Lorraine Joshua Daniels and Blossom Joshua Kunewa

Lorraine Joshua Daniels
Lorraine Daniels, daughter of Rose Joshua, teaches with her mother at the Magic Hula Studio in Waikiki. She has recently returned from coordinating a Polynesian show for the Maunaloa Restaurant in Cancun, Mexico.

Because my mother and father were entertainers our life as we were growing up was always filled with music and hula. My mother danced in a hula troupe with Sally Wood Nālua‘i and Helen Fuller, and their dancing inspired me and left a lasting impression on me. We used to have parties on the beach and whenever the music would play I would just get up and dance.

I was trained first by my mother but she wanted her children to have a broad education in the hula so my first kumu outside the family was Mrs. Ku‘ulei Clark. I graduated traditionally with Mrs. Clark and then I was taken to Aunty Louise Akeo and then to Mrs. Po‘omaikai who is better known as Hannah Ho. During that time the only hula that was taught was ‘auwana complemented by very simple kahiko lessons. When it came time to ‘ūniki from Mrs. Po‘omaikai we were told to go out into the sea and she would accompany our walk with an oli. My dad was deeply Christian and he refused to let us delve into any kapu hula or kapu chant so I was not allowed to participate in the ‘ūniki ceremony.

The last kumu who I formally trained under was Henry Pa who gave me my foundation in ancient hula. He inspired me to better myself as a student and I found him to be a very strict teacher with a great deal of warmth for his haumāna.

In the 1930s I began to dance more actively with my father’s group, The Moana Entertainers. We performed abroad, on the Mainland, and at Honolulu showplaces such as the Waikīkī Sands, Lau Yee Chai, and the Princess Theatre. In time people began to approach me and ask if I could teach them and that is how my teaching career began. I
taught at my mothers home and I learned that a kumu has to go into teaching with her whole being. You have to discipline yourself and your lifestyle if you expect to keep your health and teach well.

My mother has had the greatest influence on me and she continues to be my mentor today. She sent me to various kumu but actually all of them had a similar style of dancing. The traditional hula was always done flat-footed with simple, unadorned hand motions. Many people nowadays seem to prefer a traditional hula that shifts toward Western styles of dancing and this has turned the dance into a series of poses rather than a dance which flows with hula movement.

In the end the responsibility of these changes lie with the kumu of today’s new teachers. The dancers and teachers of today are only reflecting the teaching and ideas of their kumu. I consider myself contemporary and traditional at the same time because I allow for creativity within the framework of the ancient hula. I think it’s so important to know the language because it is the key to the Hawaiian culture. If you know the language then you can find out the interpretation of the chant and understand the meaning and logic of what you are dancing about. The language is the key to controlling creativity within the traditional hula framework.












Blossom Joshua Kunewa
Blossom Kunewa, daughter of Rose and Isaac Kahele Joshua whose Moana Entertainers helped popularize Hawaiian music in the 1930s and '40s, has brought hula to the four corners of the world.

During the war we must have played every foxhole on the island from the mountains down to the sea. At Red Hill my father announced that regardless of a plane or gas attack the show would go on, and as we danced we donned our gas masks. The soldiers threw their hats in the air and applauded.

Back in the 1930s my dad had a group of his own called the Moana Entertainers. Every weekend Princess Theatre used to have their “Potluck Show” and my father would be called upon to perform. I first performed with my father at age six and was trained right along as I grew up.

My mother, who choreographed our hula shows, gave me my foundation in the hula. She trained my sister Lorraine and I in ‘auwana and simple kahiko. At the age of nine, I was enrolled in hula classes under Mrs. Mary Ho for one year and later studied under Tom Hiona at our home for a year and a half. After Tom Hiona I studied under Henry Pa who became a partner in the hula studio with my mother. I acknowledge Tom Hiona and Henry Pa and my mother for my hula kahiko training.

I went through a modern ‘ūniki with my mother and Mary Ho, and I began to teach hula in 1956 under my mother. I tried to teach my girls to perform with grace and to keep it as Hawaiian as possible. You have to know precisely what you are doing because in the “real world” you sometimes have to compromise and give the audience what they want. If you don’t know what you’re doing you’re going to lose the Hawaiianess of the dance altogether.

Up until World War II most of the jobs available were informal and casual. But when the war came everything changed. Everything was restricted to the military and we would work at the USO (United Service Organization) and go to high school at the same time. My dad got together with the Ah See family and we would entertain at the Little Theatre down at Schofield. It was the hottest place to entertain because it was always filled with generals and the top brass. During the war years military clubs were the big outlets where people performed and entertained. Back then modern hula was popular. People of those times weren’t interested in the past, they were interested in what was new, what was modern. So they had no interest in the traditional.

After the war we began to perform in Waikiki. We were featured performers at some of the better known establishments beginning with Elmer Lee’s Waikīkī Tavern, the Waikīkī Lau Yee Chai, and the Hawai‘i Village. We’d put on five, forty- minute shows a night at three different showcases. My mother would be waiting at the stage door with the motor running to shuttle us back and forth. We ended up changing our costumes as we drove, fixing our make-up at stop signs and stoplights.

I began teaching hula in 1959 in the Manana Housing in the Pearl City area of O‘ahu. In 1963 my husband, who was in the military at that time, was transferred to a base in Frankfurt, Germany. I accompanied him and continued teaching hula in Germany. I produced a Polynesian show with students enrolled in my classes which toured almost all of Europe. In 19691 returned to Hawai‘i and helped my mother teach in her studio. I also served as a hula teacher for the Department of Education adult education program on O‘ahu. Today I am still with mom’s studio, and I also give private hula instruction.

In the last six years there seems to be so many kumu all of a sudden. It’s like a free-for-all. During our time we knew all the kumu and whoever was studying under them. It was unheard of for someone to take a few lessons then rise and call him or herself a kumu hula.