John Pi‘ilani Watkins
description: John Pi‘ilani Watkins The late John Piilani Watkins, born in ‘Ewa, O‘ahu in the area which today is Honolulu Airport, became interested in the hula at the age of ten and was trained by his grandmother Lokalia Kaahumanu Ho‘oulu. He was the star of the Germaine Polynesian Luau Show until his death in 1983. When I was starting out in the hula and for a long time after, it was not considered right for a man to be teaching the hula. People would talk and there was a time early in my career when I wanted to leave the hula. But I always felt that this was a gift from my ‘ohana and as long as I was unmarried I would carry this talent. This is the reason I’ve remained single till today. I think it was the music that brought me into the dance. When I heard the chants I immediately felt it was something that I should learn because it was so beautiful. Grandma knew she was getting old and the tradition in our family was to pass the knowledge on before you die. My grandmother was the keeper of the keys for Luka the Queen, and she interpreted dreams and signs for the Queen. She had a book filled with history and chants and traditions that was supposed to go to me at her death. She had tried passing it on to the whole family but nobody wanted it so I was her last chance. I lived with my grandmother for awhile and I remember very vividly another lady coming to visit my grandmother and together the two of them would chant. Everyday they would wear their hair up but when they chanted they would let their hair down and it would fall all over their bodies. My grandmother wanted me to learn kahiko because I was the next in line to be the caretaker of Kamehameha’s body. I was supposed to learn the chant that would allow me to cross the waters and then I would have to rub his body with oils. I was very young at the time and I really didn’t understand the kahiko but my grandmother told me not to worry because it would all come to me when it was time. She said that when she was living she c…

John Keolamaka‘ainānakalāhuiokalani Lake
description: John Keolamaka‘ainanakalāhuiokalani Lake Born on Maui, John Lake moved to Oahu in 1954 to attend the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and is currently a member of the faculty of St. Louis High School. There is a tremendous clash today between the old values and modern values of Hawai‘i. With the creativity of the new styles and interpretations, the question today has become what is considered traditional hula? Today you have a lot of creative dances that exist for the sake of rhythm rather than the sake of language. Rhythm gives way to movement, movement gives way to theatrics, and theatrics give way to confusion. My first kumu in the formal training sense was Aunty Mā‘iki Aiu Lake. I had studied informally at the age of six under my great-grandaunt but my real training in the kahiko began under Mā‘iki. She taught me that the beauty of the hula is to come to terms with the essence of one’s self. She said that the Hawaiians call your inner light the manaʻo and it is the real source of your dancing. Your body is simply an expression of your manaʻo. When I joined the hālau in 1964 there were only two other male dancers enrolled in the school. The emphasis and public attention was on ‘auwana but my interest was on the traditional hula and I found Mā‘iki to be both gracious and steeped in knowledge. The central theme of the hālau was humility. Through humility everything is given to you. She defined the hula kahiko as the basic steps and styles passed down through the generations and we were expected to humble our own personalities to the dances. We were taught that hula expressed every sense: sight, hearing, feeling, tasting, and smelling. My affiliation and work with Aunty Edith Kanaka‘ole through many years, brought me to understand the value of Hawaiian traditions, the respect of self and others, and the dignity of our Hawaiian values and heritage. She taught me much in chanting as to the projection of voice, control over the language and breathing, and essentially the…

Joan Lindsey
description: 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 rea…

Jan Kahōkū Yoneda
description: Jan Kahoku Yoneda In 1975 Jan Yoneda, a Hawaiian resource teacher for the DOE Central O'ahu District, along with her hula sister Marilyn Leimomi Ho co-founded their hālau Pōhai Nā Pua O Laka. My first kumu hula was Mrs. Anna Like who was like “family” to me. We lived in Kalihi at the time and her daughter Edna had a small group of performing dancers. The hula I learned back then was primarily ‘auwana, and most of what I learned was performed in hula shows and family parties. Anna taught me from age three to about age twelve but as a teenager I lost interest in hula. I went on to college but it wasn’t until I turned twenty-one that I renewed my interest in the hula. I signed up for hula lessons with Mrs. Danie Hanohano who was teaching at a satellite session for Aunty Hoakalei Kamauʻu in Pearl City. I was with Danie for about six months and it was from this session that I got my first introduction to the foundations of hula kahiko. I was referred to Aunty Hoakalei by Mrs. Hanohano and I began to study and learn various hula styles and mele under her direction. She shared with me her knowledge of the chants, the hula movements, and most importantly the discipline that was required in hula. She was forever challenging me to be better than I thought I could ever be. I continued under Aunty Hoakalei for six years until she decided that I should become a kumu hula for the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts. I never wanted to be a kumu. All I wanted to do was dance. I enjoy dancing and learning about the chants. The body motions and mental requirements of hula excite me and that was enough for me at the time. So I talked with Aunty Hoakalei and told her of my reluctance to become a kumu hula, and she looked at me and said it’s not my decision to make and we left it at that. I believe that there are forces in my life influencing me to go in a certain direction or take a certain path. In 1975 Aunty Hoakalei was in charge of the State Foundation’s hula conferences and s…

J. Kimo Alama Keaulana
subject: Nā Kumu Hula J. Kimo Alama Keaulana - Nānā I Nā Loea Hula Volume 2 Page 57
description: Kimo Alania Keaulana is currently a Hawaiian Studies instructor at the Honolulu Community College and runs the Lei Hula Hula School in Waimea, Kaua‘i and Honolulu, O‘ahu. When I was small, my mother did not want me to have anything to do with hula because in the 1960s only girls danced hula. If you danced hula when you were young, it was said that you would grow up to be māhū. But hula seemed natural for me. It didn't tell anybody that I was taking hula. Not even my mother knew. The first time I danced hula was at the age of three-years-old. I used to watch my mother and my older sisters take hula lessons from Mrs. Adeline Bee at the Mānoa Playground. When I was nine, I accompanied my younger sister to her hula classes and I was invited to sing with the other children. Aunty Adeline saw that I was interested and she let me assist her by carrying her 'ukulele and other things. Later Aunty Adeline took me to her other hula classes at the different playgrounds. I learned how to play the ‘ukulele, how to phrase Hawaiian words in chanting and singing, and I learned pronunciation. I learned to be a ho‘opa‘a first. I was with Aunty Adeline for fourteen years as a student and apprentice. I assisted her when she had to give workshops. She was a beautiful singer but she always told us that she did not chant very well. So I handled the chanting and the heavy drumming for her. I had just turned sixteen when Aunty Adeline went to Japan and left me in charge of her hula classes for the Parks and Recreation. I guess she would not have done so if she thought I couldn't do it. So I taught at least a hundred kids for the summer program. I also went to Mrs. Hattie Au off and on for about a year while she was living in Kahana. She was Pua Ha‘aheo’s alaka‘i and she was a very old woman at the time I learned hula from her. After Mrs. Au, Ms. Kauhane was my teacher for about two years. They both taught drumming, chanting, and ancient dancing. While attending the Kamehameha Schools from 19…

Iwilani Silva Ohelo
subject: Nā Kumu Hula Iwilani Silva Ohelo - Nānā I Nā Loea Hula Volume 2 Page 93
description: Iwilani Ohelo is kumu hula of the Hālau Hula 0 Na Pua Mokihana and the Kalihi- Pālama Culture & Arts Society's community hula and Polynesian dance classes. I began learning the hula at three years-old. During that time there were only a few kumu hula who taught hula to children at that young age. I was fortunate to have kumu hula Mrs. Rose Look, a family friend, invite me to join her beginning children’s hula classes which were held at her home on 6th Avenue in Kaimuki. Mrs. Look studied with renowned hula masters including Alice Keawekane Garner, Kamuela Nae‘ole, and Lokalia Montgomery. She focused her instruction on the fundamentals of the hula. It was she who helped develop my basic hula foundation. After three years of hula training Mrs. Look stopped teaching and relocated to the ‘Ewa district of O‘ahu. Prior to closing her Kaimuki hālau, she assisted her students with referrals to other kumu hula in the area. She recommended me to Mrs. Rose Joshua, the kumu hula and proprietor of the Magic Hula Studio on Kalākaua Avenue. I found Mrs. Joshua to be a sincere and beautiful person as well as an excellent hula instructor. She was very caring, patient, nurturing, and especially loved teaching children. Learning the Hawaiian culture and hula under her tutelage was the most rewarding and enjoyable part of my life. Mrs. Joshua used a holistic approach in teaching and taught us to be well-rounded dancers. Not only did we learn the hula kahiko and ‘auana dance stylings, we were also taught the oli and other chanting techniques. We learned the mo‘olelo, the Hawaiian and English lyrics to the mele hula, and were trained as ‘olapa and ho‘opa‘a on the use of traditional musical instruments to accompany the hula as well as appropriate costuming and adornments. Her teaching methods were thorough and enabled us to gain important knowledge and an understanding of the dances we performed. As part of our learning experiences we were required to conduct our own research on selected …

Iwalani Kalima
subject: Nā Kumu Hula Iwalani Kalima
description: Iwalani Kalima established Hula Hālau O Ko Lima Nani E in 1986 and is currently residing in Hilo, Hawaii. I was eight-years-old when I started taking hula from Uncle George Nā‘ope in Hilo. Uncle left in 1974 to live in Honolulu and returned to Hilo after four years. During that time I didn’t take hula from any other teacher. I went back to Uncle when he returned and I am still studying with him till today. I’ve been with him for over thirty years. Uncle George’s style of hula was very basic. You had to know your foot movements. There was no half step or a side step. It was a full kāholo and your basic steps were the most important thing. If you didn’t know your steps, you couldn’t do hula. That’s what Uncle always told us. You can see the difference in the dancing today. Before it was one motion for one sentence. Today it’s ten different motions for one sentence. Some teachers try to interpret every word with a motion. Uncle was a very strong hula kahiko teacher. You had to learn the kahiko first before you learned the ‘auana. My first hula was “Liliʻu E” and we learned the ‘uwehe step. We learned the kāholo and ‘uwehe by doing “Kawika.” It taught us timing. Uncle also took us out to entertain at private parties and at the Naniloa Hotel. We first started out performing the hula kahiko and hula ‘auana, and then in later years when I was about twelve-years-old, we started learning Tahitian. He brought over Ray Fonseca and Etua Lopes to teach Tahitian dancing. Etua was the dancer and did most of the teaching and Ray was the drummer and perfectionist. I regard them as my hula brothers. In 1982 Uncle gave me my kumu palapala. It was a special ceremony with a hō'ike and ‘ūniki. Although I wasn’t ready for it, Uncle felt it was the time to give me the paper. I don’t know what the requirements were but in Uncle’s eyes, I was ready. Although I had been assisting Uncle since 1981, others considered me his alaka‘i only after I had my ‘ūniki. I continued teaching with him and i…

Howell Kali‘ula Māhoe
description: Howell Kali‘ula Māhoe “Chinky” Māhoe established his halau Kawailiula four years ago and is presently teaching in Kailua, Oʻahu. The hula kahiko of today is a modernized form. To me, nobody knows how the hula was danced in ancient times. People can only retrace so much and what they recover has been interpreted to them by somebody else. When you enter some competitions today they categorize the kahiko into a certain period. To me the boundaries they set up are very ambiguous and inconsistent. Are you going to limit kahiko to the Kamehameha reign or set the limits at the Kalākaua reign? Why should one be included and the other excluded? Somebody at that time had to dream up the motions and the steps so why can’t the kumu create now because today’s kahiko has to be a combination of modern ideas and traditional movement. We wouldn’t be doing anything different than the kumu of fifty or a hundred years ago did not do themselves. After I graduated from Kailua High School, I began to work at the Kāne‘ohe Marine Base. I started to fall into a rut and I looked at all the people around me, and I told myself I was too young to be growing old. I worked at the Kāne‘ohe Marine Base for two and a half years and then I quit. I went down to the beach and I just wanted to be a bum. I bodysurfed, grew my hair long, and played ‘ukulele. After seeing a performance by Robert Cazimero’s Nā Kamalei, I went to see Robert and later Kaha‘i Topolinski to enroll in hula. I didn’t know that there were specific times for new members to be accepted into their hālaus and both told me to wait for the next registration. I was so anxious that I started training under Uncle George Nā‘ope at Kalihi-Pālama Culture & Arts Society. Uncle George would show us the motions and foot movement and we would just follow his lead. At that time I didn’t know anything and it was very hard for me to take in so much. Uncle George made the class a lot of fun. It wasn’t pressured and that’s what I needed at that time. A…

Holoua Stender
subject: Nā Kumu Hula Holoua Stender - Nānā I Nā Loea Hula Volume 2 Page 106
description: Holoua Stender has been teaching Hawaiian chant and dance classes as part of the regular curriculum at the Kamehameha Schools since 1979. I was raised by my maternal grandmother and great-grandparents. Together with my paternal grandmother, they spoke Hawaiian to me when I was little. When I attended St. Louis High School, I studied Hawaiian language with John Lake and I continued learning the language throughout my years at the University of Hawaiʻi where I graduated in 1979. I took hula from John Lake in 1970 when I was fifteen. He was a wonderful and exciting teacher. He motivated the students to want to learn. He must have had over sixty students who came to the after school rehearsals to study chant, music, and dance from him. He had a charismatic way of teaching. He used to take us all around the island to learn from different kumu hula. We studied with Aunty Alice Nāmakelua, Pua Dela Cerna and Aunty Hattie Au. He provided us with many opportunities to learn hula and we performed and watched performances by hula greats such as ʻIolani Luahine and Edith Kanakaʻole. After high school I went to the University of Hawai‘i where I took hula classes from Hoʻoulu Cambra and language from Sarah Nakoa and Larry Kimura. In 1973 I joined Ka Pā Hula Hawaiʻi under John Kaha‘i Topolinski. Kaha‘i had the greatest influence on my hula career because of the depth of his teaching and because I was with him the longest. He would take chants and break them down to reveal the different levels of meaning inherent in the language of the chant. Each dance took a long period to learn because of Kaha‘i’s care and scholarship. Sometimes we would visit Mrs. Mary Kawena Pukui to ask her questions about different chants and she would unravel the hidden intricacies of the language. In 1977 1 left Kaha‘i and went to learn from Darrell Lupenui. Darrell was a very loving person. I have special memories of him and the way he taught. He would sit on the floor and he would teach us by describing t…

Hōkūlani Holt-Padilla
subject: Nā Kumu Hula Hōkūlani Holt-Padilla - Nānā I Nā Loea Hula Volume 2 Page 41
description: Hōkūlani Holt-Padilla started her hālau in 1976 and has been teaching hula for over twenty-five years. She is also the coordinator of Nā Pua No‘eau-Maui. There are several reasons why I chose the name Pā‘ū O Hi'iaka for my hālau. One is for my mother’s family who have always been ocean people. The Pā‘ū O Hi'iaka is a beach plant and it is also a native Hawaiian plant. The story about how this plant got its name comes from the Pele and Hi'iaka myth. It tells of Pele going down to the beach with her baby sister Hi‘iaka-i-ka-poli-o-Pele in the early morning. She leaves her sister by the beach and goes into the water to surf. As the sun gets warmer she thinks about her sister and returns to where Hi'iaka lay. She found that a small beach plant had grown to cover the baby to protect it from the sun. So Pele gave that small beach plant the name Pā‘ū O Hi'iaka which means, “the skirt of Hi'iaka. In Pele and Hi'iaka stories the pā‘ū is magical and it can defeat enemies; it was her protection as she traveled through the islands. For all these reasons we thought it was a good symbol to have for our hālau. Hula has always been a part of my life. My first teacher was my tūtū who was Ida Pakulani Long. I was also taught by my aunty Kāhili Cummings and of course my mother Leiana Woodside. Learning from my tūtū and aunty meant being very disciplined: there was no fooling around. You had to watch, listen, and follow. There wasn’t a whole lot of in-depth explanation of what you were doing. You were expected to know it. She explained some things but not like what I do for my students today. Her style was half way between the strong bombastic Hawai'i styling and the more flowing style of O‘ahu. We were encouraged to dance low in the style that is now called ‘aiha‘a. We were also encouraged to move our bodies fluently. Because I lived for a time with my tūtū and my aunty, they would teach me when they were in the mood. My aunty also had a group of dancers composed of my cousins and the…

Hoakalei Kamau‘u
description: Hoakalei Kamau‘u Hoakalei Kamauʻu is the niece of the late ‘Iolani Luahine and served as her ho‘opa‘a and alakaʻi for the last fifteen years of her life. In the beginning I wanted to be a nurse but once I got started in the hula that was it. I danced informally with the USO (United Service Organization) during the war but it wasn’t until 1943 when I first came to Honolulu that I really began to be trained in the hula. My first kumu hula was Emma Moniz Bishop. Her studio used to be on Pensacola and King Street and coming from a background of informal training she seemed very strict. She wanted you to learn and really be someone. She was a great influence on me because she gave me a desire for learning from the first day. She made me realize there was a right way of learning the hula and she was satisfied with nothing less. I learned modern hula and a little kahiko under Emma. Because it was during the war a class would graduate every six months. My mother and the rest of my family lived in the studio and our job was to take care of the building. I stayed with Aunty Emma for three years and then I moved to Kaka‘ako and lived with my aunt ‘Iolani Luahine on Ilaniwai Street. It was Kawena Puku‘i that told ‘Iolani to train someone within her family to carry on her knowledge and that’s how she started to train me. Aunty ‘Iolani was my greatest influence because she was able to make me see the values that are in the dance and not just the dancer. She put a tremendous emphasis on fundamentals. She felt unless you had a solid foundation you couldn’t grow so we spent the first three months learning only fundamentals. Many people think I was trained by her to only be her chanter but I had to learn all of her dances as well. With Aunty Emma everyone looked forward to the graduations and receiving her certificate of instruction was a great joy for me. But with ‘Iolani there were no degrees, no certificates. It was a continued learning experience. Today the paper is very importan…

Ho'oulu Cambra
description: Ho‘oulu Cambra Ho‘oulu Cambra is a member of the faculty of the University of Hawaii at Mānoa and the Kamehameha Schools. If a person has Hawaiian blood, one might presume this precludes an inherent awareness, an affinity to the culture from within enabling one to catch on to the knowledge of the hula and the chants faster than a non-Hawaiian because this is the history of the race, this is the individual’s past. My life in the hula has really been an outgrowth from my training in music, Hawaiian language, and chant. In 1956 I attended the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. My first love is music and I was taught to teach it in the public schools but I began to realize that it wasn’t something that I wanted to do forever. When I returned from the Mainland in 1958, I taught piano at the Punahou Music School to make ends meet but I became restless so I took up ethnomusicology at the University which is a more scientific approach to the music of the world. My interest at that time was in the Hawaiian language and between 1958 and 1964 I studied under Rob Brown, Edwina Kanoho, Dr. Samuel Elbert, Kalani Meinecke, and Dorothy Kahananui. In 1962 I was introduced to Dorothy Gillett, the daughter of Dorothy Kahananui, and it was Mrs. Gillett who got me excited about traditional Hawaiian chanting. I was an East-West Center grantee studying Polynesian dance and music at the time, and from Mrs. Gillett I was led to Ka‘upena Wong who took me even deeper into the knowledge and traditions of chant. The next logical step from the chant was to be trained in the dance. In 1971 I met Aunty Mā‘iki Aiu Lake and she has been my greatest influence because she taught me the intricacies of teaching the hula. She gave me a methodology and a set of goals to guide myself. I went to Aunty Mā‘iki because I felt I needed an academic, university-style regimen since I was starting my training so late in life. I needed to absorb so much, so I needed a hālau with a strong structure. I ha…

Harriet Nē
description: Harriet Nē Harriet Nē has taught the traditional hula on the island of Moloka‘i for the past twenty-two years. I was brought up in an atmosphere where male hula was taught. This was in the valley of Pelekunu on the east coast of Moloka‘i. I was born on O‘ahu but at four months I was taken back to Moloka‘i. I became interested in the hula at five because I had the opportunity to walk in and out of the hālau and watch the male dancers train. I had three uncles who had a hālau so I was permitted entrance. I learned to take my first steps to the beat of the pahu drum. My first kumu was Ka‘ō‘ō of Moloka‘i. He taught me that you cannot do anything unless you have the right feeling within you. You can feel the vibration when your thoughts about the hula are correct. Ka‘ō‘ō would get inspired by going down to the ocean and then up into the mountains. Sometimes I would play by the seashore and watch him. One time I asked him what he was doing and he said he was waiting for the spirit to come into him and inspire him so he would know how to express the words. I was five-years-old when I started with Ka‘ō‘ō and he believed in training early in the morning. We would begin to train when the sun rose in the east. He would tell me that the sun is shining and another day is beginning where you are going to learn something new. Your heart and mind must be wide open to the acceptance of these teachings and that means you must discipline yourself to be open. I stayed with Ka‘ō‘ō for nine years and then my family moved to Honolulu because Moloka‘i did not have a high school. We lived in Kaimukī on 9th Avenue and I went to a kumu named Kapele who was a big, husky hapa Haole who lived out in Kahalu‘u. Kapele gave every student special attention. He would encourage our strong points in class and work on our weaknesses out of class. I was confused at the time because my father was a Christian minister and he said I couldn’t be a Christian and dedicate myself to Laka at the same time. So af…

Harriet Kuuleinani Sheldon Stibbard
subject: Nā Kumu Hula Harriet Kuuleinani Sheldon Stibbard - Nānā I Nā Loea Hula Volume 2 Page 109
description: The late Harriet Kuuleinani Stibbard was a public elementary school teacher for forty-one years before retiring. She opened Kuulei’s Hula Studio in October 1931. Once while dancing on stage, a Hawaiian woman said, “What is that haole lady doing up on stage?” I have Hawaiian blood in me and I am proud of it. Her remark encouraged me to do better. When I was young, my parents did not want me to dance the hula but I was determined to learn. I did not learn to dance however until I was twenty-one-years-old and married. I was teaching school on Maui when I met Alice Garner, my first hula teacher. Alice was a soft-spoken and beautiful person from whom I learned kahiko and 'auana. After five weeks of lessons she told me, “Harriet, I don’t know why you are coming to me. Your talent is God-given. I just can’t teach you anymore.” When I started my classes, I taught ‘auana first then kahiko much later. I had my own style and it was very different from other hālau. My costumes, pā‘ū, holokū, and ideas came naturally after I visualized my songs and dances. After I went on my own. I asked Aunty Daisy Boyd to translate the Hawaiian songs for me. Language to me is very important in hula. If Aunty Daisy Boyd did not translate for me, I would not have been able to do anything. My best memories are of the children. Some were as young as three-years-old. I always said to them, “Do not waste your parents’ money if you don’t want to learn.” After taking hula for about six months, the children were given a certificate with a picture of myself for learning good manners, good feelings, attire, and discipline. My advice was to put their heart and soul into what they do, work diligently, and set goals. I also taught at Punahou School. After three years they wanted me to give up my studio to teach full time for them. I refused because I wanted to keep my studio in Honolulu. After one of my recitals in Hilo, Mrs. Helen Desha Beamer said that she would send her granddaughter to me for private le…

George Pulamahia Maile
subject: Kumu Hula George Pulamahia Maile - Nānā I Nā Loea Hula Volume 2 Page 75
description: Presently employed by Aloha Airlines, George Pulamahia Maile graduated as kumu hula in the “Papa Lehua ” class from Māʻiki Aiu Lake in 1974. I must have been about seven or eight when I first took hula lessons from Aunty Mary Pukui at her house on Birch Street. There were two cousins and three other members of Aunty’ s family. I took on and off for about a year until Aunty cancelled the lessons when the cousins stopped coming. My next teacher was Momi Auwae-Yaw who I stayed w ith for two years. She studied under Ruby Ahakuelo and she taught us strictly ‘auana. It wasn’t until years later that I started with Aunty Māʻiki Aiu. I was twenty-four when I started with Aunty Māʻiki and I stayed for over twenty years. I came and never left! It was really a chance coincidence that I got into her hālau. We were all at a wedding reception when I was persuaded to go up to dance. I was going to die. It was years since I danced. After I finished, Aunty Māʻiki said, “Where did you learn that? You did my whole routine. You’re coming into the boys’ class next week!” So that’s how it started. I had picked up her whole routine without even realizing it by going into her hālau to wait for my friend and by talking story with Aunty Māʻiki. I guess I was just absorbing all these things. In 1970 the kumu class was opened up to the public. We started with ‘auana and then the kahiko was slowly interjected until we actually studied to become kumu. The name of our class was “Papa Lehua”. I was asked by Aunty Māʻiki to be in this particular class for kumu. I think there were twenty-four in our class and we all became kumu. We trained for four years to become ho‘opa‘a and then we trained to become kumu hula. The first student in “Papa Lehua” to become kumu was Ho‘oulu Cambra. The rest of us puka as ho‘opa‘a that year and we followed as kumu the next year. The first ‘ūniki was at Ulumau Village in Kāne‘ohe. It was an overnight thing. We had our ‘ailolo ceremony the next day but we went through th…

George Lanakilakekiahiali'i Na'ope
subject: George Lanakilakekiahiali'i Na'ope text from Nānā I Na Loea Hula Vol One Page 112
description: George Lanakilakekiahiali'i Na'ope In 1973 George Na'ope co-founded the Merrie Monarch Hula Festival that is held annually in Hilo. Born in Kalihi, 0‘ahu, Mr. Na‘ope was raised in Hilo, Hawaii. In the old days, everyone was afraid of knowledge being stolen so the old masters would die without sharing it. The different races that live here are part of the future of the culture. I teach Haole, Japanese, Pake, and I used to get scoldings because of it. I want to share because if we don’t share these dances they are going to die. My students are all different races but when they dance I know they’re Hawaiian. My first kumu was a woman who lived next door to my family in Hilo. She was Edith Kanaka‘ole’s mother. Her name was Mama Fujii. She was married to a Japanese man. She was a short lady, even shorter than me but she was a master of the hula. I studied under Mama Fujii for five years and I will always remember her. I started with Mama Fujii when I was four-years-old. I’ll always consider her my kumu because she did the hard work. She was the one that gave me my foundation and my basics. The teacher that laid the foundation should be the teacher you give the greatest credit to. That’s the hardest thing to teach. Mama Fujii, first of all, was very strict. She and my great-grandmother were dear friends and that’s the reason I went to hula. My greatgrandmother told me that our kupunas were kumu pa‘as so she felt someone else in the family had better learn the hula. So it really wasn’t a matter of me having a choice about learning or not learning. I was forced into the hula so the more I was taught the more I didn’t like it. It wasn’t until later that I realized how great a teacher Mama Fujii was. She spoke the language fluently and she had a deep-down, root feeling for the hula. Mama Fujii taught me only kahiko but since she was a Christian she only talked about the kapus during my training. She would also teach us sitting dances and the oli but there would be no kuahu. T…

Frank Kawaikapuokalani K. Hewett
subject: Frank Hewett, a faculty member of the Windward Community College, is the kumu hula of the Kuhai Halau O Kawaikapuokalani Pa ‘Olapa Kahiko
description: The greatest hardship for me was to live under the strict kapus I trained under for twenty years. But I love to dance and the people that taught me were so inspiring that I have no regrets. When I dance I offer certain evocations to ask certain spirits to become a part of me so that they may be happy again in coming back to life through me. That’s what gives me great joy because that’s what the hula is all about. My grandmother Eva Kana‘e was a dancer so the hula was something that surrounded me as I grew up. She spoke Hawaiian and it was through her that I was taught the foundations of my hula and the history of He‘eia and Kealohi. I spent eighteen years with my grandmother and she instilled in me a great love for hula kahiko and hula ‘auana. After my grandmother I spent a year with Edith Kanaka‘ole. Aunty Edith taught me how to give. I remember one time she was asked why she taught the hula to the Haole and she replied ‘Because, we are all God’s children.’ She made me aware of the disadvantages of being too generous but she inspired me to give out because that’s why I was given the knowledge. After Aunty Edith I spent ten years with Aunty Emma deFries who took me to the very depth of the hula, back to its very beginnings and foundations. She said that the beginnings of the hula is the essence of our people, and she explained the workings of the kapus to me and the symbolism of the different colors and plants in nature. I began to teach in 1978 in He‘eia and Kealohi because my family has roots there. I don’t train performers; my students have to be content with just gaining knowledge. Hawaiians are not lazy like we have been stereotyped and that’s what I’ve been trying to do, break the stereotypes that brand the Hawaiians. The biggest problem we have today is the broad use of the title of kumu hula. The people of today are training for one or two years when in fact they should be training for ten to twenty years. There has to be definite divisions in the hula becau…

Faye Pōmaialoha Dalire
description: Faye Pomaialoha Dalire Aloha Dalire, kumu hula of Keolalaulani Hālau ‘Olapa O Laka, has taught hula on O‘ahu for over fifteen years. She has the distinct honor of being the first “Miss Aloha Hula” crowned at the Merrie Monarch Festival in Hilo. I think the reason why the hula kahiko will prevail and never die is because of all the creativity being done today by the kumu. I was put into the hula at an age when I really didn’t have a mind of my own. When you’re brought up in a family that consists of dancers, you dance. My mother’s name was Mary Keolalaulani McCabe Wong and I consider her the backbone of my career. Without her I wouldn’t be enjoying the hula the way I am today. I started the hula at the age of three under Uncle George Nā‘ope who had graduated my mother and my older sister. Uncle George was a perfectionist and I was trained mostly in ‘auwana. When I turned ten, Uncle George decided to return to the Big Island. At that time Tahitian and Maori dancing were starting to influence the hula. This was in the Sixties and people started to change the scope of their dancing. It wasn’t so much hula anymore but Polynesian dancing. My mother needed a chanter for her ‘ūniki so I began listening to chanting records of ‘Iolani Luahine and tried to imitate her. So I suppose my first lessons in kahiko were taught to me by a record. At the age of twelve I chanted at my mother’s first ‘ūniki and I was approached by Elke Ross-Lane, the executive director of Aloha Week. She asked me to train under her and it was Elke that brought me out of my shell. She showed me how to research material and to make sure that a song or a mele must be understood thoroughly if it’s going to be used. I graduated from my mother at the age of eighteen but it was a very modern ‘ūniki. I had to pass certain tests that were basically a lot of paper work and research into different phases of the hula. It was an exercise in making sure you understood what you were doing and what you were getting into…

Emma Kapiolani Farden Sharpe
description: Emma Kapiolani Farden Sharpe Emma Sharpe is a member of the Farden family of Maui and today makes her home in Lahaina. Mrs. Sharpe is credited with helping to pioneer the renaissance of the hula throughout the island of Maui. As a little girl of eight, I lived in the village of Pu‘unoa in Lahaina with a lot of Hawaiian families surrounding us. There was always a lot of dancing and a lot of music. I used to love to listen to their singing. But going towards the fence and looking over I would see people doing the hula. And I would always want to learn what they were doing. I would always see kupuna coming together and having a party and singing and dancing to their songs. That’s what really interested me since my dad couldn’t send me to a dancing school. You see what I was always interested in was the ballet. Since I couldn’t go to a school for ballet then I wanted to go to a school for hula. My family being musical with instruments such as the guitar, ‘ukulele, autoharp, mandolin, and piano; it was natural for me to want to be a dancer. I didn’t study with a kumu until I was fifteen-years-old because my father didn’t want me to dance. His only exposure to the hula was what was being danced on Lahaina Street and he didn’t want any of his children ever becoming involved with that. I wanted to learn the hula so badly but at that time the only hula that was performed was done at private parties. As far as I can remember I don’t think there was one hālau on Maui at that time. A neighbor of ours told me about her mother- in-law Kauhai Likua who was a dancer at the time of King Kalakāua’s reign. I went to see her but she refused to teach me. Kauhai at that time was a minister for the Church and she said she had danced once but she was doing God’s work now. I told her we were both children of God and when she died she would take all her knowledge with her. That helped to change her mind and for the next three years she taught me in secret because of her position in the Churc…

Ellen Ku‘uleialohapo‘inaole Pūka‘ikapuaokalani Smith Castillo
subject: Ellen Ku‘uleialohapo‘inaole Puka‘ikapuaokalani Smith Castillo - Nānā I Nā Loea Hula Volume 2 Page 27
description: Ellen Castillo has been teaching the hula since 1958. She was also a kupuna for the Department of Education, Hawaiiana Program on the Windward side of O‘ahu. Puka‘ikapuaokalani is the name of my tūtū on my father’s side. She received rigorous training in hula and danced only for a select audience. When I was three-years-old as we were preparing to return to Honolulu from one of our visits to Tūtū’s Kaupō home, she decided she wanted me to stay. Although my mother and father were saddened by this separation, the family respected the Hawaiian tradition of hānai. So Tūtū raised me in Maui speaking only Hawaiian, and shared with me her knowledge and love for our culture like lau hala weaving which were a part of our daily routine. My Tūtū Puka‘ikapuaokalani’s name lives on through my hālau. I studied hula with Aunty Bella Richards when I was nine-years-old. She had about thirty students and we danced on her lawn on the side of her house. She emphasized hula ‘auana, and later taught Tahitian dancing. Aunty Bella learned traditional hula from her kumu Bella Kuamo‘o and from Mary Fujii, the mother of Aunty Edith Kanaka‘ole. I stayed with Aunty Bella for fifteen years. I served as her alaka‘i and taught with her for a couple of years as a requirement for my certificate. Aunty Bella wouldn’t let her students teach without first overseeing them. I graduated and received my certificate from her in 1958. Between lessons from Aunty Bella, I received additional training in kahiko from Aunty Emma Kahelelani Bishop, and later from Aunty Kekau'ilani Kalama. Aunty Bella was with me during the first few hula lessons I taught. My initial teaching experience was at her home where she made me teach a new class of thirty students. She also had private students and I would go to their homes to give lessons. After teaching for her, I branched out on my own in 1959 with her blessing. I enjoy watching my students perform. As a kumu you work hard with your students to achieve what you envision…

Elizabeth Hu‘i Park
subject: Nā Kumu Hula Elizabeth Hu‘i Park - Nānā I Nā Loea Hula Volume 2 Page 97
description: 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 wa…

Eleanor Hiram Hoke
description: Eleanor Hiram Hoke The late Eleanor Hiram Hoke was the third child of Moses Kealoha Hiram who in the 1920s held the konohiki fishing rights for Lāʻie, O‘ahu. She was considered at the time of her death in 1983 one of the last remaining hula kapu students of Hawaiʻi. I was taken at birth by my grandmother Katherine Keakaokalā Kanahele to be the chosen one for the hula kapu. I was reared in the area of Marconi Wireless Station in Kahuku, and it was there that I received my hula kapu training until age eight. To prepare for my training, Tūtūkane and Tūtūwahine went to the mountains and picked certain greens. A room within their home was set aside that no one could enter. Within this room the greens were hung without water on chicken wire upon a kuahu. On the day that I was born Tūtūkane selected a black pig and brought it to the kuahu. Tūtūwahine would begin to chant and slowly the animal would grow drowsier and drowsier. The pig would fall into a deep sleep and in its sleep it would pass away. A weapon could not be used to kill this sacrifice. Accompanied by a chant I was given a taste of certain portions of the animal: the brain, the front legs for my hands, and the back legs for my feet. This ‘ailolo prepared my body for the training to come. Absolutely none of the hulas or chants were put down in writing so the ‘ailolo served to heighten my senses and sharpen my memory. Whatever was not consumed was wrapped in greens and taken to the ocean. For eight years all I did was live the hula. Hawaiian chants were chanted to me like nursery rhymes are sung to other children. Throughout the day and the night all I did was practice and study chants. A hula kapu student has to be chosen before birth. I could not be touched by unclean hands and my meals had to be prepared at the kuahu in the halau by Tūtūwahine alone. The mullet that I ate had to come from a pond in Marconi Wireless and not from the ocean. The pigs that were fed to me could not be fed swill but only the best of…

Elaine Ka‘ōpūiki
description: Elaine Kaʻōpūiki Elaine Kaʻ ōpūiki has devoted over 30 years to teaching hula on the island of Lanaʻi. I live on an island that is so isolated that I hardly see things that would change my style. Thirty years ago, anytime we needed instruction we would fly to Honolulu. Flights weren’t expensive like they are today. I would spend a weekend in Honolulu and I would go to any instructor that was available. The kumu would give you translations of chants and you would learn them on your own time. In those days, you learned by the hour so you had to take as many chants as you could in an hour. We didn’t have tape recorders so a lot of knowledge had to be jotted down or sung so I wouldn’t forget. I was trained under such kumu hula as Leilani Alama, Luka Kaleikī, and Noelani Māhoe but the instructors that I saw the most were ‘Iolani Luahine and Tom Hiona. My greatest honor was to be able to learn and dance under these great masters. I began to teach both kahiko and ‘auwana on Lāna‘i because we didn't have a teacher in the hula. I was an entertainer and I felt I could do it. In those days the requirements to teach were up to the individual herself. There were no requirements that I knew of so I just did it on my own. There are seven steps to my kahiko and the dance is very simple. I don’t need the fancy steps. What I do need is expressive hands, bodies, and eyes because the traditional dance compared to the ‘auwana has almost no movement.

Edward Etua Lopes
subject: Nā Kumu Hula Edward Etua Lopes - Nānā I Nā Loea Hula Volume 2 Page 71
description: Etua Lopes is kumu hula of Hālau Hula Na Pua Uʻi O Hawaiʻi and has been teaching hula on the grounds of the Hulihe‘e Palace in Kailua-Kona since 1984. It was through Lokelani Anderson that I met Uncle George Nā‘ope. He had come to teach us to paʻi for the girls in her show. Originally I went to Lokelani’s hālau to become a Tahitian drummer. I was fifteen-years-old and my first hula experience was watching the girls dance. I just fell in love with the hula. I stayed with Lokelani for about three years and in 1971 I left Honolulu and went to Hilo to learn from Uncle George. That’s when my focus on learning the hula began. I’ve been with Uncle George ever since. Uncle George had the most influence in my hula. He taught me that I can’t be exactly like him so he sent me to different teachers. Because of Uncle George Eve met a lot of very well known hula masters. I was able to take a few classes from Henry Pa, Lokalia Montgomery, ‘Iolani Luahine, Edith Kanaka‘ole, and Eleanor Hiram Hoke. Aunty ‘Iolani did not teach me to dance but she gave me a lot of the history. For four years my hula brother Ray Fonseca and I spent every weekend with Aunty ʻIo in Kona. At that time she was the curator of the Hulihe‘e Palace and she lived in the house where the gift shop is now. On Sunday we would take her down to her Napo‘opo‘o home and spend the day with her. Ray and I were always around when Aunty ʻIo and Uncle George did oli, blessings, and other rituals. We gained a lot of knowledge by listening and watching Aunty ʻIo and Uncle George. When Uncle George returned to Honolulu and taught hula for the Kalihi - Pālama Culture & Arts Society, Inc., Ray and I were alaka'i for his classes. The Society also sponsored classes such as feather lei making, lau hala weaving, implements and drum making. We attended all these classes to help us prepare for our ‘ūniki. Ray and I had our ‘ūniki at Farrington High School in 1976. The day of our ‘ūniki was very exciting. We were the first two males to…

Edith Kawelohea Kapule McKinzie
description: Edith Kawelohea Kapule McKinzie Edith McKinzie is a member of the faculty of the Honolulu Community College and is researching, lecturing, and publishing in the area of Hawaiian culture. I first became interested in the hula because I grew up in a musical Hawaiian family. I was performing with my family before I ever entered formal training and my Aunty Mary who was a dancer for the hula master Antone Ka‘ō‘ō encouraged me to take up the hula. Since that time I have trained under several different kumu hula and each one had his or her influence on me and my style of the hula. I trained under Joseph ‘Īlālā‘ole for three years at Pālama Settlement, at Kulamanu in Kāhala, and at his home in Kapahulu. This was my first formal training and from him I learned hula kahiko. This entailed learning the basic hand motions and foot movements along with the names and symbolic references contained in each motion. The discipline under which this training occurred went beyond just a certain amount of time spent working at the dance. It included personal carriage, personal attitude, presentation of gestures and the necessary respect involved in the tradition of the dance. I am not certain who ‘Īlālā’ole’s teachers were; that was not an important question at the time. Later I trained under Eleanor Hiram Hoke for eight years, dancing professionally for her, performing in tableaus, and learning the drumming and the dances associated with the hula pahu, which was her specialty. Eleanor held classes at her studio in Mānoa. She had been a student of Keaka Kanahele and during the period I studied with her, she was occasionally assisted by Katie Nakaula. Upon completion of my training, I went through the process of an ‘ūniki. After a long period away from training in the hula, I returned to take lessons with Hoakalei Kamau‘u whose teacher has been ‘Iolani Luahine. This was a period of renewal and excellent reinforcement for me in hula kahiko. Hoakalei was the Director of the State Council on…

Denise Ka‘uhionamauna Kia Ramento
subject: Nā Kumu Hula Denise Ka‘uhionamauna Kia Ramento - Nānā I Nā Loea Hula Volume 2 Page 98
description: Denise Ramento founded Aloha Pumehana O Hawaiʻi Nei in 1972 and is currently teaching hula and Tahitian dance in the Waipahu area. I began to learn hula at the age of seven-years-old. My first teacher was John Piʻilani Watkins who taught at his home in Kaimukī. He was not really into traditional hula. John was very theatrical. He liked using a lot of cellophane. He also taught us Tahitian, Samoan, and Maori dancing. I spent the next nine years with Aunty Luka and Aunty Louise Kaleiki at the ʻIlima Hula Studio. It was through their lessons that I got more involved in the hula. Aunty Luka did most of the teaching. Aunty Louise did the paper work for the business and she was the disciplinarian. I concentrated so much in hula that I never got a chance to go to football games. Aunty Luka and Aunty Louise were very strict; if you missed one performance, you couldn’t dance. I remember a few of us never went to our proms because there was hula. I graduated six years after joining Aunty Luka and Aunty Louise. There were six of us that were up for graduation. All of the dancers who were graduating had to learn a number of their own. Aunty Luka and Aunty Louise chose each song and the girls learned their particular song privately. I learned hula kahiko from Uncle Henry Pa when he came to the hālau to teach Aunty Luka. Before we started the kahiko, he sat and explained about the dance. He met with us for three years and during the last year he taught us hula kahiko for our ʻūniki. All the students from the halau participated in the graduation lū‘au held at Ka Makua Mau Loa Church in Kalihi. The graduating class danced hula kahiko chosen by Uncle Henry Pa and each of I he graduates had to dance her special song. My song was “Kau‘ionalani." Aunty Luka and Aunty Louise asked me to become an alaka‘i but my parents sent me away to Maui to attend Lahainaluna High School. Because I missed my hula, I started at the Royal Lahaina Hotel as a solo dancer under the direction of Robert Kala…

Cy M. Bridges
subject: Nā Kumu Hula Cy M. Bridges - Nānā I Nā Loea Hula Volume 2 Page 23
description: Cy M. Bridges, the great grandson of Kuluwaimaka who was a court chanter during the reign of Kamehameha II to Kalākaua, is a Bishop of the Hauʻula IV Ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and has been employed at the Polynesian Cultural Center in Lāʻie for many years. Hula is a bit different today. We’ve all seen movies of hula dancers of the past. All you have to do is pop in a video and you can readily see how much it has changed. Mele hula and mele oli were once the textbooks of Hawaiʻi. The History and words that were carefully woven into the chants were very important. Today the words at times become secondary while the motions take on the primary role. Crowds go wild when they see certain movements. They may not know what the words are saying but the moves are so electrifying especially in the kahiko that the audience get carried away. There are some things that I have enjoyed watching and yet would not dare incorporate into my own teaching. Our hālau hula began with four kumu hula: myself, Bill Kauaiwiulaokalani Wallace, Enoka Kaina, and Keitli Kalanikau Awai. William Cravens, who at the time was the President of the Polynesian Cultural Center, called Bill and me in and asked us, “Why don’t we have a hālau?” We told him it would be taxing and would take so much time and effort to have fund-raisers. Cravens said, “Don’t worry about any of that. We'll sponsor it and fund whatever you need.” We felt we would give it a try and that’s how we got started. Enoka suggested the name Hui Hoʻoulu Aloha for our hālau. We thought the name was nice, appropriate, and had a good meaning. I think the most important thing is love, not only for each other but for the culture and for what we do. After a while everyone moved on. I dropped off for a season but I came back to keep the hālau going. Aside from everything else I was involved with, my family had to also share time with the hālau. It was a big part of their life. Ever since l was quite young, I was fas…

Cecilia Kawaiokawa‘awa‘a Akim
subject: Nā Kumu Hula Cecilia Kawaiokawa‘awa‘a Akim - Nānā I Nā Loea Hula Volume 2 Page 10
description: Cecilia Kawaiokawa‘awa‘a Akim Cecilia Akim has taught the hula for over twenty-five years and is presently teaching at the Nuʻuanu Day Care Center with her kumu hula, Hoakalei Kamauʻu. How do you teach somebody who does not know the language? I’ve seen a lot of misinterpretations of dances. They don't understand the beauty of what the chant is talking about. Our old chants are in Hawaiian and today s students need to understand the Hawaiian language to know what they’re dancing about especially because the motions are very simple. “Kawika” is a beautiful chant because the vocabulary is there, the poetry is there, the history is there. The romanticism, an important part of our cultural heritage, is there. It’s all there. As a dancer you’re painting a picture. You put into motion our oral history. My mom took me to learn hula from Aunty ʻIolani Luahine when I was three or four-years-old. I stayed with her for about six years until she retired from teaching and moved back to Kona. The girls she taught were eight to twenty years older than me. She had me dance with all of them. We performed all over Waikiki and different places. I learned both kahiko and ‘auana from Aunty ‘Io. She taught us dances like “Little Brown Gal” so we could learn basic hula motions and how to be a little more graceful. We learned our kāhea and mele while learning the dance. It was very repetitious. We would go over it again and again. When Aunty ‘Io retired, I went to Aunty Pele Pukui. I think because I was so young, Aunty Pele gave me private classes. Her fundamental steps were the same as Aunty ʻIo’s. Aunty Pele reviewed the dances that I had learned with Aunty ‘Io so that she knew which ones I had learned. With her I learned more numbers, many with implements, and she worked on my chanting for the hula noho. After about a year and a half she suggested that I go to another teacher. So at fourteen I went to George Nā‘ope and stayed with him for over seven years until he moved back to Hilo. Tha…

Cecelia Kuamo‘o Ka‘ai
subject: Nā Kumu Hula Cecelia Kuamo‘o Ka‘ai - Nānā I Nā Loea Hula Volume 2 Page 10
description: Cecelia Kuamo‘o Ka‘ai Born and raised on the Big Island of Hawaiʻi until the age of eighteen, “Cissy” Ka‘ai has taught the hula on Kaua‘i for the past thirteen years. I was interested in the hula when I was a little girl growing up in Opihikao on the Big Island. There would be family parties every Saturday afternoon in church halls, pavilions, and any other area where tents could be erected. We children would help serve the food and afterwards everyone would call for entertainment. I didn’t know anything about the hula but my friend and I would make up motions to the songs the musicians played. I came from a large family which spoke fluent Hawaiian and although my aunty Rose Kuamoʻo was a well-known hula instructor, I did not have the benefit of training under her since she lived in Hilo. When I turned twelve, however, she asked my father if she could give me lessons. He agreed and a bargain was struck between them. He would supply her with the ti leaves she needed to entertain and she would give my sister and I hula lessons. Every Saturday my father would drive us to Hilo in his car for our three-hour lesson with Aunty Rose where we would be trained in both ‘auwana and kahiko. During high school in Hilo I studied informally with George Nā‘ope and Martha Kaʻiawe and upon graduation I moved to 0‘ahu to attend Church College in Lā‘ie. I took a few lessons with Pi‘ilani Watkins in Kapahulu when I first arrived but before long I was more interested in Polynesian dances other than hula. While attending Church College I met my future husband Nelson Ka‘ai whom I married after graduation. We lived in Kaneohe until shortly after our daughter was born and then we moved to Kauaʻi. On Kaua‘i we became active with the Kaumualiʻi Civic Club and eventually they asked me to dance at club functions. Prior to that time my husband did not approve of me dancing in public but he encouraged me to dance and my interest in hula was renewed. I met Uncle Joe Kahaulilio who had also moved fro…

Carolee Nishi
subject: Nā Kumu Hula Carolee Nishi - Nānā I Nā Loea Hula Volume 2 Page 88
description: Carolee Nishi has been a full- time volunteer for the Nuʻuanu YMCA Hawaiian Youth Program for close to thirty- years. Besides working for United Airlines as an Executive Services Director, she is a kupuna for the Department of Education Hawaiian Studies Program. The beginning of Hula Hui O Kapunahala began in 1968. While working on contract in the United Airlines Red Carpet Room, a co-worker asked me to teach hula to her daughter and four of her friends who attended Kapunahala Elementary School. We gathered every Sunday morning at their home in Kāne‘ohe for hula lessons. Soon after our small hui was invited to participate in Expo ‘70 in Osaka, Japan. To provide information for the billing we were asked the name of our group. Since the students came from Kapunahala, the Japanese Expo officials immediately provided us with calling cards bearing my name as director of the Kapunahala Hula Club. When we returned to Hawai‘i, the word “club” was substituted with “hui” and we were renamed Hula Hui O Kapunahala. I started hula at age five. In the late Forties my sister and I attended weekly classes at Eunice McLean’s Kalihi home. We were not taught the words but practiced diligently to the tune of many 78-speed recordings. I also took hula at the YMCA (Young Men’s Christian Association) and eventually spent many years in Kaimuki at Mamo's Hula Studio. Hula ‘auana and hapa haole songs were very popular at that time and all the numbers we learned were choreographed by Aggie Auld. We entertained a lot for the military and went all out for the Waikīkī ho‘olaule‘a. In those days Genoa Keawe, Pua Almeida, Harris Kaleikini, Buddy Hew Len. and Val Kepelino were among our regular musicians. In the Fifties around the time of the opening of the International Market Place in Waikiki, my uncle owned and managed a saimin stand next to Don the Beachcombers. In true ‘ohana fashion my parents helped my uncle and consequently the Market Place became my hangout. I was very familiar with the Be…

Bill Ali‘iloa Lincoln
description: Bill Ali‘iloa Lincoln In 1947 Bill Lincoln ran the largest and most influential hula studio in Hawaiʻi, employing such teachers as Ida Wong, Barbara Johnson, and Alice Keawekāne Garner. It wasn’t until I went to school for the first time that I began to speak English. The same was true for the Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and Portuguese students who attended the country school called Pohakuloa. The Hawaiian students would talk to each other in Hawaiian and the other students would converse with each other in their mother tongue. One group would be able to talk to the other group in broken English and today it is called pidgin English or as a Hawaiian would say namu-pa‘i-ʻai. The teachers told us to forget our languages and just speak the English language. This seemed impossible at that time but today it is the spoken language. My father was a rancher and foreman on one of the ranches in Kohala and that’s where my whole family was born. I was the last of four boys so I had a better chance to further my education. I went on to finish high school and that’s where I became interested in music. In those days it seemed like music was the only acceptable outlet for the Hawaiian culture. I began to listen to records by people like Sol Ho‘opi‘i, Sam Ku, George Kainapau, and Madame Alapa‘i. And a man named James Asia started to put on Hawaiian tableaus in Kohala that I thought were terrific. He started to give me singing parts in his tableaus and that’s when I first got interested in the hula. When I graduated from high school in 1931 I had decided to become a teacher. When I turned twenty I came to Honolulu but I didn’t have the money to get a degree so I started playing music' with Sam Alama and Johnny Almeida for five dollars a night. I met a man named Clarence Kinney who also produced Hawaiian tableaus and I began to appear regularly in his shows as the “Prince” opposite a lovely girl named Dorothy Dudoit. I was living in Waikīkī back then and some friends told me to open u…

Beverly Healani Sun Lan Apana Muraoka
subject: Nā Kumu Hula Beverly Healani Sun Lan Apana Muraoka - Nānā I Nā Loea Hula Volume 2 Page 83
description: Beverly Muraoka, sister of kumu hula Lovey Apana, has been teaching hula on Kaua‘i since 1988 and is the founder of Healani's Hula Hālau & Music Academy. My father bought a fifteen - dollar guitar from Sears and that is how we started to learn how to play and sing. I played music with people like Aunty Genoa Keawe, Uncle Benny Bogers, Victor and Ku‘ulei Pūnua, and Uncle Joseph Kahaulelio. I also played with Peter Ahia and Uncle Val Kepelino. Everybody expected die Apana Sisters to dance and play music. Kutchie Kuhns was a Polynesian entertainer who came to live on Kauaʻi. She asked my mother if my sister Lovey and I could learn hula from her. I was nine-years-old at the time and we probably would never have started otherwise. Aunty was known for her comedy. She was a feisty hula teacher who loved fast comical numbers. The first dances we learned were “Hula Lōlō,” “Tūtū E,” and “Princess Pupule.” In 1961 Aunty left Kaua‘i because she wasn’t feeling well. So we joined the Kapa‘a Mormon Choir where we learned hula and singing under Jane Kina Goo, Inoa Aniu, Puanani Smith, and Germina Quereto. Through them I learned to dance the slower dances that I m known for. Not bragging but in my time I have been known to be the smoothest, slowest dancer. Moving to Honolulu I learned from Aunty Sally Wood Naluaʻi who was the Hawaiian instructor at the Church College of Hawaiʻi. In the meantime I also became involved in singing and dancing with Aunty Genoa Keawe. She gave me more instructions and I consider her my mentor. Returning home people asked me to teach but I was working for the government and couldn’t do both. Also Lovey owned a hālau and I didn’t think it was right for two sisters on the same island to compete. Later Lovey became ill and asked for my assistance. When she totally left the hula, people were still asking me to teach so I consented. I left the government and embraced the hula. Hula has made me blossom and become more humble. It has taught me to endure hardship…

Bella Richards
description: Bella Richards The late Bella Richards, a respected hula resource, taught hula for over forty years. Born on the Big Island of Hawaiʻi, she later founded the Bella Richards' Hula Studio in Kailua, O‘ahu. I went through ‘ūniki exercises with Bella Kuamoʻo of Keaukaha. It was just a presentation. I graduated as a dancer, not a kumu. I studied with Bella for three years. We went to her house because in those times there was no such thing as a hālau. Hālau was not a freely-used word like it is today. It meant a very choice group of people. In a real hālau the students had to live with the kumu, eat and sleep with the kumu. I believe only those people can call themselves students of a hālau. My first teacher in the hula was my mother and she has been my most important influence because she was family. Her kumu was Elizabeth Beamer and I was taught piano and Hawaiian bass along with the dance. When I turned eight my father passed away and my mother said nobody must mourn. She packed us all up and sent us to Bella Kuamoʻo. Bella taught us the ten basic ‘ōlapa steps but she gave us no instruction in chanting. After several years of in-depth study with Bella, I was graduated as a dancer. Then I was sent to Mary Fujii, the mother of Edith Kanaka‘ole, who I studied under for the next two years. I learned a lot from Mrs. Fujii because her style of teaching was very strict. We would sit on the floor and the kumu would stand on our legs. Then we would stand in the doorway with our hands outstretched and ‘ami to the floor then back up. This was all to make our bodies flexible enough to dance the way our kumu expected us to dance. In those days you could not question the kumu. You just had to do what you were told. You had to listen to every word and watch every motion because when it came time to dance the kumu gave you little if any help. I began to teach in Hilo with my mother in 1935. What I remember about teaching was that the Hawaiian people I taught never took notes or wrote…

April Pualani Peeples Chock
subject: April Pualani Peeples Chock - Nānā I Nā Loea Hula Volume 2 Page 31
description: April Chock is currently teaching for the Kaimukī Adult Education Program and the Queen Liliʻuokalani Children’s Center in Honolulu. In 1957 I began taking hula lessons from the late Māʻiki Aiu Lake who had her studio on Ke‘eaumoku Street. Besides the hula, she also taught us other things like how to haku lei and how to wrap a kīkepa in many different ways. We had the best years with Aunty Mā‘iki because she always had time for us. In 1958 I started performing at the Lau Yee Chai Restaurant during the weekends and at the Halekūlani Hotel once a month with Aunty Mā‘iki. I danced at the Queen’s Surf with Terii Rua, at the Hilton Hawaiian Village with Danny Kaleikini and at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel for special events. I worked in Nara, Japan at Dreamland and sang with Ed Kenney in the Tapa Room in Waikīkī. When I wasn’t performing, I was studying with Māʻiki at the studio to puka. But I left when I got married and had children. If you can’t concentrate, you can’t study. I was sad to leave Mā‘iki but she always told us that family conies first. I would go in to help her but not as much as I did before. I was there if she needed me but it wasn't like I was going in every day and opening up the studio. I taught for Mā‘iki in her hālau whenever she traveled to do shows. When I had my second child in 1965, I asked her if I could teach some friends of mine who wanted to learn hula for their wedding. From those four friends my studio grew in number. In 1982 I knew I had to learn more and go deeper into the knowledge so I went to Kamamalu Klein to finish up. On August 18, 1985 I puka with Kamāmalu Klein in Kāne‘ohe. What we receive from our teachers is the kīhei. That is our certificate, not a piece of paper. The ceremony shows what we accomplished throughout the years. We made our own pahu, ipu heke, and ulī ʻulī for these are crafts that teachers should know and be able to explain. It’s a review of all we learned but we keep going to classes because we really don’t stop lear…

Alicia Keolahou Keawekāne Smith
description: Alicia Keolahou Keawekane Smith Alicia Smith in collaboration with Mae Loebenstein, founded the Halau O Nā Maoli Pua located in Kalihi, O‘ahu. I go back to my na kupuna of the Kuni‘ohana of Waialua, O‘ahu, who were well-known at that time for their beautiful pageants and tableaus. Here I was born and as the saying goes, “I learned to dance before I could walk.” I grew up in the ‘ohana style of observing and learning quietly so everything would sink deep into the na‘au. I was taught not to be nīele or maha‘oi but to minamina and cherish the sense of values that was being passed on to me. I am the adopted daughter of Amos and Alice Kuni Keawekāne Garner whose father was the Reverend Joseph Kuni. Grandpa Kuni taught the ‘ohana to sing and dance and they traveled from island to island raising funds for the church. This was the start of mom’s hula and entertaining career. Singing and dancing was a means of livelihood for our family. Mom gave me the basic introduction and interest in the hula. My mom played music with Aunty Mae (Loebenstein) and Aunty Lena (Guerrero) and I became a dancer for Aunty Lena’s hula troupe. This was during World War II. We danced for the USO (United Service Organization), entertained at private parties, and performed at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. At the age of fifteen, I was hired as a hula instructor at the YWCA (Young Women’s Christian Association) in Honolulu. Here I taught modern hula for twenty years until I resigned to open my own hula school called the Alicia Smith’s School of Polynesian Dancing. I taught almost every kind of Polynesian dancing there is. This continued for three years and at the end of this period I experienced a deep desire to improve my knowledge of my own Hawaiian culture. I searched for help in learning the old way of hula. It was then that I turned to Aunty Mae for help and I have learned a stronger discipline and spiritual guidance with her teaching. Together we started grooming seven little girls, the nā maoli pua,…

Alice Ku‘uleialohapoina‘ole Kanakaoluna Nāmakelua
description: Alice Ku‘uleialohapoina‘ole Kanakaoluna Nāmakelua Alice Nāmakelua, long recognized as the first lady of the Hawaiian slack-key guitar, retired in 1969 after teaching hula in the Honolulu City and County Department of Parks and Recreation for twenty-four years. I, Alice Ku‘uleialohapoina‘ole Kanakaoluna, the widow of the late Solomon Nāmakelua Nāhulanui of the island of Hawai‘i, was born on August 12, 1892. I grew up among the men who had survived the battles of Kamehameha to bring the islands under one ruler and some of these survivors were related to my parents and great-grandparents. Some of these men while relaxing would sing and reminisce about their life on the battlefield. These men had documented what they had gone through by putting their experiences into chants and these menfolks were the early dancers in the community. The men would hum a little tune and chant the stories of the battles. The only stringed instrument I saw used was the ‘ūkēkē. There was no such thing as a hālau in our community but one of my family who was pretty good at chanting started teaching a few of us little children to do a few simple dances. We lived in a lumber house near the bottom of Maunakea mountain faraway from any big town or city, so my companions were the birds by day and the kāhuli in the evenings. My parents were not entertainers but they sang for themselves and family gatherings. Our family had prayer services in the mornings and evenings and that’s when I learned to sing. In 1899 I moved to Kihalani above Laupāhoehoe where I was trained briefly by my uncle Joseph ʻĪlālā‘ole, in the hula. In 1901 I came to Honolulu and at the age of nine I was trained by my uncles. Back then there was no such thing as a studio and hula teachers were predominantly men. It wasn’t until after the arrival of the missionaries that women were allowed to dance hula so it was very hard for me to be trained in the hula outside my family. Through church socials down in Kaka‘ako I met Keahi Luahin…

Alexa Vaught
subject: Nā Kumu Hula Alexa Vaught - Nānā I Nā Loea Hula Volume 1 Page 139
description: Alexa Vaught studied hula from the age of eight till when she married at twenty-one. She currently makes her home in Kihei, Maui. When I was in the third grade, Aunty Emma Sharpe was one of the third grade teachers. I was raised by my grandparents so one day I went home and I told my grandfather that I wanted to take hula. Being from a big family, my grandfather told me there wasn’t any money for hula lessons. I told him don’t worry, if I have to work I’ll work for it. I later discovered that Aunty Emma’s husband was a relative of my grandmother. Aunty Emma told me that because I was family she would not charge me. Instead I would pay her a dollar a year and I would help her load her car for class and dust the room. In this way I would pay for my lessons. When I got to high school, I assisted her in training men, boys, tūtūs, and whoever needed help in her classes. This was my way of trying to repay her. She would have classes in Wailuku. I would take one room and hold class while she would take another. I think Aunty Emma taught mainly ‘auwana because nobody in the Forties and Fifties wanted to learn kahiko. If she planned any kahiko classes, students would just cut the class. Aunty Emma was strict but yet she had a lot of patience and that’s what I admire her for. If she found someone that wanted to dance but couldn’t afford to pay for the lessons, she would give them the opportunity to dance. She has been the greatest influence in my life. She was a positive person and she constantly tried to encourage the good points in a person to bring out the positive side.

Al Makahinu Barcarse
subject: Nā Kumu Hula Al Makahinu Barcarse - Nānā I Nā Loea Hula Volume 2 Page 17
description: Al Makahinu Barearse Al Barearse has realized his dream of building a Hawaiian village on the grounds of the Samuel Wilder King Intermediate School where he is employed as a Hawaiian Studies teacher. I was born and raised in Waimea, Kaua‘i and attended Waimea High School. Hula was taught to us in the sixth grade as part of the school curriculum. My actual formal training began in 1951 with Leolani Rivera, Larry Riveraʻs sister. She taught hula kahiko, ‘auana, Maori, and Tahitian dance and in 1957 I received my kumu hula certificate from her. After graduating from high school I attended tin; Church College of Hawaiʻi and continued my hula training under Christina Nauahi, a kumu hula in Lāʻie who also taught a lot of Maori dances. While attending the Church College I formed a group and taught them hula. We first performed at school functions and then for the hukilau at Lā‘ie Bay. Our group became a regular special guest for John Piʻilani Watkins’ show at the Club Aloha. Then in 1959 we started performing at Don the Beachcomber Show, our first professional gig. In 1959 Rose Joshua contacted me because she wanted to learn Maori. I taught Maori at her studio and she in turn taught me hula. I took formal lessons from her for two years and then informally for five more years. Whenever she needed me, she would call. Besides dancing and teaching Maori. I also chanted for her. Both George Holokai and Henry Pa were affiliated with Rose Joshua and as a result I learned some chants and dances from them as well. In 1963 Jack Regas hired me as his assistant choreographer for the Polynesian Cultural Center. Aunty Sally Wood was in charge of the Hawaiian section so I studied under her for two years. Because Aunty Sally and Grandma Rose Joshua were hula sisters, their styles were basically the same. I got involved with teaching school kids when I was at Kalani High School. I was student teaching and I organized a group call the “Na Makahinu to do shows at the Outrigger Canoe Club, Se…

Agnes Kalaniho‘okaha Cope and Kamaki Kanahele
subject: Nā Kumu Hula Agnes Kalaniho‘okaha Cope and Kamaki Kanahele - Nānā I Nā Loea Hula Volume 1 Page 39
description: Agnes Kalaniho‘okaha Cope Agnes Cope is the executive director and founder of the Waianae Coast Culture and Arts Society. My background in the hula started more than fifty years ago with Tūtū Keaka Kanahele. She was the grandmother of Eleanor Hiram Hoke and she was a hula master of the ’30s. Tūtū Keaka was our neighbor in Kalihi for many years, so it was easy for me to go through the backfence twice-a-week and attend practice. I started with the kahiko and in those days we had to put our hands up against the wall, bend our knees, and go down to the floor until the back of our heads touched the ground. Then Tūtū Keaka would have us rise to our feet and repeat the motion until she was satisfied. It was the old way of training as far as I know of. I practiced with Tūtū Keaka for many years in Kalihi on Mokauea Street and then she moved to King Street where my classes continued every Saturday for four hours. My training lasted fifteen years and it wasn’t until 1969 that I went to another kumu. I must pay tribute to my mother Sarah Kalaniho‘okaha Haku‘ole Mengler and my father Henry T. Mengler who permitted me to attend hula classes and gave me the support and encouragement that I needed at that time. In 1969, the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts asked ‘Iolani Luahine and Lokalia Montgomery to select someone to leave their knowledge to. Everyone knew there was Hoakalei Kamau‘u to step into Aunty ‘Io’s place but there was no one for Lokalia. At a conference in Kona at the Hale Hālāwai, Lokalia asked fifteen of us to her home for lunch. At her home she announced that I was the one she had chosen. I told her she had to make another choice because I had other obligations. She pounded the table and said if I was not going to accept, she would take her knowledge with her. So I stayed in Kona for one year, coming home every other week to work and be with my family. My training with her lasted from dawn to dusk, six days a week. If I was on the fourteenth verse of a fift…

Adeline Nani Maunupau Lee
subject: Nā Kumu Hula Adeline Nani Maunupau Lee - Nānā I Nā Loea Hula Volume 1 Page 87
description: Adeline Lee has dedicated twenty-nine years as a Hawaiiana instructor for the Department of Parks and Recreation, City and County of Honolulu. She currently resides in Kapahulu, O‘ahu. The best thing about my life today is that I am able to pass on my knowledge to an alaka‘i. The knowledge and tradition of the culture was given to me only to give out. How will people learn about and respect the culture if no one tells them about it? The responsibility of the kumu hula becomes then to choose someone who will be faithful to what is being passed down. I come from a family of eleven and we were all taught to sing and play instruments from childhood. My father Thomas Kananiokeaupunimālamalama Maunupau and my mother Eunice Keolamauloakamō‘i- wahineokamālamalama Molaka Maunupau taught us that you can be raised in a Western world but still remain a Hawaiian. We were all sent to Catholic private schools where we were told never to speak Hawaiian but when we arrived home the language was spoken fluently and constantly. My first kumu was my aunt Mrs. Baker. Family members would come and share with us any knowledge and training they had. I was trained at a very young age and we were taught to sing the Hawaiian mele by memory with the correct enunciation and pronunciation. In 1950 I joined the Department of Parks and Recreation and this was how I began to teach the hula. There was a required hula course that all the instructors had to attend and this was how I was able to learn under some of the great kumu hula of our culture. Nona Beamer taught us dances aimed specifically for children and more than that she showed us the joy of children and childhood. Tom Hiona taught us the names and styles of the different drum beats, and we were trained by Alice Keawekāne Garner in the comic side of the hula. Because we had to teach all ages of students, Aunty Mary Kawena Pūku‘i taught us a wide variety of traditional hula that was suitable for children and adults. In addition we were train…