to train us. I began with my mother at age three and I continue to study under her today. I was taught the chants, traditional Hawaiian mele, and hapa Haole songs but there was no definite division between kahiko and ‘auana back then. In class my mother taught the basic steps the way she had been taught by her mother. Our knees were bent, our steps were precise, and our shoulders were steady; and this helped to make the swaying of our hips more natural-looking. I did not go on to another teacher after my mother because I felt it would be disloyal. In 1975 my daughter Natalie Noelani was in kindergarten and I wanted her to learn the hula style of my family, so I gathered together a few girls who were interested and I began to teach. I’ve never thought of myself as a kumu hula but a hula teacher. I’ve gone very, very slowly and I’ve kept my goals small because I wanted to fit my family into my life. Today we are all involved. My husband Howard Ai is the halau musician, advisor, and artistic designer; and my children participate in the halau as techni…

Mae Ulalia Loebenstein
subject: Nā Kumu Hula Mae Ulalia Loebenstein text from Nānā I Na Loea Hula Vol One Page 94
description: Mae Loebenstein is the daughter of the late Ida Long of Kahului, Maui and currently works in collaboration with Alicia Smith of Halau 0 Na Maoli Pua. The hula, as I was growing up in the home of my parents Henry and Ida Long of Kahului, Maui, was a vital, living experience. Mama, born Ida Pakulani Kaaihue, studied with the hula master Kamawae of Maui. She lived in the halau and was trained in the art of kuahu and hula ‘olapa. As our first kumu hula, Mama shared the knowledge of her halau life with us. This knowledge is a living reality based on a vast experience of learning and sharing. Everyday we were taught a little bit about the dance — kaholo to get a sense of rhythm and beat or how to use the implements. We learned kahiko first and then ‘auwana. We would dance in the afternoon after all our chores were done. It was our recreation time. My mother would take us to the mountains to learn which ferns were used for dancing or to the ocean to learn which seaweed was used for healing or for eating. The most precious gift my mother gave me through hula was a sense of discipline. Discipline develops assurance and confidence. Mama taught us hula as a way to know our culture and heritage rather than for entertaining. I came to 0‘ahu to attend St. Andrews Priory, and in those days the only way to travel between islands was by ship. That’s an experience that today’s children have missed. After high school I became a musician and met Lena Guerrero. Eventually, we joined Daddy and Mama Bray who were performing at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. Once a week, the Brays would have a lu‘au at their home in Pu‘unui for the tourists and we would provide the entertainment. Mama Bray had an aura of mysticism about her and as our teacher in the hula, she helped to develop a natural fashion sense in hula costuming and it’s overall effect on the dance. So me of my fondest memories are of the years I spent as an entertainer at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. That was an era of elegance and gentilit…

Edward William Collier Jr.
subject: Nā Kumu Hula Edward William Collier Jr.
description: Currently a (lance teacher at ‘Iolani School, Edward William Collier, Jr. has been teaching hula for over thirty years and is the kumu hula of Hdlau 0 Nd Pua Kukui located in Kalihi. When I first started to teach hula, my halau was known as Ed Collier's Dancers. As time went on however we wanted to use the word “halau in our name. One day the name Hdlau 0 Nd Pua Kukui came to me. I was dancing with Kawai Cockett and the Lei Kukui Dancers in the late Sixties and early Seventies. So l asked Kawai if it was alright to use this name. I used the word “pua” instead of “lei” because as the “pua,” we re still growing and learning about hula. Also the kukui is symbolic and the Hawaiians used it for their food, medicine, dyes, and mainly for light. I felt this was an appropriate name for my halau. I first learned hula when I was about twenty-years-old. Instead of being a dancer first then studying to become a teacher, it was the complete opposite with me. I was a teacher first. While involved with the St. John’s Church in Kalihi, I got kids who didn’t have anything to do and who had studied under different hula teachers to share with all of us. Because these kids loved to perform, we did shows at hospitals, old folks homes, and service clubs. My first students were also my teachers. They showed me the basic steps. I just had a love for the hula. Although 1 didn’t know how to dance, I was able to choreograph by watching my kids. But 1 wanted to learn ancient hula. I wasn’t trained formally and I didn’t really understand it. I used to watch somebody dance and copy it, thinking it was alright. I later found out what I was doing was wrong. The person I consider my first and only teacher is Henry Pa. He was teaching at the Magic Hula Studio where he and Aunty Bose Joshua shared (lie studio. 1 stayed with him for about four years. Uncle Henry Pa set me straight . He told me that hula is your own creativity. You have to create your own dance. You cannot use somebody else’s hula. Unc…

Winona Beamer
description: Winona Beamer Nona Beamer is the daughter of Louise Beamer and is the mother of Keola and Kapono Beamer. She currently serves on the Native Hawaiian Study Commission and is a member of the faculty of the Kamehameha Schools. The house in Hilo is right on the banks of the Wailuku River. “Sweetheart Grandma” always had stalks of bamboo in the corners of the house and there was a gentle breeze, a nice flow of air always drifting through the house. I was mesmerized by the feeling of this breeze, how soothing it was as it mixed with the sounds of the river and the rustling of the bamboo. The hula for me was a family obligation. I’m not sure if I really liked it when I began. My earliest recollection of dancing was at the Volcano on the Big Island. It was cold and there was gravel on the ground and I was very upset with my grandmother for making me dance. My first kumu were my great-grandmother Isabella Desha and my grandmother Helen Desha Beamer whom we called “Sweetheart Grandma.” She was a great inspiration to me. She was always trying to train us to have the right feelings within ourselves so that we could experience the calmness that was all around us. When we walked into a room we had to walk as if our feet weren’t touching the mat. If she heard your feet scuffling the mat you would have to go out and come in again. Sometimes she would train us outside and the fragrance of the leaves and mangoes would be all around. There was a hallway in the house where my grandfather had collected war implements from all over the world, and as a little girl it would frighten me to go through that hall and into the room where we danced. My grandmother would give each of us a tī leaf and talk about faith and hope and love. She would tell us the chants of Laka and she would tell them as if Laka was right there. While she talked she would tell us to feel the shape and the texture of the leaves and to put them up to our faces and feel their smoothness. She would talk of the mist over th…

William Kahakuleilehua Haunu‘u Ching
subject: Nā Kumu Hula William Kahakuleilehua Haunu‘u Ching - Nānā I Nā Loea Hula Volume 2 Page 28
description: In March 1986 William “Sonny" Ching established Hālau Na Mamo O Puʻuanahulu which is currently located in the Kapahulu and Kapālama areas of Honolulu. It was preordained that I would be the one to continue hula in my family. Both my grandmother and great grandmother could foresee it. After I was born, my great grandmother said I was going to be the chanter. At the age of four my grandmother started teaching me some of the chants and we would progress to the dancing. When I was twelve, my father decided that I shouldn’t dance so my grandmother taught me without his permission. Now he is my biggest supporter. My grandmother Lena Pua‘ainahau Eleakala Nahulu Guerrero was my confidant, my roommate, my grandmother, and my best friend. She taught me on a one-to-one situation and we usually did things on a daily basis. We always preceded our training with prayer and because my grandmother was of pure koko and was fluent in the language, she prayed in Hawaiian. That’s how I run my class today. Before we dance, we pray to Akua and to Laka. My grandmother told me I can never set up a kuahu because my hālau is to be dedicated to God. But it was all right to do the chants that honor Laka because those chants need to continue otherwise it would be forgotten. For us this is part of the ritual that prepares us spiritually, physically, and mentally for the hula. This is one of the ways we build our mana. The method that my grandmother used to teach me hula and chant was by imitation. This is also the way I teach today. We just repeated this process until she felt I was doing ii correctly. She chanted, I chanted. She danced, I danced. I was not allowed to write anything which was good because when you learn strictly through memory, things tend to stay with you longer. I had an ‘ūniki with my grandmother in February of 1984. It wasn’t a traditional ʻailolo ceremony but more like a hu‘elepo. It was a private ritual of prayers and food and was held during the day. I was presented and I …

Wayne Wai Keahi Chang
description: Wayne Wai Keahi Chang In 1975 Wayne Chang and Robert Cazimero co-founded Hālau Nā Kamalei, one of several mens hālau that helped to revolutionize the popular notion of menʻs hula in the community. He is currently Director of Admissions at the Kamehameha Schools. My advice to the young dancers of today is stay with the dance. Don’t look for added rewards. Don’t look beyond the enjoyment of dance. The dance must be treated as art or else it becomes an endless circle of performances. If you are looking to use the hula only as a vehicle for greater reward you are making a mistake. You must be able to dance in a room with no one around and feel the force of hula. You shouldn’t need anybody to watch you. My first kumu was Aunty Nona Beamer who I first met in 1968 as a senior at Kamehameha Schools. From the start what Nona gave me was a joy for performing and dancing. I was raised on the Mainland until I was thirteen so I didn’t have a Hawaiian background to fall back on. I did not know the pronunciation and meanings of Hawaiian words so Nona was the perfect teacher for the level that I was at. I think if my introduction to the hula had been more accelerated I would have been intimidated by the culture. With Nona if you danced in time to the beat and you enjoyed yourself that was enough. It wasn’t important to be perfectly synchronized with the other dancers. If the audience enjoyed the dance and could see you enjoying yourself that’s what really mattered. I studied with Nona for a year and then in 1974 I began my training under Aunty Māʻiki Aiu Lake. The hālau at that time was located on Ke‘eaumoku Street and in Mā’iki’s school the hula was presented as a form of study and discipline which was something I had never encountered before. There was a sense of continuity that permeated Māʻiki’s teaching. She stressed that the traditional chants must be protected and perpetuated. She tempered this by encouraging us to create new mele and new choreography. My ‘ūniki was held in …

Victoria Sunday Napuananionapalionako‘olau Kekuaokalani Mariteragi
subject: Nā Kumu Hula Victoria Sunday Napuananionapalionako‘olau Kekuaokalani Mariteragi - Nānā I Nā Loea Hula Volume 2 Page 76
description: Sunday Mariteragi, a physical education instructor at Kahuku High School, teaches hula on the grounds of the Polynesian Cultural Center. I took hula from Aunty Sally Wood Naluai when I was five- years-old. The only time I stopped was when she went to the mainland. Aunty taught in Kane‘ohe but I also remember traveling with her to places like Kalihi, Waimanalo, and the North Shore. I was fourteen- years-old when she went to teach the college kids at the Polynesian Cultural Center. She would use me as her alaka‘i and sometimes she actually left me to teach her classes in Kāne‘ohe. Before any kind of refinement in hula, Aunty’s first and foremost concern was timing. The fundamental steps were next and then the graceful refinement of the hands. Movement came with kahiko; you had to bend. But your body still had to flow and your arms always had to be projected so everybody could see your motions. Those were her thoughts. She was never one for dancing too close to herself. It was always an open style. It was in 1980 that my sister Ellen Gay and I had our ‘ūniki. The ceremony was held at Aunty Sally’s home in Kahaluʻu and we had to explain the different traditional chants like “Kawika,” ‘“'AuʻaʻIa,” “Ku‘i Moloka‘i,” “Ua Nani ‘O Nuʻuanu.” We had to explain and dance all of them. We had to describe the many uses of the ti leaf and make our own haku for the drum and for the ipu. And then we had to do many hula ‘auana and we had to explain each song and describe the different narratives of each song. This was in front of family and close friends. I started teaching hula in Kāne‘ohe as early as 1970. I had finished college and I was living at my family’s home in Kāne‘ohe. I taught physical education at Kailua Intermediate School and included hula in the curriculum. I also held hula classes after school. Traditionally, ancient dances were not done too fast. Now the dances are so fast. Sometimes you don’t have enough time to see motions. You’ll see movement maybe but not specific…

Victoria Hanaka‘ulani-0- Kamamalu Holt Takamine
subject: Nā Kumu Hula Victoria Hanaka‘ulani-O-Kamamalu Holt Takamine - Nānā I Nā Loea Hula Volume 2 Page 111
description: Kumu hula of Pua Aliʻi Ilima, Vicky Takamine also teaches Hawaiian chant, dance and culture at the University of Hawaiʻi- Mānoa and the Leeward Community College. When students come To me, the first thing I tell them is that I might not be the right teacher for them. So if they don’t care for the way I’m teaching or they’re not getting anything out of my classes, l don’t feel badly if they want to move on. If they come and they want to adapt to my style then the first thing we do is train in kahiko. I also teach them the text of a song because the important thing about the dance is not just the movements, it’s the text. Just teaching feet and hands have no meaning. It is not Hawaiian. I teach them a song right away to get them moving and to get them involved. I want them to feel that they can accomplish a chant or a song in a short period of time. I want them to feel very confident in their own ability. I started dancing at a very young age by watching television and watching my mother dance. She used to dance with the Alama sisters. I took formal lessons with Aunty Māʻiki Aiu at the age of fifteen when she was located at Ke‘eaumoku Street. I studied with her until I graduated from high school in 1965. For five years I was going to hula off and on. In 1970 Aunty Māʻiki opened her hula classes for kumu hula and a year later I started with her again. The first thing we learned with Aunty Māʻiki was basic hands and feet. She had a special song that she had created just for us, and she taught us the basic hand gestures and foot movements that went with the song. We won Id start learning to speak and understand the language from the first day we walked into class. We always had a test at the end of the month. So if we were in the Friday class, the last Friday of the month was set aside for words and translation for whatever mele or song we had learned that month. You had to keep on your toes because she would pull things out of the hat that we learned several months befo…

Ulalia Ka‘ai Berman
subject: Nā Kumu Hula Ulalia Ka‘ai Berman - Nānā I Nā Loea Hula Volume 2 Page 19
description: Ulalia Berman, a resource teacher with Department of Education, Hawaiian Studies-Kupuna Program, is kumu hula of Ulalia Hawaiian School of Dance located in Kailua-Kona. Hula was taught to me at the age of one and a half years by an aunt. Because one of my legs was shorter than the other, hula was an exercise to even out my legs. At three-years-old my brothers and sister took me to Puʻunui Playground where Bose Lane was teaching hula. She taught hapa haole songs, a lot of ʻauana, and no kahiko. Aunti Alice Nāmakelua also taught at this park. I thought she was so strict. Little did I know that she would be a great influence on me and many of the hālau. At the age of seven Daddy wanted me to learn from his cousin Kuulei Stibbard but by this time, I was enrolled at Hula Hālau ʻO Māʻiki and on my way to the life that gave me so much. I was fortunate to have learned how to do the business end of the hālau while in high school. I took care of registration, collecting tuition, checking who had which costumes, and who was ready. I learned from the ground up. When Aunti Māʻiki was called away, I taught for her. And to teach your peers when you are still in high school is not easy. So I learned all these teaching techniques before I became a kumu. The teachings of Aunti Māʻiki enriched us all as she shared the love of her mentors. We were surrounded with people and love for all that life has to offer. I have so many memories of concerts, lūʻau shows, boat arrivals and departures, Aloha Week, and holokū balls. We were one of the first young children to dance in what is known today as the “Gibson Mūʻū.” Everyone called them pajamas. But Aunti Vicky Iʻi gave Aunti Māʻiki that high neck “Mother Hubbard” style and it became an insignia for the hālau. And of course we would perform with hula skirts made with one hundred fifty ti leaves, two pua melia lei and a head lei, or cellophane skirts, or red and white sarongs that people called the “Dorothy Lamour look.” When I moved back to …

Tita Beamer Solomon
description: Tita Beamer Solomon Tita Solomon is the daughter of Louise Beamer and makes her home today in Kohala, Hawaiʻi. In our family, hula is a way of life. We have always been in the arts. My daughters Malama and Hulali represent the fifth generation. It has never been a question of choice but a commitment to our culture. My sister, Nona (Nona Beamer) and I spent every summer on the Big Island of Hawai‘i with our grandmother Helen Desha Beamer and we were brought up with music and hula. We thought every family played the ‘ukulele, sang, and danced. This was Grandmas philosophy for all of us and how we took it from there was our own kuleana. Everybody had to be trained in the fundamentals of dance and music, so while other children were outside playing, we were with the family practicing. For Mother and Grandmother, the Hawaiian language was their first language but for my generation it was more important to learn English. The hula encompasses everything in the Hawaiian culture and Grandmother realized that unless she got all of us involved with the Hawaiian arts we would lose the Hawaiianess in our lives. I began to dance at the age of two under Mother and Grandmother, and I was taught both kahiko and ‘auwana. When Grandmother would come to Honolulu, Nona and I would dance in the backline of her hula classes. Mother shared with us the quiet and the beauty of the art while Grandmother stressed discipline and perfection. The hula was something very special and we had to take care when we studied or danced it. I graduated from the Kamehameha Schools and enrolled at the College of the Pacific in California. A local YMCA (Young Men’s Christian Association) was putting together a Hawaiian cultural program and I was asked to teach. This was how I began. I taught easy Haole hula because I wanted them to enjoy the art and not be intimidated with the culture. You always have to keep in mind that we are taking the Hawaiian lifestyle and sharing it with keikis who are coming from all …

Thelma Kāhili Cummings
description: Thelma Kāhili Cummings Kāhili Cummings is a daughter of Ida Long and a sister of Mae Loebenstein and Leiana Woodside. She resides on Maui and has taught the hula since age seventeen. I started hula when I was a little girl. There were fifteen of us in the family and we all learned from our mother, even the boys. In those days there was not much entertainment except for fundraisers and church socials that featured hula. My family was always involved with these shows and that’s how I began to dance. My mother Ida Pakulani Long was the greatest influence in my hula. She passed her love and knowledge of the hula to myself and others in our family. When my mother taught us the hula there was very little verbal instruction. There was more actual demonstration and we learned by copying her motions. The pū‘ili was a very important implement in my mother’s hālau. It was used to help us hear the proper timing for the hulas we were learning. It was also used quite often to correct improper hand and feet motions. I was about twelve when Alice Keawekāne Garner began to teach us through the church. From Alice I learned ‘auwana and unlike my mother, she explained a lot of what was going on in the dance. My mother had trained us in kahiko and her knowledge and range of style seemed narrower. I stayed with Alice until I was seventeen and then there was a lull in my training. I went back to the hula only after my sister Mae began to make frequent trips back to Maui. She taught us the dances she had learned in Honolulu while working with Lena Guerrero. I began to teach at the age of seventeen because people needed someone to teach dancers for concerts. I did not ‘ūniki but for a lack of a teacher I was asked to help. I kept helping one group after another and I found that I liked it because it was a way of expressing myself. I like to teach little children because you can get your point across faster than with adults. You can be stern or cross with them and they forget about it. I fee…

Samuel (Kamuela) Nae‘ole
description: Samuel (Kamuela) Nae‘ole The late Sam Naeʻole taught the hula in Hawaii for twenty-six years. He was affiliated with the Kalihi-Pālama Culture & Arts Society as a kumu hula and is credited with pioneering the hula in the Hawaiian Homestead of Waimanalo, O‘ahu. My mother and aunty were dream translators in the Hawaiian community and I told them I had dreamt I had been taken to a great house. Within the house was an old man who beckoned me to come in. They told me that this was a sign that I was the chosen one to carry on the spirit of the old man’s body. The next day I went to hula class and Lokalia (Montgomery) told me to stay late. She drove me out of Kapahulu and we came to the same house that I had dreamt of the night before. When we entered the home she was greeted by an old man who introduced himself as Joseph ‘Īlālā’ole. He was dying at the time and he had asked Lokalia to bring him a male student to train. My aunty Mary Ho was a kumu hula and my parents were musicians at the old Home in The Garden, but I wasn’t interested in the culture and when 1 graduated from Farrington High School in 1949 I knew nothing about it. I moved to Los Angeles and in 19511 came back home for a vacation. I was asked by other Hawai'i people in Los Angeles to study hula so I could come back and teach. So I went to the phone book and looked for a male teacher and the name I found was Tom Hiona. His studio was located on Maunakea and King Street and he charged twenty-five dollars a lesson. Tom had been trained by Kau‘i Zuttermeister but he was something original and extraordinary. His mind was always filled with ideas that raised the hula to higher ground. As far as I know he was the first person to produce tableaus and pageants that dealt with the culture in a deeper and more profound way. I stayed with Tom until 1952 when he closed his studio, and I went on to Ho‘oulu Davis in Kailua but within a year she left and I was out in the cold again. After Ho‘oulu I informally studied under…

Sally Moanike‘alaonāpua and Makahikina Wood Nālua‘i
description: Sally Moanike‘alaonāpuamakahikrna Wood Nālua‘i Sally Wood Naluaʻi graduated from the same hula class of Lokalia Montgomery that produced Māʻiki Aiu Lake and Lani Kalama. When I returned from Monterey in 1960 I really had forgotten everything. I was told I would lose my talent if I didn’t continue to study and it was gone. When I came home I hugged my drum and ipu, and I said a little prayer and began to pah. And nothing came to me. I drummed and drummed, and then I started to hum along and as I continued I began to remember “Kaulīlua”. I was born on the island of Maui in the little town of Paia. I was brought up by my granduncle and grandaunt whose name was Kekuo‘okalani. We left Maui when I was eleven and in those days there were no planes but they had ships. The only ship I remember was the Claudine. This was an inter-island ship. We didn’t have money to pay for rooms so we stayed downstairs in the steerage with the selamoku and they fed us fish and sour poi. My cousin Hattie Au gave up her home in Kahana Bay for us to live in and when she moved to Lā‘ie, I went along with her. Lucy Munson was a friend of my cousin and she stayed with a family called the Logans down in Lā‘ie. Mr. Logan was her friend so she let Hattie rent a little house. This was where six of us women learned ancient hula under Lucy Munson and her two friends, Keaka Kanahele and Katie Nākaula. My training with Lucy Munson lasted three months and she gave us thirteen chants to study in thirteen classes. I was fifteen going on sixteen and when they started building a kuahu for the graduation, my grandaunt made me return to Kahana. In those days Kahana Bay was famous for fishing. There was only one store in the area but we could get a really good meal from the sea. I would go out with the people in the boats to fish and we would pull the nets in. We would go up into the mountains and catch ‘ōpae and ‘o‘opu, and we would haul taro down and pound it into poi. My grandaunt taught me how to work and I r…

Roselle Keli‘ihonipua Bailey
description: Roselle Keli‘ihonipua Bailey Roselle Bailey is the founder of the hula hālau Ka‘Imi Na‘auao O Hawaii Nei and currently makes her home in Kaumakani, Kaua‘i. In 1971 I had just come back from living abroad. I was literally more Arab than Hawaiian. From head to toe I was really a foreigner, from my clothes, to my speech, to my gestures. While living in Iraq I would have dreams of home. I would dream of Hawaiian words and phrases half a world away. When I came home Aunty Edith Kanaka‘ole was the only one that said she would help me. When I got together with Aunty Edith, it was like coming back to my roots. I would go once a week to her home for chanting lessons. The lessons included much more than chanting. We did a lot of talking about ‘ohana, giving openly and not holding anything back. For that I give Aunty Edith a lot of credit. She had that kind of soul thinking and feeling. My first kumu was Aunty Emma Sharpe. When a person is four-years-old, he or she is never interested in the hula as a profession. I was just told to dance. From four years old to the fourth grade I thought of nothing but to be a good child and follow directions. Later, I started to teach my own peers in high school but I’ve never considered myself a kumu hula although others have called me that. To me an ‘ūniki means that you have graduated in the traditional ceremonies and you are qualified to go on to teach. I’ve never gone through a traditional ‘ūniki. I think the qualifications for a kumu are tremendous because you not only have to know the motions of the hula but you have to be able to interpret a mele, visually and vocally. A true kumu has to be a psychologist, psychoanalyst, historian, naturalist, priest, choreographer, nurse, sister, and mother. Today I base a great amount of my work upon the background of the twenty lessons that I received from Aunty Kau‘i Zuttermeister in 1974-75. It was what Aunty Edith taught me in 1971 that helped me understand and appreciate what Aunty Kau‘i stress…

Rose Look
description: Rose Look Rose Look has taught the hula for twenty-seven years and resides today in Ewa Beach, O‘ahu. In 1945 she produced an album and a single entitled “Darling Kuʻuipo” which became a theme song for her in the late 1940s. When I was growing up my father was very close to a Hawaiian family who lived on Pensacola Street called the Lamberts. My father loved to play his ‘ukulele and sing Hawaiian songs. His influence prompted me to learn the hula under Alice K. Garner at the age of thirteen. She was my first teacher and she was strict in the sense she made sure you danced the correct way. Her system was built on fundamentals and she was continually drilling us on the basics. I studied with Alice from age thirteen all through my intermediate school years until I graduated from high school. She was my biggest influence because she was my first and longest kumu. She was what I felt a dancer should be. Aunty Alice had an inner beauty that radiated out through her gestures and in her relationships with people and that’s what attracted me to her. I wanted to go into ‘ōlapa in a deeper way. At that time in ‘ōlapa dancing they did not take Orientals but Kamuela Nae‘ole talked to Lokalia Montgomery and so she interviewed me and accepted me into her class. Lokalia’s studio and home was on Charles Street. She would sit with me first and we would talk about all the ancient chants and Hawaiian history, then we would go into her hālau and she would explain the dances to me. I studied with Lokalia in private classes for one year and then I took a three-month course with Aunty Kau‘i Zuttermeister. Along the way as I was learning I realized that there was nobody who could say which kumu, which method, which step was the correct way. The Japanese have a classical line of dancing, the Chinese have a line, but what does the hula have? Who is to say which hula style is the right way? There is no one and this is sad. I began to teach in 1956 because I wanted to teach hula kahiko and ‘auwa…

Rose Kapulani Joshua
description: Rose Kapulani Joshua Rose Joshua established the Magic Hula Studio in 1947 and continues to teach modern and traditional hula in Waikiki. My parents on occasion danced at parties and special events. I loved to watch the expressions on their faces as they danced. That’s what first inspired me about the hula. I started my training under Esther Paulson in 1937. There was no such thing as a hālau back then. Esther would have to come to my home and she would train me in hula ‘auwana. In 1939 I moved on and began to train under Tom Hiona and it marked the beginning of an eight-year education. Three times a week I would go to Tom’s house on Queen Emma Street and for three hours he would train us in hula kahiko. A haumāna would begin with the fundamental steps until Tom was satisfied with her progress. Then he would introduce a particular mele which the student would practice until Tom again gave his approval. Finally, the student was allowed to rise and learn the corresponding dance step. The training was a slow, painstaking process. You didn’t move on to the next level until he was satisfied. Tom demanded a great deal but the result was the blessing of a solid foundation. The practice of my kumu was to first feel the manao of the story and then to translate those emotions through the dance. Once I was having trouble with the mele of the hula ‘auwana “Mi Nei”. I knew all the steps but there was something missing in my movements. My mother took me aside and began to tell me an old story. She spoke of two sisters who were deeply in love with a great prince. One sister she explained, was a great beauty and the other was very plain. Now the grandmother of these two girls felt very sorry for the plain sister. She decided to teach the girl a very beautiful and magical dance that would win over the handsome prince. The prince fell in love with the plain sister and this was the story of “Mi Nei”. Because of that very special moment between my mother and I, “Mi Nei” became my most …

Robert Uluwehionapuāikawēkiuokalani Cazimero
description: Robert Uluwehionapuāikawēkiuokalani Cazimero, widely regarded as a major influence in the rebirth of male hula in the 1970s, is kumu hula for Halau Na Kamalei. In terms of the hula I feel I have shaken this state up. I have opened their eyes, I have kicked them in the pants but you know what? I didn’t even know I was doing it. I was from a time in the Sixties where being Hawaiian was not important. It was more important to be American. You were trying to get through school so that you could work in Hawai‘i or maybe go away to school. The idea of hula was foreign. It was an embarrassment to want to do it for all of us. Men’s dancing was a novelty and I think to a point it still is today. Men just didn’t dance. Kaha‘i Topolinski started before me and I remember watching his boys and they were fabulous. Ed Collier was another one who had a male halau years before I even began to train. It took a lot of guts for a guy to get on stage back then. There was an immediate branding of being effeminate and so it was really hard. I’m glad that things have changed a little and I suppose on the surface it looks like it’s changed a lot but it really hasn’t. Nona Beamer was my first kumu and she was my first contact with the hula. I was a sophomore at Kamehameha, guys were just beginning to dance and I was amazed. When Nona was teaching at Kamehameha there was a kapu on dancing. No one was allowed to stand up and dance and Nona changed all that. With Nona we began to stand up and actually dance. In my senior year Nona had us choose a song and interview the author. I had chosen Kui Lee and my dear friend Puna Kalama had chosen “Aloha Kaua‘i,” a song written by Ma‘iki Aiu Lake. Puna got her aunt to come to the class and I think I fell in love with her immediately. She sang for us and I accompanied her on the piano and when she left she told me to come to her if I ever wanted to learn hula. It took me quite awhile to go to her but I started my training in 1968. The class was held one …

Robert Kalani
description: Robert Kalani Robert Kalani began his hula training under Henry Pa at the age of eleven. Born in Paia, Maui, he has taught the hula for twenty-six years in Lahaina, Paia, Kula, andKahului. When I went to learn the chants from my kumu, my mother was against it. My grandmother had been a kahuna and my mother didn’t want me involved in the old ways. My grandmother lived in Makena and when she walked along the streets, the neighbors would get so afraid of her. She would constantly oli until one o’clock in the morning and my mother didn’t want to see that happen again with me. When I was eleven, I visited Honolulu during the summer months and I would stay with my aunt. Henry Pa would come over and use her house for hula rehearsals. This is how I got into dancing. Every summer I would learn new and different dances under Henry Pa. His classes would last for three hours. I studied for three summers under Henry Pa and then I stayed back on Maui and went to Rena Ching for six months. 1 graduated from Rena Ching and went through a modern ʻūniki with her. After Rena, I decided to go back to Honolulu and that’s when I met Hattie Au and Tom Hiona. My aunt was being trained by Hattie for nine months and this was how I was taken into the hālau and taught the kuahu dances. I studied under Hattie for nine months and then I was led to Tom Hiona who has been the greatest influence on my career. Tom had the ability to teach and to find the right English word for Hawaiian ideas. This was back in the early Fifties and Tom would not teach us at a studio but at a private home that we would go to on the weekends. We were trained in the different styles of traditional dance, and the different beats of the ipu heke and pahu. I spent three summers with Tom Hiona and I found him to be a very sensitive and demanding man. I began to teach when I was attending high school. Some of the students wanted to learn, so I would have my mother translate songs for me and that’s how I started. My kumu taugh…

Rena Maile-Māhoe Apo Ching
description: Rena Maile-Māhoe Apo Ching Rena Ching began her training as a hula student on Maui and currently makes her home in Kahului. My first hula teachers were actually my family and I was pushed into it whether I liked it or not at the age of four. My grandmother Annie Kala‘au had come from Kona and she had been trained in ‘ōlapa. My aunty Helen Apo Hanu was taught by my grandmother and she was my first teacher. My first kumu outside the family was Alice Keawekane Garner. She would put on concerts at the county church and she was a member of the Mormon Church. Aunty Alice needed a place to teach so my mother offered her our home because we had a big lānai. She would teach and I would sit down and watch. I graduated from Aunty Alice in her home in a very modern ‘ūniki. When Aunty Alice left Maui I returned to study with my aunt Mrs. Helen Apo Hanu. Then I began to dance professionally for Eddie Tam, the late mayor of Maui. When I got married my husband refused to let me dance professionally so I began to train my little girl who was seven. After awhile I wanted to learn ‘ōlapa so I could teach it to my daughter, so my mother recommended Manuel Silva. My mother wanted me to take from Manuel Silva because he was known for his chanting and ancient style of dancing. So my husband and I went to Honolulu to see Mr. Silva who was living in the Kaka‘ako district in the back of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin building at that time. He told me that if he didn’t know my mother he would’ve sent me away because he didn’t take new hula students anymore. His basics were really hard. You had to lay back on the floor with your legs folded under your thighs. You were then required to roll your torso while in that position. Then he would walk on your thighs to limber the leg muscles. I also had to lie flat on my stomach and he would bend my legs back. These were the regular, preliminary exercises prior to learning the hula. When finished with these exercises, I was exhausted. I learned never to co…

Ray Kahikilaulani Fonseca
subject: Nā Kumu Hula Kay Kaliikilaulani Fonseca - Nānā I Nā Loea Hula Volume 2 Page 38
description: Ray Fonseca began teaching in 1980 and established Hālau Hula ‘O Kahikilaulani located in Hilo, Hawaiʻi. I started as a Tahitian drummer for Keolalaulani Hula Studio and then with Pauline Padeken and Lokelani Andersen. Aunty Pauline’s and Aunty Lokelani’s group went to Hilo to participate in the Merrie Monarch Festival and that’s when I met Uncle George Nā‘ope. He liked my Tahitian and asked me to come to Hilo to teach at his hālau. So in the summer of 1973 I left Honolulu to live with Uncle George and I didn’t return home until three years later. I learned to dance hula at the age of seventeen while living with Uncle George. I went everywhere with him and that’s how I began taking an interest in hula. Although Uncle George was my kumu hula for many years, he encouraged me to learn from other hula resources. He made me go to workshops and told me who to take from. He directed me to learn from Lokalia Montgomery. I took workshops from Henry Pa and took classes from Aunty Edith Kanaka‘ole and Aunty Eleanor Hiram Hoke. Uncle George wanted me to broaden my horizon and not be limited to learning only from him. In 1977 I ‘ūniki from Uncle George and in 1980 I opened my hālau in Hilo. At that time Hilo did not have too many teachers especially in hula kahiko. I named my hālau Hālau Hula ‘O Kahikilaulani meaning, “The Staff of Heaven.” Kahikilaulani was my hula name given to me at my ‘ūniki by Uncle George. When I am teaching, it is the force within me that drives me. Everything in my life is related to hula. i keep the traditional dances exactly as i learned them from Uncle George. These dances will be carried on. My joy is to see my students perform to the best of their abilities and to do it with full love and understanding of the art. In my hālau we try to do everything ourselves. We make the implements, feather lei, haku lei, and costumes. It gives my students a feeling of accomplishment when they dance in costumes that they made themselves. When I win at competition, …

Rachael Akau Kamakana
subject: Nā Kumu Hula Rachael Akuu Kamakana - Nānā I Nā Loea Hula Volume 2 Page 52
description: The late Rachael Kamakana established her hālau on the island of Molokai in I968. The name Hula Hālau O Molokaʻi was given to her by her kumu hula Harriet Nē. My mother used to get very upset because I was a real tomboy. I was more interested in playing baseball and basketball with the boys rather than doing girl things. So I was hauled to Tom Hiona at the age of fifteen to learn how to dance the hula. He was supposed to make me feminine and act like a little lady. They had to drag me to him and it wasn’t a very happy experience for me. I was sent to Tom Hiona because he and my uncle were good buddies. He was doing my uncle a favor by taking me, so I went to his class. I wanted to learn how to dance ‘auana but he said that he would determine what I was going to learn and he only taught kahiko to beginners. I learned all the standard traditional chants like “A Ko‘olau An” and “Aia Lā 'O Pele.” He was very strict during these sessions and he made me cry every time I went to class because I didn’t do it right. After one year I told my uncle that I was pau. I didn’t return to hula until my husband and I came home to Molokaʻi to take care of his father. After I had my last child, I joined Aunty Harriet Nē’s classes in 1962. Aunty Harriet had all her lessons planned. She would have the words to the song or chant done for us. She talked about the song or chant and gave us whatever knowledge she knew. She did not require us to research the mele but she encouraged us to talk to our tūtū and aunties. We were responsible for writing the directions and if you lost your paper, you had to recall it from memory. After about three years she held an ʻūniki: a completion for those lessons given to us. Although we had no paper or certificate, she said it was the old way where she brought witnesses to see that you had completed a certain part of the training. Aunty Harriet was pleased that we had completed the ‘ūniki and she continued to prepare us to become kumu hula. She gave us cert…

Puluelo Park
description: Puluelo Park Puluelo Park was born in Hoea, Kohala and moved to Watertown, O‘ahu at the age of nine. She established the Puamana Hula Studio in 1952 and currently resides in Kailua, O‘ahu. I remember when I was nine- years-old I went shopping with my mother down on Fort Street. I heard a man’s voice chanting and I followed it to the old Princess Theatre. I sat inside that dark theatre for hours listening to a man who turned out to be Tom Hiona while my mother was going crazy outside looking for me. As a youngster growing up in Kohala I was trained informally by my aunties, but my first formal teacher in the hula was Caroline Tuck of Honolulu. I was trained in hula ‘auwana and I was fascinated by her classes and her teaching techniques. Caroline would have her students flat on their backs with only their arms and hands extended upward, and in this position they would go through the motions of a dance. When I turned eleven I learned kahiko from a teacher that was so strict that I lost all interest in the hula for a period of years. After I married and began my family, I started to realize that the Hawaiian side of my children would be neglected if I didn’t bring our hula culture to them at a very tender age. So at the age of thirty I began to train under Lokalia Montgomery who lived in Kapahulu on Charles Street. I loved Lokalia’s way of teaching because what she taught me was free from the kapus and so there was never any fear of the hula when I studied with her. A usual class with Lokalia would begin with a talk session. She would tell me the story background and meaning of the particular mele we were going to learn that day. There was no sense of rush like today where we want the children to learn as much as possible in a certain amount of time. Not those days. She would chant the first three lines of the mele and I would repeat the lines back to her. After every three lines she would stop and give deeper explanations of each line and we would not go on to a new po…

Pualani Kanaka‘ole Kanahele and Nālani Kanaka‘ole
subject: Nā Kumu Hulas Pualani Kanaka‘ole Kanahele and Nālani Kanaka‘ole - Nānā I Nā Loea Hula Volume 2 Page 54
description: Pualani Kanaka'ole Kanahele Daughter of renown chanter and kumu hula Edith Kanakaʻole, Pualani Kanahele along with her sister Nālani Kanaka‘ole received the National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowship Award in 1993. I have been formally teaching hula for about twenty years. My mother and my sister Nālani taught together first. Then I taught with my mother while my sister was resting. In time my sister came back and three of us taught together until my mother died. Since then my sister and I have continued teaching hula. I first learned hula when I was four-years-old. My teacher was my grandmother Kekuewa Kanaele who taught at her home in Keaukaha. I learned under her until I was nine- years-old then I went to my oldest cousin Mary Keahilihau. She was my grandmother’s oldest grandchild. She and my mother taught until she went to the mainland. My mother continued to teach. My grandmother was the strictest teacher of all. She didn’t want us to play around. When it was time to dance, it was time to dance. She didn’t favor family or somebody close to her. She treated everybody alike. Everybody were students. She would praise you as well as hit you with the kumu nī‘au or the bamboo if you didn’t listen. If you were fooling around or if you didn’t observe well and you didn’t execute your steps well, you would get hit. So everytime we got hit, we would remember that motion well. That’s the way my grandmother taught. I enjoyed dancing. I liked to get into the spirit of dancing and just dance. I also know that in my mother’s later years, she was grooming us to take over. She became more conscious of chanting and started to teach us chant styles in our later years. We already knew that we would have to take over. Each of my three hula teachers added different things to my hula career. My grandmother taught me discipline, to pay attention, to be able to observe what was going on. Observation while you’re dancing is very important. She also taught me the basic m…

Pōhaku Nishimitsu
subject: Nā Kumu Hula Pohaku Nishimitsu - Nānā I Nā Loea Hula Volume 2 Page 90
description: Pōhaku Nishimitsu is a Hawaiian Studies resource teacher for the Department of Education and a lecturer for the Kaua‘i Community College. He also conducts teacher workshops in Hawaiian culture for the University of Hawaiʻi School of Continuing Education on Kaua‘i. I have been teaching hula since 1979. The name of my halau is Kani Ka Palm o LohiʻPau which is a traditional name that comes from Kauai and is part of the Pele-Hi'iaka cycle. It was given to me by my kumu ‘olelo Hawaii and kumu mo‘olelo Rubellite Kawena Kinney Johnson, a Kauai native. When I think of traditional hula, I look for a mele that has a real connection to nā kupuna kahiko. Hence it has a solid foundation; it has a concrete link with the past. Traditions are like an unbroken piece of thread. It connects every era and that thread is going to continue stringing us into the next century. It will be linked back to us and back to our kupuna who came before us. Tradition has a grounding, a basis in the past, and is carried on for the future generations. I was a sophomore in high school on the Island of Kaua‘i when I started hula with Aunty Ku‘ulei Pūnua. She was teaching in Kapa‘a and Llhu‘e. She had trained under old time kumu hula Kent Ghirard and lolani Luahine. These two kumu hula were really diverse; one being modern and one immersed in the old. But both were very strict and rigid in terms of discipline and protocol. This was passed on in their teachings. I learned a number of traditional hula from Aunty Ku'ulei so I had a good foundation to grow from. I left her because I finished high school and my schooling took me to O‘ahu. I continued with my hula training and learning more about Hawaiian culture and arts. I majored in Hawaiian Studies at the University of Hawaiʻi at Manoa with a strong emphasis on ‘ōlelo Hawaii. While on O‘ahu I started hula with Nathan Napoka and Aunty Hoakalei Kamau‘u when they were teaching in Nuʻuanu. It was special to listen to Aunty Hoakalei and the way she chanted. Her…

Pi‘i Lani
subject: Nā Kumu Hula Pi‘i Lani - Nānā I Nā Loea Hula Volume 2 Page 62
description: Piʻi Lani teaches hula, Hawaiian culture, language and history to senior citizens. She is credited for being the coordinator of the original Waimea Falls Park Hula Competition. My mother Kuʻualoha Terry was my hula teacher. She started teaching me when I was three-years-old. My mother never had a hālau. It was just us. She had her own studio on Aulike Street in Kailua and she taught at Camp Kokokahi in Kāne‘ohe. She learned from Mother Davis. The first few dances that we learned from my mother were the hula dances of ‘ōlapa that introduced basic hula steps. These dances were used as drills for these steps. “Kawika” would be for the kāholo, “Lili‘u E” would be for the ‘uwehe, '"Kalākaua” would he for the Kalākaua step. She drilled us in those basic steps. When we got to the intermediate level, the dances consisted of many different steps in one dance. The form of hula that she taught us was hula ‘āla‘apapa, and we were taught not to kāhea the verses. It was important that you knew exactly what verse came next so there was no kāhea being given. When we got to the advanced stages, some of the dances would be very long. The hand and foot movements of these dances were given to her and had not been changed for over a hundred years since the 1860s. So we were very careful to teach these dances exactly the same in word, melody, timing, hand gestures, and feet as they were in 1860. We come from a hula line. My grandmother on the maternal side was a hula dancer in the days when they danced without their tops. Grandma was from Hāna. Her name was Elizabeth Kawahineke‘oke‘ookala Ka‘anana. There are some pictures in the Bishop Museum of Grandma and her sisters sitting on the palm drum wearing no tops, just skirts. Grandma never told us that she was a dancer. She became very Christian and although she was pure Hawaiian, she frowned upon too much hula. She wanted us to be Christian but she did make sure that my mother learned from family to continue the hula line. My ʻūniki was he…

Peter William Kauaimaka Lonoae‘a
subject: Nā Kumu Hula Peter William Kauaimaka Lonoae‘a - Nānā I Nā Loea Hula Volume 2 Page 68
description: At the age of twenty-one, Peter Lonoae‘a started teaching hula through workshops sponsored by the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, he is presently a teacher at the James Campbell High School in ‘Ewa Beach. My first formal hula lessons were taken from Aunty Sally Wood Naluaʻi when I was attending college in 1969. She was teaching at the Polynesian Cultural Center. Keith Awai, Cy Bridges, Sunday Mariteragi and her sister Ellen Gay, and I were part of her select group that branched out from the night show. Other students came and went but the five of us were the steadies. Unfortunately after I graduated I left to teach school on Lānai. I didn’t know Aunty Sally would begin a training for an ‘ūniki. As fate would have it, that was her last ‘ūniki. I missed out. Aunty Sally’s style of dancing is a really straight back and dancing tall style which I try to teach my girls. We do bend but it’s not real low, not in the ‘auana anyway. When she taught us “Kaulīlua,” she said that it was Pua Ha‘aheo’s step for this particular move. She taught us specific motions for the girls and specific motions for the boys for “Kaulīlua.” She went into the kaona behind the words. It was interesting to learn things like that especially since I was still young. She had different drum beats but she used one specific style and that’s the one that l use. My knowledge broadened while attending the Church College of Hawaiʻi and when I participated in the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts program with Aunty Hoakalei Kamau‘u. I danced with her and her son Wailana. I taught at the workshop because they didn’t have too many male teachers at that time. Through these workshops l met other instructors like Aunty Eleanor Hiram Hoke, Uncle Henry Pa, and Lokalia Montgomery who I considered very interesting. It was a learning experience for me. I was a traveling resource teacher for the Department of Education. In 1976 I taught hula kahiko for Aunty Elaine Ka‘ōpūiki on Lānai. After one year on…

Pearl Keawe
description: Pearl Keawe Pearl Keawe has taught the hula in Hawaiʻi for thirty-three years and her hula studio is presently located in the Kalihi Valley area of O‘ahu. I became interested in the hula through my late sister-in-law Caroline Tuck, a renown Hawaiian entertainer and hula instructor. She performed throughout Hawai‘i with Alice Keawekāne Garner and Frances Palama. Carolines studio was located on Pu‘uhale Street and I began to train under her in 1927 when I was twenty-three years old. I was taught modern hula by Caroline and her style of hula was to always bend low in your motion and dance from your heart. I also received private instruction in the art of ancient hula from Mrs. Lily Polani, a student of Mr. Ka‘ō‘ō. Her classes were held at her home in Kāne‘ohe and lasted approximately three hours. The first thing I learned from Mama Lily was that you should never walk over a hula implement that had been placed on the ground. Everything in the hula world has a certain dignity to it and this world must be respected. She would pah and teach us the lyrics of the mele pausing occasionally to talk and tell us the story relating to the mele. After three or four days we began to learn the dance itself. This is how I learned the traditional dances of the grand hula master Mr. Ka‘ō‘ō. He would sometimes accompany Mama Lily to the practice sessions which were held once a week. When I met him, he was a tall, thin, dark man and he was very distinctive because he always wore a beautiful red sash. I studied under Mama Lily for two years and then I was graduated in a traditional ‘uniki ceremony. I started teaching in 1948 when I moved to Kalihi. I had six children and I was working at Pearl Harbor. To supplement our income, I started teaching hula at the military posts because after the war that seemed to be the only marketplace for entertainment. There are fifteen basic steps to the traditional hula and the young kumu should stick to them and channel their energy into the expressivene…

Pearl Keawe Souza
description: Pearl Keawe Souza Pearl Souza, daughter of Pearl Keawe, teaches hula in the Kalihi Valley area on the island of O‘ahu. I believe we have just scratched the surface of hula kahiko. In the coming years the modern kumu will progress to an even deeper level than today and it will be done more openly. The halaus today are performing dances that I have never seen before and I find it fascinating and admirable that they have brought out so much. I began with my aunt Caroline Tuck when I was three-years-old. I learned basic footwork, how to bend our knees and stay flat on the floor. We then learned the hand motions and interpretation. I learned mostly ‘auwana from Caroline and she taught me that in the hula the story is everything. The motions are there only to project the story. I am trying to carry on Caroline’s definition of the hula in my teaching today. I went on to my mother when I turned ten and it was from her that I learned my ancient hula. Back then kahiko and ‘auwana were not used to define the hula. It was ancient and modern. My mother carried on exactly what Caroline Tuck had been teaching me. The basic principle throughout my training was not to be selfish with the knowledge that I was being given. Whatever I learned was to be shared and passed along to whoever wanted to learn. It had to be shared or it would be lost. After three years I joined Kent Ghirard’s Hula Nani troupe where I was fortunate to meet Pauline Kekahuna, Nāpua Stevens, and Vickie Iʻi Rodrigues. Kent taught me the commercial aspect of the hula. We performed for tourists and we projected to them the Mainland image of Hawai‘i. I saw the better part of him come out when we performed in front of local audiences and he performed as you would expect from a true Hawaiian. He was Haole but his love for the hula was genuine. He taught me that there was a time and place for everything and there are things that can and cannot be said in the hula world. I began to teach in 1976 because I felt as a dancer…

Pattye Kealohalani Wright
description: Paltye Kealohalani Wright Born and raised in Missouri, Pattye Wright arrived in Hawaiʻi fifteen years ago and has taught the hula in Kailua, O‘ahu since 1973. Bella Richards has been my greatest influence. Her style epitomizes my ideal of hula - very low, very soft, very fluid. The highest compliment I can receive is for someone to approach me after watching my dancers perform and tell me they know that Bella was my kumu hula. When I arrived in Hawaiʻi in 1968 from the Midwest, my first hula experience was to see Beverly Noa dance. I was so moved by the experience that I decided I wanted to learn the hula. I studied informally with Carolyn Miller as an introduction to the dance for newcomers. Soon I realized my interests were much deeper and more compelling. At this point I saw a performance of the Kailua Madrigals and Bella was introduced as the teacher and choreographer of the group. I was so impressed that I telephoned her the next day to ask if she would take me into her classes. She informed me that she did not accept adults because ‘they don’t practice, they don’t remember, and they don’t have stamina.’ She preferred young people because they didn’t have as many distractions in their lives and because they had bodies that could more readily be molded. I kept pleading and begging until she finally consented to my attending the next class session. The first great accomplishment of my dancing career was merely surviving my early months with Bella. When 1 arrived that first morning she placed me in the front row with her senior dancers. We practiced from nine a. m. to three p. m. without a break. I was literally on my hands and knees when I got home. I felt so ignorant because of the gaffes and errors of protocol I made - mistakes that seemed so obvious to everyone else. These were things that a kumu and a haumāna know by osmosis but that I had to actually study and learn. I studied with Bella as a formal student until 1975. It was about this time while attending …

Pat Nāmaka Bacon
description: Patience Elmay Namakauahoaokawenaulaokalaniikiikikalaninui Wiggin Bacon Pat Bacon, born in Waimea, Kaua‘i, was adopted at birth in the hānai tradition of the Hawaiians by Mary Kawena Pūkuʻi Some of the people today would find the kahiko of my day dull because today’s kahiko is performed with much more vim and vigor. I think today’s ancient hula is aimed at the visitor because if you don’t understand the language, you won’t understand the kaona of the mele. The emphasis in the traditional hula was on the poetry of the language and you have to understand the language if you are going to appreciate the poetry. The changes in kahiko have come about because you have to keep the audience interested. I was thirteen when I studied with Keahi Luahine. Kawena’s grandmother had been a court dancer for Queen Emma so informally there were always aunties teaching us. My mother trained us in the dances handed down through the family but it was under Keahi that I began my formal training in the hula. Keahi taught us the pig dance, the hula ki‘i, the hula pahu, the kālaʻau with the papa hehi, and dances that were strictly from Kaua‘i. After a year I went on to Keahi’s cousin Kapua, who I trained under for another year. Kapua spoke very little and only showed us the dance once so we would have to absorb as much as we could. This was just before the war and we would go once a week and dance without a break from six p.m. to eight p.m. Back in those days you didn’t question the kumu, instead they questioned you. It was an era where children were seen and not heard. At eight o’clock the siren atop Aloha Tower would sound signaling the curfew and we would pick up our things and hurry home. When I turned fifteen I trained under Joseph ʻĪlālāʻole with whom I stayed for the next three years. From Īlālāʻole I learned dances with a faster tempo and greater foot movement. In those days many of the teachers carried a long rod of bamboo and if you made a sloppy motion you got a little sting on yo…

Paleka Leina‘ala Mattos
subject: Nā Kumu Hula Paleka Leina‘ala Mattos - Nānā I Nā Loea Hula Volume 2 Page 78
description: In 1982 Paleka Leina‘ala Mattos established Hula Hālau ‘O Kamuela in honor of her uncle and mentor Samuel Nae‘ole. My roots of becoming a kumu hula began at the age of six-years- old. I studied under Hula master Sam Nae‘ole. He was my mother’s brother and I graduated from him in 1976. My uncle Sam studied the hula from various teachers where he had acquired a combination of different styles of hula. Although he was a hula teacher, it didn’t mean he stopped learning. He still had so much more to learn from the older people who knew more about hula. He put all this knowledge together and lie formed his own style. My ʻūniki ceremony was held in Waimanalo under a lūʻau tent. Some of the most prestigious people in hula today attended. Another girl was to ʻūniki as an alaka‘i and I as a kumu hula. The dressing ceremony for the ‘ūniki was done by my uncle. Prior to my ‘ūniki I had learned numerous oli, chants, and dances which I performed on the stage. It was a simple ceremony for us. My uncle said I didn’t have to go through all the other rituals because we were Catholics. Even today we respect the hula and the Hawaiian culture but I’ll go to church and say a little prayer before I go to the Merrie Monarch Festival. That was my uncle’s way and I do the same. Part of my style is my uncle’s but another part is my style. I stayed with Uncle Sam until he passed away in 1981. It was at his funeral that a lot of his students asked me to “take over.’ I said, “No, I’m not going to take over, but l might continue where Uncle left off.” So in 1982 I said to myself, “This is it, Paleka. Let’s do your thing. ’’ I first went into what is commonly known as “contemporary Hawaiian,” meaning that I started to jazz everything up. I thought this is what the people wanted. At the time I had come out full bloom, many hālau were jumping all over the stage doing fabulous fast- stepped kahiko. So there I was going wild; just like them. It was awesome to look at but it was not really hula. It too…

Palani Kahala
subject: Nā Kumu Hula PaIani Kahala - Nānā I Nā Loea Hula Volume 2 Page 44
description: The late Palani Kahala established the Kahala Foundation to perpetuate his original chants and dances. In January 1991 Palani Kahala presented his final performance as kumu hula of the Ladies of Kahanākealoha and the Gentlemen of Maluikeao. There are two styles of hula kahiko. There’s what I term as classical or traditional hula kahiko and then there is a contemporary styling of ancient hula. Traditional hula has been passed down by succeeding generations. For myself and other hula teachers, we should never change chants like "Kaulīlua," “‘Au‘aʻla,” “A Ko‘olau Au.” We should never try to attempt to re-do something as historically valuable as these dances. If it is the way it was performed, say, a hundred years ago, then it should be the same a hundred years from now. Yet in the same light, this generation of Hawaiians are a source of tradition. Like our ancestors, we share the same spirit of creativity. Things we create today will become the traditions of tomorrow. Composing mele are a means by which I can express the whole spectrum of human emotion. Some of my greatest moments of composing have come in times of personal strife. Times when I’m going through an emotional or physical crisis often lead to creative moments that swell inside. I find myself being very creative and wanting to write. I started hula at age seventeen while a student at Kamehameha Schools. My teachers were Robert Cazimero and Wayne Keahi Chang. They came to instruct the school’s Concert Clee Club. Someone came up with the novel idea to turn the training into a formal hālau so members of the group became part of the first men of Hālau Nā Kamalei. I stayed for three years learning hula. I’ve never ʻūniki in the formal sense, yet I’ve maintained an extensive background in Hawaiian culture having taken classes in Hawaiian language to speak proficiently. Included in my training are culture classes in high school and college. What has helped tremendously is the fact that I hail from Kahana, Oʻahu wh…

Odetta NeSmith
description: Odelta NeSmith Born on the Big Island of Hawaiʻi and raised in Kalihi, O‘ahu, Odetta NeSmith has taught on Kaua‘i for nineteen years. I think we have to appreciate that the hula has been passed down to us through the hundreds of years and that it already has been altered and changed during those hundreds of years. We should let the new kumu take their turn in trying to improve it. Maybe what they’re doing is not an improvement but they are recording the modern influences of their time and I cannot believe our ancestors did not do the same when the kahiko was passed to them. I became interested in the hula because my parents were entertainers. I was born on the Big Island but we left in 1940 before the war and we lived with my aunt in Kalihi. In 1941 we moved to Kāne‘ohe where my mother sent us to Eleanor Hiram Hoke who was teaching at the Kāne‘ohe Community Center next door to Honey’s Inn. Entertainers need dancers and I came from a big family of girls. My mother said she wasn’t about to beat the bushes looking for dancers when she had them right in the house. I was thirteen at the time I was sent to Eleanor and the transition between child and teenager was a rebellious time for me. I grew up ashamed of being Hawaiian. I didn’t know what I was because I certainly didn’t enjoy being Hawaiian. I was lost and my parents couldn’t even help me understand who I was because they were just as confused. My mother often told me about the confusion she went through growing up. At school she was forbidden to speak Hawaiian and at home she was forbidden to speak English. In order to try and save her children from that kind of confusion we were not taught Hawaiian. I studied kahiko and ‘auwana under Eleanor for two years and it was a settling process for me. Because we were musicians, Aunty Alice Nāmakelua was a constant visitor at our house and I studied hula ‘auwana informally under her between 1950 and 1954. My last kumu was Pearl Keawe who has been my greatest influence. She …

Oddetta Kaohikukapulani Kinimaka-Alquiza
subject: Nā Kumu Hula Oddetta Kaohikukapulani Kinimaka-Alquiza - Nānā I Nā Loea Hula Volume 2 Page 58
description: Kapu Kinimaka-Alquiza began teaching in 1983 and is kumu hula of Nā Hula ‘O Kaohikukapulani in Kaua‘i. I first started hula at the age of five. I came from a very large family of sixteen children and as we grew up, hula was a part of our daily lives. As a young girl I really didn’t enjoy hula. I only did it because my sisters did it. Also during those small kid times when our parents told us to do something, there was no back talk from us kids. Besides when we’d perform, I got five dollars. That was enough for me to get moving. I stuck with it for many years and it sort of grew with me. I never thought however that I would he the one to teach. My first kumu hula was Aunty Lovey Apana. She would teach me and my sisters at her home in Wailua. She was full of energy and was very strict in her teachings. She would teach us kahiko, ‘auana, Maori, and a bit of Tahitian. I remember sitting on her front porch in her little hale near the river. She would always tell us stories of her experiences. I stayed with her until I was about eleven or twelve. She was a wonderful teacher, entertainer, and philosopher. Out of all of my sisters I was the worst dancer. Aunty Lovey used to think that I had two left feet. I remember Aunty Lovey’s sister Shalet calling me “deaf ear and blind eye” because I had the hardest time following instructions. I’m amazed I lasted through all of that as a young girl because today I can remember many of my childhood days as a young dancer. I then went to Uncle Joe Kahaulelio. He was a master chanter as well as an entertainer and choreographer. He taught hula ‘auana and kahiko and was very versatile in other Polynesian dances. Like Aunty Lovey, his style was very traditional: the old style with puffed ‘uwehe, very low, simple, and beautiful. However his ‘auana style was elegant, upright, and proud. I remained with Uncle Joe for many years until I got married and had my children. It was at that time I stopped to raise my family. When I was ready to start …

Nina Boyd Maxwell
description: Nina Boyd Maxwell Nina Maxwell taught hula for the past nineteen years and is the kumu hula of the Pukalani Hula Hale in Maui. When I was young I was always nagging my father to let me learn the hula. He bought me a piano instead. I learned the piano but I kept nagging him. In the late 1930s and ’40s, hula was in a bad state of affairs and was not really respected. My grandmother was a lady-in-waiting for Lili‘uokalani so my father had seen the culture change tremendously. I don’t think he wanted me involved with hula because he had been so pained by the changes in the culture. Finally he took me to Elizabeth Lum Ho who was from the “old school”. There was no funny business in her class and my father was hoping the strict regimen would make me quit. Mrs. Lum Ho taught at home in Wailuku and she would begin the class by singing a mele. She would then tell you the story of the mele and then interpret the story with the dance. If she felt you should learn the entire mele then you would stay the entire day and if it took you three months to learn that one mele, you would be assigned that same mele for three months. Mrs. Lum Ho taught me traditional and modern hula and I studied under her for five years. After I graduated from Mrs. Lum Ho, she left Maui for O‘ahu and I went on to Emma Sharpe who trained me in hula ‘auwana. My kumu never really differed in their teaching style. Everything had to be perfect especially the enunciation and pronunciation of the mele. The knowledge was taught by constant repetition and we were expected to retain everything simply by watching and listening. Aunty Emma held her classes in a hall in back of the old Wailuku Gym. I was with Aunty Emma for four years and I was trained informally during this time by Aunty ‘Iolani Luahine in olioli. In 1964 my husband Charlie encouraged me to open a halau, so with the permission of Aunty Emma I began to teach on Maui. I wanted to teach because the hula is the record of Hawaii’s cultural past and the k…

Nathan Napoka
subject: Nā Kumu Hula Nathan Napoka - Nānā I Nā Loea Hula Volume 2 Page 87
description: Nathan Napoka, currently employed by the State of Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources, has been teaching since 1975. Hula has been in my family for generations. My great-great-grandmother was Ke'ele-hiwa Napoka, a famous court dancer from Maui who went to Kā'u to perform. Manuel Silva, a relative of my grandmother, learned from Ke‘elehiwa Napoka. My grandmother’s sister Elizabeth Kalehuawehe Chun Ling studied with Kumanaiwa who was a famous hula master on Maui. It is said that my family from that side of Maui performed what was called the Haleakalā dances which were done for Pele because she lived in Haleakalā up until very recent times. Everyone thinks of the Pele dances as coming from the big Island but there is a long tradition of Pele dances on Maui where she was still erupting in the 1700s. These dances were being performed until the 1900s. I did not formally study hula until I returned to Hawaiʻi from college in 1972. At that time I was enrolled at the East-West Center as the Hawaiian Renaissance was just starting. Aunty Edith McKinzie was a student with me at the University of Hawaiʻi and she told me about the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts’ hula classes. Aunty Hoakalei Kamau‘u was the director of the program and Aunty Edith was teaching the beginning men’s class. After one semester with Aunty Edith, I moved into Aunty Hoakalei’s classes and I’ve been with her ever since. I studied with Aunty Hoakalei with the understanding that she was going to prepare me to become a teacher. I was soon teaching all the beginning men’s classes for Aunty Hoakalei. I learned to be a ho‘opa‘a by chanting while sitting in the back of the advanced class. Aunty was in the front showing us how to dance and I followed. We also had a special class for the teachers to learn to oli. I was coaxed into teaching. I was interested but I was afraid to teach. Through Aunty Hoakalei I learned that there is a whole way that you learn to become a teacher just like you lear…

Namahana Kalama-Panui
subject: Nā Kumu Hula Namahana Kalama-Panui - Nānā I Nā Loea Hula Volume 2 Page 48
description: Namahana Kalama-Pānui is a Hawaiian Studies teacher for the Department of Education, Central District on O‘ahu. She also commutes to Maui where she devotes her time to teach the children of Hāna. When I view my life and the blessings that I’ve received, I realize that I have been nurtured. influenced, inspired, and guided by the Divine, by family, by kumu, by children, and by friends. I am the fruit of their love and I am kumu thanks to all of them. I was born in Guam and lived in a community called the Hawaiian Village. We were of varied ethnic backgrounds but all originally from Hawai‘i. Although we grew up removed from Hawaiʻi, we were not removed from the Hawaiian lifestyle. We shared wonderful experiences together that instilled within me the value of family. While in Guam my parents encouraged Hawaiian ways and I was enrolled in hula. Here I learned to do hula for the love of hula. My love has never ceased. It has sustained me and it continues to bring blessings into my life. Our family moved back to Hawaii when I was eight and my mother saw to it that my hula training continued. She took me to Alicia Keolahou Smith who was teaching at the YMCA (Young Men's Christian Association) on Richards Street. I walked from Nuʻuanu and Kuakini where we lived to the Y and all the way back. We had no car and money was not used for bus fare. Later when I started to earn my own money, the bus ride was a welcomed treat. Keolahou was firm, yet kind; passionate and compassionate; disciplined, loving and respectful. There was an established order to adhere to and standards to strive for and maintain. I grew to love and respect this tradition, this style, and this kumu. In many ways Keolahou’s teachings were like my parents’ teachings and the hālau became like my home and family. Family was everything in my upbringing. My actions, choices, and decisions were reflections of my family. Some may say decisions made in childhood are short-lived but for me they weren’t. I remember clea…

Naleialoha Napaepae-Kunewa
subject: Nā Kumu Hula Naleialoha Napaepae-Kunewa - Nānā I Nā Loea Hula Volume 2 Page 84
description: Naleialoha Napaepae-Kunewa is the executive director of Kahua Na‘au A‘o Ma Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau NHP. Inc. and is the kumu hula of Hālau o Kaleiho'ohie o Kona. Mrs. Lokalia Montgomery was my only hula teacher. She was the curator of the Hulihe‘e Palace in Kona from 1951 to 1971 and my mom worked there. She would take me to Mrs. Montgomery’s house located next to the Palace on Saturdays for hula class. In keeping with tradition the teacher selected the student and Mrs. Montgomery chose me. I started when I was seven and stayed with her until she retired in 1971. I was very fortunate. Mrs. Montgomery would sit with me at her dining room table. She would sit at one end and I would be on the other. The only instruments I was allowed to use were the ka lā‘au and ʻiliʻili. “Kū Ka Punohu,” “Kona Kai ‘Opua,” and “‘Aihea ‘O Kalani” were my first dances. All the rhythms were done on the dining room table without ipu or pahu. She never danced. I followed her directions and performed accordingly. Mrs. Montgomery was very knowledgeable in knowing what best suited each person. She didn’t have set standards that you had to learn this and that by the first year. She believed whatever a student was able to comprehend, that’s what she would teach. She really enjoyed working on a one-to-one basis. It was a relaxed but serious situation and it was easy for me to sit with her for long periods at a time. I felt very comfortable with her. Although stern she was a kind and gentle-hearted person. Sometimes we would just sit and talk story. I remember l had my ‘ūniki at twelve years of age. It was held on the Palace grounds. The preparation included red fish and sweet potatoes. She told me not to eat the night before. I arrived before sunrise at her house and stayed with her all day. I napped on her lanai and after I awoke, we reviewed the ceremony. I ate everything she served me and I performed for her and her kumu Mary Kawena Pukui. There was an evening celebration, and I participated in a …

Mrs. Louise L. Beamer
description: Mrs. Louise L. Beamer Louise Beamer is the daughter-in-law of Helen Desha Beamer and has taught the hula for forty-nine years. She currently resides on the Big Island of Hawaiʻi. I was born on January 22, 1907 in Honolulu and in 1923 at the age of sixteen I married into the Beamer family. My husband’s mother was Helen Desha Beamer and she lived in Hilo on the Big Island. Mother Beamer was a musician, a composer, a dancer, and she was my first kumu. She taught me everything. Mother Beamer always taught at her mothers home on Eighth Avenue in Kaimuki whenever she visited Honolulu. All the young ladies would come to learn and there would be thirty young women dancing in the living room. Now Mahi’s (Mahi Beamer) mother and I, the two daughters-in-law, would stand in the backline and that’s how I really got started. Mother Beamer had her own way of teaching. She didn’t do too much dancing for you or with you. She got up and showed you the dance one time. She taught ‘auwana the same way, she would sit at the piano and play it one time. You were allowed to watch the motions and listen to the words once, and then you were expected to get up and do it all. The hula that we were taught was simple and subtle. The subtler the better. Our knees were always drawn up rather than outward when we would ‘uwehe and the dance always projected the words of the chant. I went through the process of learning the hula kapu but because of the kapus associated with the dance, I’ve chosen never to teach it. Mama had a very beautiful way of teaching. She always told me, ‘You know Lou, you always have to be aware of how you are teaching. You always have to teach your students the way you would have wanted to be taught.’ What she meant was a teacher had to go down to the level of each student. I first began to teach at home in ‘Alewa Heights. We had a very long porch with a spectacular view of Pearl Harbor and that’s where I held my classes for five years. Sometimes I would teach a student someth…

Minerva Kalauhiwaokalani Pang
subject: Nā Kumu Hula Minerva Kalauhiwaokalani Pang - Nānā I Nā Loea Hula Volume 2 Page 94
description: Minerva Pang has been teaching hula in her home since 1958 and presently works as a kupuna in the Pearl City area. I’ve always loved dancing especially the hula. My grandfather wanted me to study instead of dance because he said hula will not take me anywhere. So I used to hide to take hula lessons. My cousin taught me the hula when I was three-years- old. At age seven I took hula ‘auana from Rose Kuamo‘o whenever I visited Hilo. I took two summers from her while living in Kaʻu. When I moved to Honolulu, I took from my kumu hula Emma Moniz. She taught me hula ‘auana and a lot of implement numbers. The kahiko I learned was more modern, like dances about King Kalākaua and Queen Lili'uokalani. As a student my goal was to take hula from Aunty Emma for two years and get a certificate to graduate. I had to learn the language, the dance, and get a certificate if I wanted to become a teacher. You needed to understand the Hawaiian words and the interpretation of the mele to he able to create your own hula. Aunty Emma said it would take years hut it was necessary to learn the language. I got my certificate at my ʻūniki in 1945. Before I started to teach hula, I thought I needed to take more dancing so I took children’s hula from Kuulei Stibbard. I also took private lessons from Puanani Alama and learned some implement numbers and other hula ‘auana from George Nā‘ope. At first I taught my own children and then my neighbors’ children. I felt that if they could learn from me, I could teach others. Then my friends came and soon I had over twenty children and it grew from that. I taught for five years before I had my first recital. I used to have a couple hundred children but now my class is smaller because I am in the kupuna program and I have less time. I call myself a hula teacher but kumu has the same meaning. I teach old Hawaiian songs about places, islands, love, and songs that were written before the children were born so they can learn about them. Some of our young teacher…