Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 28, Number 10, 1 ʻOkakopa 2011 — Kent Ghirard, hula legend [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Kent Ghirard, hula legend

Sept. 1, 1918 - Aug. 29, 2011

By Lynn Cook n 1931, a 12-year-old boy sailed from San Francisco to Honolulu on a luxury liner. When his family checked in at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, he found himself watching graceful hula dancers. He was captivated as they danced the story of a Hawaiian song. His life was forever changed. Returning home, he began collecting things Hawaiian. He found a teacher and started his hula training. In 1947, after graduation from Stanford University, Kent Ghirard sailed to the Hawaiian Islands, away from his presumed career with his family's business, the Ghirardelli Chocolate Co., following instead his love for hula. Unele Kent Ghirard passed away Aug. 29, three days before his 93rd birthday. His world-renowned Hula Nani Girls gathered at his home on the slopes of Diamond Head to remember their love and respect for the man often called "a tall Caucasian person teaching hula." Ghirard's "girls" were gracious and elegant, of every ethnic island mix, who took hula to the world, challenging Hollywood's often unflattering stereotype of Hawaiian culture and dance. Ghirard would always have a shy smile when called a "living treasure." Leialoha Glorious Kaleikini was part of Ghirard's troupe in the 1950s and '60s. She mentions that Ghirard is credited with creating precision lines of dancers, all moving in unison. Kaleikini says: "When he called, we went to dance. He always made sure we were paid fairly for what we did. But for him, we would have danced for free." Kaleikini, who performed in Europe, South America and New York, is one of several dozen Hula Nani dancers who still perform when called. Smiles are rampant as the dancers talk about one of Ghirard's inventions, the green hula panty. His costumes were bright tops, often strapless, and the green ti-leaf skirt, with its great swish and sway, showing beautiful, bare dancers' legs - sans below-the-knee bloomers. Rather than be too risque, his solution was a bright green hula panty that would match the skirt. Today hula panties match costumes in every color. Dancer May Lima moved from Moloka 'i in the 1950s and started 10th grade atMcKinley High School. She says, "Unele Kent made

me what I am today," telling how mueh of a Moloka'i Tita she really was. "He gently corrected me. I said 'taking a bat' and he said, no, it's a 'bath.' And he made me say it right." He taught her to do her hair, dance Tahitian as well as hula, and "never let up correcting my pidgin." She remembers freezing in her tileaf skirt for the 5 a.m. eall to greet returning military ships. "Unele Kent would not let those boys eome home without a greeting!" She adds, "We liked the whistles." In 1955, Ghirard's troupe was the flrst from Hawai'i to extensively tour Japan after the war. Twice they headlined Chicago's Edgewater Beach Hotel, where guests were reported humming a hula tune and waving their hands in hula motions as they walked out into the cold Chicago night. Some of the Hula Nani dancers went to dance with Alfred Apaka, bandleader Ray Kinney, others went on to the Hawaiian Room of New York's Lexington Hotel. Many stayed home in the Islands, dancing at basically every venue that featured hula. In May 2012, Ghirard will be honored by the Hula Preservation Society at the Intemational Waikīkī Hula Conference at the Hawai'i Convention Center. The tribute will be performed by several dozen of his original dancers from the 1940s to 1960s, who are now in their 70s and 80s. The HPS has hours of oral histories with Ghirard, whieh will be available online sometime in the future at hulapreservation.org. For now, an exhibit of 24 of Ghirard's favorite images will open Nov. 1 in Hilo. Call (808) 2479440 or email contact@hulapreservation.org for information. ■ Lynn Cook is a loeal freelance journa!ist sharing the arts anā culture of Hawai'i with a g!obaI auāienee.

Kenl Ghirard, left, with Hula Nani Girls in 1951. - Photo: Courtesy of Hula Preservation Society