Kevin Michael Kapilialoha Mahoe

Kevin Michael Kapilialoha Mahoe
“Chubby” Mahoe is the son of Arthur Keanahou Māhoe, Sr. and Abigail Kahiwalani Ka‘aloa Māhoe. He has taught the hula in Hawaii for the past thirteen years and is currently affiliated with the St. Andrews Cathedral of Honolulu and the Christian Hula Academy.


I think I have to go back to an age when anybody starts to remember which was about three to four-years-old. Being at family parties I was always attracted to music and to rhythms. I was always attracted to sweet music, to music with heavy percussion. I listened to Harry Owens Orchestra, the chang-a-lang music of Elmer Lee and Uncle Jimmy Wong, and I found all of this music so refreshing. My father was invited to many of these kamaʻāina parties so I saw people like Flora Hayes and Uncle Rennie Burks dance; elegant men and women dancing.

This respect for the classical Hawaiian music was instilled in me at a very young age but we were never taught the ancient ways because we were baptized and raised as Christians. I started off my training in the hula by watching my sister learn the kahiko in Kalihi Valley from a lady named Daisy Bell Young. We would make fun of my sister as all brothers will do but at the same time we were watching and learning. My first kumu was George Nā‘ope. When I was a fifth grader, he came to Pu‘uhale School to teach us a popular song for a pageant we were having.

I met Nalani Kanaka‘ole when I was working for Waiākea Village and I learned two chants from her. It was many years between George and Nalani so in the interim I just watched other people dance and I watched their interpretations. There were very few male dancers because it was considered māhū to dance. So I admired the few men that did dance because their spirit seemed to transcend this type of criticism.

I trained informally under hula master Henry Moikeha Pa while a member of the Prince Kūhiō Hawaiian Civic Club. In preparing for a concert Uncle Henry wanted us to build a kuahu for Laka, the goddess of the hula, and I couldn’t participate in it because of the religious convictions I felt within me. In my heart I felt I could not rightfully worship Jehovah and at the same time participate in the offering of prayer chants to Laka, Pele, or Hōpoe.

I began to teach in 1970 when I became the social director at the Kaua‘i Surf Hotel. Every morning at ten o’clock we would teach the hotel guests how to dance simple songs like the “Hukilau” hula. It was tourist-oriented but it was a way for them to learn about the culture. I didn’t teach it kāpulu and I paid every respect to the hula. I had great respect for the people who came to learn because they wanted to learn about our culture and they were earnest and sincere. I didn’t feel it was a scam. The visitors are very interested in learning what we are all about. I think they are searching for a way to learn about our music, our dance, our food, our culture, and I think we owe them some kind of instruction to satisfy that hunger.

In 1978 I formed the Lamalani Hula Academy in partnership with my dear friend Lahela Ka‘aihue. I took care of the books and trained the children while Lahela was responsible for the adults. Lahela and I parted, and I moved the Academy to Kawaiaha‘o Church where Madonna O’Rourke, a student of Henry Pa, became my helper. In time I was asked by St. Andrew’s to move to the Cathedral’s facilities and I’ve been here ever since. Our endeavor at the Academy is to worship God in the beauty of his Holiness. The hula is Hawaii’s most beautiful art and can certainly be used to display His magnificent handiwork.

I wanted to respect God as my creator so I went into Scriptual hula. Can you see David and Goliath, the Nativity, the Songs of Solomon done to traditional hula? I felt if the missionaries had gone to the temples and asked the natives to put the Bible to hula kahiko, the Hawaiians would have accepted Christianity much faster and easier. The hula that I do today, the interpretation, the motions are all inspired by God. I am a student of the ancient and honorable art of the Hawaiian hula and not a kumu hula. 1 feel that only a very few can be acknowledged as such.