Victoria Hanaka‘ulani-0- Kamamalu Holt Takamine

Nā Kumu Hula Victoria Hanaka‘ulani-O-Kamamalu Holt Takamine - Nānā I Nā Loea Hula Volume 2 Page 111

Kumu hula of Pua Aliʻi Ilima, Vicky Takamine also teaches Hawaiian chant, dance and culture at the University of Hawaiʻi- Mānoa and the Leeward Community College.


When students come To me, the first thing I tell them is that I might not be the right teacher for them. So if they don’t care for the way I’m teaching or they’re not getting anything out of my classes, l don’t feel badly if they want to move on. If they come and they want to adapt to my style then the first thing we do is train in kahiko.

I also teach them the text of a song because the important thing about the dance is not just the movements, it’s the text. Just teaching feet and hands have no meaning. It is not Hawaiian. I teach them a song right away to get them moving and to get them involved. I want them to feel that they can accomplish a chant or a song in a short period of time. I want them to feel very confident in their own ability.

I started dancing at a very young age by watching television and watching my mother dance. She used to dance with the Alama sisters. I took formal lessons with Aunty Māʻiki Aiu at the age of fifteen when she was located at Ke‘eaumoku Street. I studied with her until I graduated from high school in 1965. For five years I was going to hula off and on. In 1970 Aunty Māʻiki opened her hula classes for kumu hula and a year later I started with her again.

The first thing we learned with Aunty Māʻiki was basic hands and feet. She had a special song that she had created just for us, and she taught us the basic hand gestures and foot movements that went with the song. We won Id start learning to speak and understand the language from the first day we walked into class. We always had a test at the end of the month. So if we were in the Friday class, the last Friday of the month was set aside for words and translation for whatever mele or song we had learned that month. You had to keep on your toes because she would pull things out of the hat that we learned several months before. We were expected to learn the words to the songs and the translations. We wrote all of the movements down and kept it in a folder along with the research on all of the songs that we learned and the places that we studied. It was quite intensive.

I didn’t know that I was going to be a teacher when I started dancing with Aunty Māʻiki. I just had this love for the hula and the Hawaiian culture. But when I came back to study with her, I knew that’s what I wanted to do. In 1975 I graduated as ‘ōlapa, ho‘opa‘a and kumu hula from Aunty Māʻiki.

My hālau started in the backyard of Aunty Verna Wilson. She got a group of students together and I gave my first lesson in her patio in ‘Aiea. The joy I get from teaching hula is being able to share different experiences with my students and to watch them develop as a dancer, develop self-confidence, and develop grace. It’s satisfying to nurture somebody who wall want more of the Hawaiian culture and the language instead of just the movements to the dance.

Because Aunty Māʻiki was my only teacher, I don’t think that I could get away from her style of dance. That is always going to be with me. Of course when I left Aunty Māʻiki, I developed my own ways but the basic foundation that she’s laid for me will always be there.

Hula kahiko is not the same as it was fifty years ago or even twenty years ago for that matter. We as people have evolved and have changed and therefore our likes and our dislikes have changed. We tend to keep things that we like and set aside things that we don’t like. So if we learn something that we don’t care for, we won’t carry that on to the next generation and those things will be lost.




Nānā I Nā Loea Hula 111