Aloha...

...and welcome to the Polynesian Cultural Center's Moanikeala Hula Festival web site. Our 18th annual hula showcase — held Saturday, January 19, 2008, in the Pacific Theater — was, in a single word, outstanding.

The 2008 festival featured 13 groups, including one from Osaka and another from Aichi, Japan, performing exhibitions of their talents in honor of the PCC's first kumu hula or hula master, Aunty Sally Moanikeala Wood Naluai, who trained scores of young Polynesians in the art of hula from 1963 until she retired in 1980.

"At the PCC, Aunty Sally will always be remembered and celebrated as a beloved kumu hula," said Ellen Gay Dela Rosa, Theater Director and Aunty Sally's niece. "But her legacy lives on in Hawaii at this festival that brings together kupuna [elders] and keiki [children] to share and perpetuate the Hawaiian culture."

Please note the following changes from previous festivals:

• All seats in the Pacific Theater were reserved, and assigned on a first-come basis.
• The 2008 festival, as in the past few years, was a ho'ike or exhibition. There were no prizes or standings, but the PCC presented each halau with a ho'okupu or gift in appreciation for sharing their talents.
• The E Luana Kakou concert portion of the festival has been discontinued.

To those new to our Moanikeala Hula Festival, a description of the 2008 event that follows will give you insights into the beauty and grace of this classic Hawaii art form as we feature it. You can also read a description of...

2008 video clips | Past events: 2007

The Polynesian Cultural Center's 2008 Moanikeala Hula Festival was one of the biggest — and best — in the event's 18-year history, marked by the participation of 13 halau hula or hula schools and approximately 300 haumana or students.

Amazingly, the haumana this year ranged in age from 2-84, and many of them — like those from Japan — participated because of their love for the dance even though they are not ethnically Hawaiian.

"Aunty" Kela Miller, an original 1963 Polynesian Cultural Center dancer who studied under Aunty Sally, pointed out two examples in her group: The first, a teacher at a nearby school originally from Germany, has been a student since Miller started her group five years ago; and the second is an 84-year-old Japanese woman who has lived in Hawaii all her life and originally started dancing hula as a girl under the direction of Miller's great-grandmother, a well-known and highly respected kumu hula.

In a gracious gesture of Hawaiian hospitality at one point during the festival, Miller's Halau Hula O Kekela presented the visiting dancers from Japan with a ho'okupu or traditional offering of leis and gifts.
 

Speaking through an interpreter, Sayuri Kasugai, kumu hula of the group from Aichi, Ka Leo O Laka I Iapana/Ka Pa Hula O Ka'ie'ie, thanked Miller and noted this was the group's second appearance in the Moanikeala Festival. She added that 33 of her 66 students made the journey.

PCC Cultural Director Cy Bridges — a noted kumu hula in his own right, a student of Aunty Sally, and co-emcee of the program — explained there are almost 600,000 hula students in Japan, "and one halau has 8,000 students. I've been there many times to teach."

"Each of the halau brings with them a very wonderful spirit of hula," said PCC Harry Brown, a Hawaiian originally from Maui. He also noted the beauty of their costumes, floral decorations and music — all typical of hula auana or modern-style hula.

For example Bridges daughter, Maria Bridges-Nakila resurrected her father's former PCC-sponsored halau hula, Hui Hooulu Aloha, which performed and competed in events such as the Merrie Monarch Festival in the 1980s for this year's Moanikeala.

In fact, Bridges, his "hula brothers and sister" Brown, Dela Rosa and PCC Theater Manager Keith Awai took the stage to dance. In addition, Bridges and Brown added their significant musical talents to the festival, and Awai brought his own school, Halau Kawaipuhilani, to perform.

Another particularly striking example included two beauty queens: Tessie Toluta'u, the reigning Miss South Pacific, who is also Miss Heilala in the Kingdom Tonga, and Miss Tonga USA; and Sina Nauahi, the immediate past Miss Heilala and Miss Tonga USA. Both young women, who are members of the Polynesian Cultural Center's Promo Team, danced exquisitely with Dela Rosa, who also manages the Promo Team.

"I'm sure Aunty Sally must be very proud, and I could feel her spirit with us this afternoon," said Dela Rosa. "It was just a wonderful time."

"A lot of this would't be as successful without the parents and the musicians," added Brown. "Hana hou!" [Let's do it again.]

In Hawaiian, e luana kakou means "let's enjoy ourselves," which is an appropriate description of...

(Top): The Makaha Sons John and Jerome Koko, and Moon Kauakahi, with impromptu hula dancer Kela Miller (center) and protoge Hoku Zuttermeister (right) at the PCC in 2007. (Bottom): Natalie Ai Kamauu and family members beautifully provided the warm-up entertainment.

• The 2007 E Luana Kakou concert:

For the fifth year in a row the incomparable harmonizing and beautiful contemporary Hawaiian music of the Makaha Sons thrilled a sold-out audience in the PCC's beautiful Hale Aloha luau theater on January 19.

The Makaha Sons — John and Jerome Koko, and group leader Moon Kauakahi — have been performing together for 31 years, sweetening island music with their tight harmony and fantastic chord progressions. John played stand-up bass; Jerome added the lead guitar highlights and kept "cracking up" the audience with his humorous comments between numbers; and Moon, who writes some of the music, completed the mix on rhythm guitar. Their program included long-time favorites, such as White Sandy Beach and some new songs from their latest, just-released CD.

"They have accomplished just about everything there is in Hawaiian music," said PCC artistic director and Hawaiian cultural expert Cy Bridges, who emceed the concert. "They have taken our music and dance all around the world."

As happens in Hawaiian concerts, and even backyard luaus for that matter, to the delight of all, various individuals and groups got up and danced hula to some of the songs.

Then, as they have done in past years at the PCC, the Makaha Sons brought out a young artist they've been working with, in this case Hoku Zuttermeister. He sang three or four numbers in his rich baritone, which Jerome compared to the late Alfred Apaka. Zuttermeister also demonstrated his skills in the uniquely popular male Hawaiian falsetto vocal range, which local audiences love.

Even the youngest keiki or children in Hawaii are encouraged to learn hula. For over 20 years a children's halau or school, encouraged by Aunty Sally, has been practicing at the Polynesian Cultural Center. (Photos by Mike Foley)

• As it does every year, the PCC's 17th annual Moanikeala Hula Festival 2007 was held in honor of the late Aunty Sally Moanikeala Wood Naluai, the PCC's first kumu hula or hula master.

Aunty Sally, as everyone called her, taught hula to the Church College of Hawaii and BYU-Hawaii (the university was renamed in 1974) student performers at the Polynesian Cultural Center from its opening on October 12, 1963 until she retired in 1980. After her retirement Aunty Sally continued to act as a hula consultant until she passed away in 2000. Learn more of the festival's history...

The PCC's Moanikeala Hula Festival started as a competition for keiki or children's groups dancing in the auana or modern style; but since the Cultural Center's 40th anniversary in 2003, all halau or groups perform in ho'ike or exhibition style, and adult and kupuna or elderly dancers also participate. The dancers occasionally perform in the hula kahiko or ancient style.

On Saturday morning, January 20, 2007, dancers from eight halau gathered early for this year's festival. "Each halau brings a very special spirit of the hula," said PCC emcee Harry Brown, who is originally from Maui, "and we express deep appreciation to all of them — the keiki, the parents and grandparents — for coming. What you see is the tip of the iceberg of all the work that goes into this."

During the festival, Brown pointed out at least one of the groups was making its initial appearance while others have participated in every one, or nearly every one.

After all the hula and a PCC presentation of hookupu or traditional gifts to the kumu hula, Aunty Sunday Mariteragi — niece of Aunty Sally Naluai, founder of the festival and kumu hula of her own halau which currently has 150 keiki students — said, "This year, more than any other year, we're starting to focus on what Aunty Sally was all about: Everyone can enjoy hula. Anyone can dance hula. Hula is for everyone. There's no right or wrong about it, and we can meet together to perform and appreciate each other with a variety of dancing, singing and style, without being intimidated by each other."

"More importantly, what she taught me is we should be happy for each other. That says it all. That's what I try to teach in the halau here at the PCC with my own group.

Aunty Sunday added that next year's Moanikeala Festival should include participation from her group as well as those of her "hula brothers and [real] sister: Cy Bridges, Keith Awai and Ellen Gay Dela Rosa."

• In Hawaiian, moanikeala refers to a "gentle, fragrant breeze," which seems an appropriate way to describe the graceful motions in hula auana.