Joan Lindsey

Joan Lindsey
Joan Lindsey, a niece of the late hula instructor Caroline Tuck,
currently has her hula studios in Pearl City and Waipahu on O‘ahu

I was always interested in the hula but I was raised by my Korean grandparents and they didn’t want anything to do with anything Hawaiian. When I was young I would go to Caroline Tuck’s studio and watch her conduct classes. At seventeen I asked her if I could enter her classes and this is how I started.

Caroline never seemed to let anything bother her. She was interested in everybody and she had a tremendous amount of patience and encouragement. People would make derogatory statements about her but she would never turn around and reply. My aunt told me that if I could not respect other kumu and dancers that I would kill whatever enjoyment I had for my own work.

I stayed with Caroline for two years until I had a chance to join Lena Guerrero. This was during the war time and she needed dancers so I auditioned even though I wasn’t very graceful.
I think she kept me on because I smiled and looked like I was having fun even though I didn’t know what I was doing. Lena’s troupe was like a partnership with Lena as the director and Mae Loebenstein and Alice Keawekāne Garner directing us on certain numbers.

After three years I went on to Lena Machado who wanted to go all out for showmanship. She would drive me to the point where I would ask myself why am I here and then we would all sit down at a pā‘ina and forget about all the scoldings.

I studied under Lokalia Montgomery and I found her to be a brilliant and warm person but my training was informal and it was nothing like what Mā‘iki Aiu went through. The last kumu I studied under was an old man who came to me and who I only knew as Tutu Sam. Because I am a Christian I went through an incomplete ‘uniki with Tūtū Sam where we chanted prayers back and forth to each other in the hālau.

I began to teach at the age of nineteen with my aunt because I admired her so much. She seemed to really enjoy her work and I wondered if it was all that fun. Of course it wasn’t but if you saw my aunt, you would think it was the easiest job in the world.

A certain type of hula is good only if it is done in unison. Another type is good only if the audience understands the mele. I think it is more important for a dancer to be graceful and expressive as a soloist and that is something you really have to work at.

I admire the young kumu of today because it takes time and commitment to come out with the creative hula that is going on today. The ancient hula of today is very gymnastical but during my time many of the kumus were afraid to tread into the creative areas that today’s kumu are going into.

I feel ancient and modern are inappropriate terms when it comes to the hula because the dance is categorized by music, chant, and by each implement. It’s impossible to lump it all together and call one part ancient and another part modern. Sometimes there are definitions that cannot categorize when a certain era began and when it ended. As a result, I don’t think anybody can set up limits for creativity in kahiko. It is up to the kumu themselves.

The more you stay in the hula, the more you realize that you are not going to learn everything overnight and you will go to your grave not knowing enough. It’s the natural philosophy of the race. But the hula is like every other body of knowledge in the world. Every other year somebody is always coming out with a book that contradicts what came out before.