Pacific Magazine > Magazine > January 1, 2007

Special Report

Dance of Life

A Unique Program Brings Hawaiian Culture To Life

By STORY AND PHOTOS BY FLOYD K. TAKEUCHI

How do you teach a culture? There’s no easy answer when the culture in question, that of the Hawaiians, has lost many of its traditional foundations: a tie to the land; widespread use of the language; everyday use of cultural practices and protocols; and, a governing system that recognizes that culture’s political primacy.

Poliahu Ishibashi and Jacqueline Van Blarcom (left to right) perform hula ‘auana at the Hawaiian Life Styles dance studio on the Hilo campus. Both students have years of experience dancing hula.

But at Hawai‘i Community College, part of the University of Hawai‘i’s seven-campus community college system, a small cadre of dedicated faculty, staff and students are making the Hawaiian culture and its values a part of everyday life. And for many students in the Hawaiian Life Styles program, which awards an Associate of Applied Science degree, what they learn represents nothing less than a rebirth of their souls.

Polihau Ishibashi dances papa'olapo, ancient hula, at a beach on the outskirts of Hilo, Hawai'i. She has danced hula for 14 years, and has performed in a number of Merrie Monarch Festivals, the biggest and most competitive hula competition in the world.

“It has given me (a sense of) completeness,” says U‘ilani Pihana, one of the older students whose life took many turns before she entered the program.

The Hawaiian Life Styles degree—a cultural program that has been on the Hawai‘i Community College curriculum for many years, but only gained degree status in 2006—is obtained by taking one of three tracks: hula; traditional agriculture, or traditional fishing.  Students must complete two years of Hawaiian language study, and successfully complete courses in Hawaiian culture and history, myths and legends, the environment, and arts and crafts.

The hula track has additional requirements in dance, while the agriculture and fishing programs have core courses focused on their specialties. Of the program’s three tracks, hula is by far the largest. Fishing and agriculture are relatively new focuses, and have just a handful of students. The hula program attracts most of Hawaiian Life Style’s 200-plus students.

The program is very much of Hawai‘i Island, the largest in the Hawaiian chain and home to some of the Hawaiian culture’s most compelling myths and legends. It is also affiliated with one of the towering figures of Hawaiian dance and culture, the late Edith Kanaka‘ole, whose style of hula is shaped by the traditions of Pele, the Hawaiian volcano goddess.

Above left to right: Dr. Taupouri Tangaro in the dance studio

Students perform a “whale hula"

Kanaka‘ole was an instructor of Hawaiian studies at Hawai‘i Community College in Hilo. Her daughter, Pualani Kanaka‘ole Kanahele, and son-in-law, the late Edward Kanahele, expanded the cultural studies program. Today, Dr. Taupouri Tangaro heads the Hawaiian Life Styles hula program. He is married to Kekuhi Kealiikanakaoleohaililani, a noted singer, composer and dancer, Director of the Title III Grant program that supports the Hawaiian Life Styles initiative, and the daughter of Edward and Pualani Kanaka‘ole Kanahele. Tangaro studied at the Kanaka‘ole hula school, Halau O Kekuhi.

As is the case with Hawaiians, who trace their lineage when asked who their family is, the Kanaka‘ole lineage of the Hawaiian Life Styles program is central to its strength and focus. All hula is regional, says Tangaro, and in the case of the dance taught at Hawai‘i Community College, the hula is inextricably linked to the Puna and Ka‘u districts of the Big Island, which in turn are most closely tied to the volcanoes that continue to spew lava and grow the island.

While the program is about Hawaiian values and culture, students come from a wide range of ethnicities and backgrounds. What links them all, however, is their desire to learn what it means to be Hawaiian.

And what they learn—beyond the language, myths, legends and dance—is that it takes discipline, sacrifice, passion and humility to incorporate Hawaiian values into one’s life. What they also learn, says Tangaro, is that hula is a “portal” to understand the Hawaiian culture.

That understanding begins in the Hawai‘i Community College dance studio called Polihua a Mauliola, a small Quonset hut-like building with full-length mirrors on both sides. Before each class, the students gather outside and then chant as they enter the small studio. They also must be properly attired; men and women wear skirt-like costumes that cover most of the legs.

Tangaro, with ukulele in hand, or perhaps sitting at a drum, pushes the students through physically demanding routines. The students have taken to wearing black T-shirts emblazoned with the saying, “It’s Supposed To Be Au‘i.” Roughly translated: “It’s supposed to hurt."

Students make drum heads while others practice hula.

U’ilani Pihana helps her brother, Moana, with his costume.

 

Poliahu Ishibashi and Jacqueline Van Blarcom practice an ancient hula.

Beginning hula students help each other during a classroom practice session. The dancers must learn how to lean all the way back and then raise themselves up—without assistance

Kau’ionapua Soli: Kau‘i grew up on the U.S. mainland in Sandy, Oregon. Her mother is of Hawaiian ancestry, but Kau’i feltshe didn’t know enough about what it meant to be Hawaiian. Kau’i decided to go to college in Hawai‘i to learn about her Hawaiian ancestry. “A deep pride was instilled in me,” Kau’i says of what she’s learned.

Jacqueline Van Blarcom: While she is not of Hawaiian ancestry, “Uluwehi” as she’s better known in the program, says learning Hawaiian values is important to her. That’s because she’s now the mother of a young boy who is part Hawaiian. One of the program’s most experienced hula dancers, Uluwehi says she continues to learn new things about hula and Hawaiian culture.

U’ilani Pihana: U’i lived on O`ahu, and was headed for a life dominated by drugs when she decided to move to Hilo to be with her father. He was deeply involved in Hawaiian cultural activities. U’i ended up in the Hawaiian Life Styles program, which gave her the focus and discipline she was seeking. “It saved me,” U’i says of the Hawai`i Community College program.

Nanami Kamiya: One of a handful of students in the program from Japan, Nanami at first wasn’t keen on learning the hula. But hearing Hawaiian chants, which are central to hula, drew her into Hawaiian Life Style studies. She says the chants reminded her of Japanese chants. And despite the popularity of hula in Japan, Nanami says given what she has learned about Hawaiian culture, she now believes “Japanese shouldn’t teach hula, even in Japan.”

While much attention is focused on the classroom, it is the goal of all serious students in the hula program to perform in public. They know that dancing before the public validates their hours of study and sacrifice. 

“We’ll die if we’re forced to stay in the classroom,” says Tangaro. The hula group that performs in public is called UNUKUPUKUPU, or the “Shrine of Ferns.” So far, UNUKUPUKUPU has performed around the Hawaiian Islands, in New Zealand, California, Japan and will be in Tahiti in a few months.

While much of the program’s activities center on the college’s Hilo campus and West Hawai‘i center, a strong network of “graduates” is spreading the word across the Big Island. Indeed, the program continues to attract students who have completed coursework but still want to dance. 

 

Students are always helping each other, whether it is learning steps, mastering a new chant or dressing in the sometimes elaborate costumes required for hula. The students don’t have to ask for help – a fellow student is usually providing assistance before being asked.

“We find our students don’t want to leave,” says Tangaro. “Even when they graduate, they come back to dance. Literally, they’re coming back, paying tuition and taking the same course credits!”

 

Poliahu Ishibashi, above, performs near a beach on the outskirts of Hilo. Her lei are made of leaves, some so tightly woven that they are as stiff as rope. At the program’s dance studio, below, instructor Dr. Taupo-uri Tangaro- dances with some of the experienced students. They’re each holding a ti leaf in their right hand, resting the tip of the leaf on the shoulder of the dancer in front.

Below, instructor Dr. Taupo-uri Tangaro- dances with some of the experienced students. They’re each holding a ti leaf in their right hand, resting the tip of the leaf on the shoulder of the dancer in front.

On a beach north of Kailua-Kona, members of Unuehu and Dr. Taupouri Tangaro- perform a hula. The group is comprised of former students who meet weekly to dance and keep the program’s spirit alive. All of the former students live on the west side of the Big Island.

And for some former students, the program lives on in activities they organize to keep hula a part of their day-to-day life.  On the west side of Hawai‘i, near the town of Kailua-Kona, a group of older adults gather at least once a week to dance. Like the group’s organizer, Mahealani Pai, they all went through the Hawaiian Life Styles program, many before it offered a degree. Yet they continue their learning, dancing in the lee of the volcano Mauna Kea, sometimes next to the Pacific Ocean.

  

Nicole Anakalea, bottom row, left, is a graduate of the Hawaiian Life Styles program. She’s now teaching, in the same Pele tradition, young people who live around the ranching town of Waimea. These are some of her students.

Former students and graduates of the Hawaiian Life Styles program perform on a beach north of Kona.

Two brothers, Mana`olana and Kala- hikiola Ikeda, below right, the grandsons of dancers of the group. The boys are so dedicated that they have traveled to New Zealand to perform with UNUKUPUKUPU.

The group looks to the Pacific as the sun begins to set off of Kailua-Kona.

In the crisp air of upcountry Big Island, on the outskirts of the ranching town of Waimea, yet another related group practices and performs regularly. Nicole Anakalea, a graduate of the Hawaiian Life Styles program, teaches the UNUKUPUKUPU style to youngsters at the Kanu O Ka ‘Aina Charter School. The group often gathers ferns in a forest that is on the property where they practice.

In a forest glen in Waimea, above, Dr. Taupo-uri Tangaro- and students of teacher and program graduate Nicole Anakalea pause after collecting ferns for their performance. The only sound in the forest was the group’s chanting and the wind in the trees.

In the sometimes competitive world of hula, some practitioners of other styles of the dance were critical of Anakalea teaching a “Pele” tradition in their midst. But she’s organized a successful program, and the number of students taking part in her program is a clear sign of strong regional interest.

In all of these venues – whether in a Hilo classroom, on a Kona beach, or in a forest glen in Waimea—it is remarkable to see young men and women, most but not all of whom are of Hawaiian ancestry, make Hawaiian cultural practices real. They have learned to dance and chant. They exhibit the discipline and humility that are at the core of the culture. And they have incorporated the Hawaiian language into their everyday conversations, as comfortably as Samoans speaking Samoan in Apia, or Palauans speaking Palauan in Koror.

Perhaps most intriguing is that they aren’t trying to live in the past even as they learn the traditions and practices of their ancestors. “It’s never about yesterday. It’s about today,” says Tangaro. And it’s about tomorrow, too.

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