Elizabeth Hu‘i Park

Nā Kumu Hula Elizabeth Hu‘i Park - Nānā I Nā Loea Hula Volume 2 Page 97

Remembered as a beautiful and accomplished dancer, the late Huʻi Park taught hula for seventeen years. Her daughter Coranne Park-Chun is continuing her legacy at the Huʻi Park Hula Studio


I learned the basics of hula at the age of eight while attending the Parks and Recreation program at Lanakila Park in the summer. During the weekdays I took hula ‘auana from Aunty Sally Wood at Likelike School. My greatest influence however was Joseph Kahaulelio with whom I studied under for fourteen years.

There were about fifteen girls in Uncle Joe’s class. He would always tell us the story and translation of the chant before teaching us the dance. We had to learn the chant by memory then he would go into the basic steps and hand motions. He taught just four of us to pad and that’s how I learned to pa‘i with my finger and thumb.

I danced for Leilani Alania for a year and a half before my cousin Flo Koanui asked me to dance for Aunty Vickie Iʻi Rodrigues. There were ten of us who danced for Aunty Vickie and we were called the Hauʻoli Girls. We were the best dancers on the Islands, entertaining in the hotels and on the boats during the Sixties. Aunty Vickie’s forte was hula ‘auana so she did the ‘auana portion of the show. Uncle Joe, Kawai Cockett or George Holokai did the chanting for us. My cousin and I taught the girls who didn’t know kahiko.

Like Uncle Joe, Aunty Vickie didn’t allow us to write down the words to the song she was teaching. Rut I wrote it anyway because when you get older, you forget. She told us what the dance was about and let everybody have an input in putting the motions to the dance. We would try it this way or try it that way. By doing this, she knew which students would become teachers and carry on.

Aunty Vickie has given me so much. She inspired me to grow as a person and taught me to be a lady. She polished us to be beautiful hula dancers. Although I danced for Aunty Vickie for seventeen years, my style of dancing is still Uncle Joe’s and Aunty Vickie was pleased with me for keeping his style.

I don’t believe in ‘ūniki and my teachers never believed in ‘ūniki. In the old days you had to live with the kumu. You had to abstain from sex and only concentrate in learning the hula. I remember Eleanor Hiram Hoke telling stories about her ‘ūniki and why we cannot go through those rituals anymore.

I didn’t realize that I was going to be a teacher until Aunty Genoa Keawe asked me to teach hula for her. At that time I had to say “no” but the second time she asked me, I said “yes” because I had planned to quit my job to help my daughter take care of her baby. I taught at the Genoa Keawe's Hula Studio for one year and then the following year in 1975, she turned it over to me.

On my fifteenth anniversary of teaching I graduated six students who had been with me from ten to fifteen years and they were given a certificate of accomplishment. For five years they had to teach the basics to a beginners’ class. I gave them a hapa haole number to create into a hula. Before every girl graduated, she had to earn a paper certifying t hat she knows how to make a ti leaf skirt, haku or kui a lei, and do everything else I taught her.

My joy is having the respect and dedication of a student who has become an accomplished dancer. She is my final product. It’s a feather in my cap that someone else wants my student and I feel great that she can go on to other things.

In my opinion kahiko is telling stories of old through a slower medium. I teach only girls so in my kahiko the dancers are soft. They don’t jump all over the place. That’s how I was taught from the very beginning at Lanakila Park and from Uncle Joe.



Nānā I Nā Loea Hula 97