Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 24, Number 10, 1 ʻOkakopa 2007 — Somthing old Somthing new [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Somthing old

Somthing new

Two upcoming performances on Maui represent the diversity of today's hula spectrum

By Liza Simon Public Affairs Specialist Two hula-based dramas that debut this month at the Maui Arts and Cultural Center may be polar opposites of one another when it eomes to style, but take the opportunity to eateh both Kahekili and / Land baek-to-baek and you'll surely eome away with the understanding that hula is not only the traditional "heartbeat of the Hawaiian people" but a living, evolving art fonn. In Kahekili, Hālau Pa'u O Hi'iaka employs hula kahiko in evoking not only the eharaeter but also the inAuenee of Maui's famed 18th-eentury paramount ehief. Kumu Hōkūlani Holt notes that written history underplayed Kahekili's struggle to bring the Hawaiian Islands under a single rule, perhaps beeause of the overshadowing exploits of Kamehameha the Great. Only a single ehant eredited

to Kahekili has been preserved in writing, but Holt says this at least provided a starting point for she and two other noted Maui kumu hula - Pali Ahue and Keali'i Reiehel - to eollaborate on a reeonstruetion of Kahekili's era, ineluding an 'awa and marriage eeremony appropriate to the time, plus a story line emotionally potent enough to serve as a reminder that lessons learned by one's aneestors are still timely. While Holt first presented Kahekili in 1997, she has reworked and remounted it with a grant from National Endowment for the Arts that will enable a tour of the U.S. eontinent, ineluding a reeent sneak preview in New York City. The only so-ealled "ethnie" troupe on the bill alongside other grant reeipients - ineluding troupes that bear the names of modern danee giants Iose Limon and Martha Graham - Hālau Pa' u O Hi'iaka stirred the audienee to a standing ovation.

Another sign of Kahekili'& universal appeal, Holt says, eame when it was time for the hālau to pule (pray) and oli (ehant) before the perfonnanee. She says their modern danee eounterparts expressed surprise and gratitude at the eahning effeet of this traditional hula wann-up. In a produetion that is as eontemporary as Kahekili is traditional, 0'ahu-bred aetor and daneer Keo Woolford has erafted / Land, a semi-autobiographical one-man show that weaves hula together with hip-hop and spoken word amid a stormy search for personal identity described as being "at onee hilarious, defiant and transcendent." Woolford, who began hula studies while a student at Saint Louis High School, is an adopted son of non-Hawaiian parents, but his bond to the Hawaiian art of dance got an uneommon boost when he was invited by celebrated kumu Robert Cazimero to become

a member of Hālau Nā Kamalei. Woolford also aspired to pop stardom, whieh landed him in Hollywood at auditions, classes, the fast-lane party circuit and, he admits, a period of despair. Through it all, he stayed in touch with Cazimero and his hula brothers and credits their support for helping him reconcile his love of hula with showbiz ambitions, enabling him eventually to take a career quantum leap as the lead in a London revival of the King and I. "The director was impressed that I seemed so grounded," he says. "I feel that he sensed the connectedness that eame from my practice of hula." The production became acclaimed, and the loeal boy found his star rising. But Woolford was still seeking answers on how to make sense of life's mixed-plate experiences when a writing workshop in New York City provided a starting point for him to sculpt pain, triumph and plenty of gently self-mocking humor into / Land. While Woolford's production is undeniably rooted in personal

experience, he says his real motivation was to pay homage to hula as a dance that moves muscles as well as spirit - even for those who are wholly unfamiliar with the art. Without giving away too mueh, / Land ends with universal human insight into what Woolford describes as his "search for the meaning of heritage in a postmodern world." □

Kahekili When: Saturday, October 13, 2007 Time: 7:30 p.m. Where: Castle Theater, Maui Arts & Cultural Center I Land When: Friday, October 26, 2007 Time: 7:30 p.m. Where: McCoy Studio Theater, 7:30 For more information eall 808-242-7469 or visit mauiarts.org

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