Kathleen Malama Leleo

Kathleen Malama Leleo
Kathleen Leleo served as alaka'i to the late hula teacher Samuel (Kamuela) Nae‘ole of Waimanalo. She currently is affiliated with the Kalihi-Palama Culture and Arts Society as a hula instructor.


When I think of traditional hula I think of Lokalia Montgomery and George Nā‘ope. There would have to be limitations on creativity if one is to go strictly traditional. The old style of traditional hula is vanishing and most of our kupunas that practiced it are gone. The hula of today is exciting but there’s not enough people alive today to show us or teach us what ancient hula was really like. It’s difficult to say what it is and what it is not. I became interested in hula at a very late age. My children were grown and all in school and there was nothing else for me to do. So I became a member of the Kalihi- Pālama Hawaiian Civic Club which my late brother founded.

I became very interested in Hawaiiana and at this time, George Nā‘ope began his hula classes in Kalihi and the members of our club were encouraged to join. This was my start in hula. I studied with Uncle George for five years and I was trained in hula kahiko, hula ‘auwana, and chanting. We were never told what the chant was about so we did research on our own time. At the end of my fifth year of training I was graduated by Uncle George as a kumu hula.

I went on to train under Samuel Nae‘ole and I found him to be someone who really cared about his dancers and how well each one did. He helped me to better myself in the hula ‘auwana. I remember when we went out to perform, Uncle Sam would charge a quarter for every mistake we made. He trained five of his students to become kumu hula and I was very fortunate to be one of those students. He stressed the importance of the mekona and the ‘okina, and he started our training by focusing on memorizing the chant, proper pronunciation, translation, expression, and significance of the chant or dance. Uncle Sam gave us the resources and we did the research. We would also create the dance and perform before him for his approval, and at the end of each chant or dance we were given a written test.

When I was a haumāna, teaching looked easy, but I found the great difficulty of teaching to be communication. How do you communicate to a large group of restless and often uninterested children? There were times when Uncle Sam would call at the last minute and ask me to take over his classes. Unknowingly to me, he would hide outdoors and watch how I worked with the class. I guess he wanted to see if I was able to handle the classes without him.

After the death of Uncle Sam in 1981, I was asked by the Kalihi-Pālama Culture and Arts Society to carry on his work in the Kalihi-Pālama area. I try to train my students the way Uncle George and Uncle Sam trained me. I consider myself between traditional and contemporary hula but I’ve always tried to respect the ancient hula. The history of hula is so clouded, for example there has always been a controversy over what the correct ‘uwehe step is. No one knows where the foot movements originated from or where the hula originated from.