By Kathryn Bender, Star-Bulletin
Students at Mid-Pacific Institute prepare for this weekend's
hula kahiko competitions. Mid-Pac nearly swept last year's event.
Discipline
of the Dance
Mid-Pacific dancers
By Catherine Kekoa Enomoto
take their hula seriously
Star-BulletinIt's 3:20 p.m. Tuesday. Classrooms at Mid-Pacific Institute have emptied. Students have left to cruise in cars, listen to CDs, watch TV. But, several dozen file quietly to the green expanse of the Manoa campus' field, which they share this day with a practicing baseball squad. Twenty-two young women wear cotton, floral skirts and, over their right ears, fragrant plumerias. Some of the six young men have T-shirts hiked up around their necks to ease the afternoon heat.
They are in the midst of a three-hour practice for Saturday's Hawai'i Secondary Schools Hula Kahiko Competition. They will join hula groups from seven intermediate schools and 19 high schools in defending their own state hula titles for: intermediate girls, high school girls, high school boys (tied with Punahou), high school coed, overall high school and intermediate and high school Hawaiian language (tied with Punahou).
Although Mid-Pacific nearly swept last year's contest, competition is not what drives the seniors, nor their eight-year hula teacher.
"There are so many months of preparation and socializing before you ever get to that performance time, I really try to downplay the competition side," says Michael Lanakila Casupang, 32, a Punahou and University of Hawaii graduate in secondary education/music. Although on sabbatical, Casupang returns for hula classes four times weekly. The program has swelled to 115 students under his tutelage.
"Why is hula so important for these children when so much else is going on in their lives?" he asks. "Why do they it, what do they learn? A lot of it is social relations, focus and discipline -- not so much learning dances as learning to be a better person. The real trophy is the students and what they get out of hula -- the whole process."
By Kathryn Bender, Star-Bulletin
Their gracefulness of the moves belies the seriousness of the purpose.
The practice continues with the young women swaying demurely in three rows of synchronized grace. Their hands emulate the gentle lap of sea waves. Alaka'i (instructor) Moea Sylva taps an ipu drum and chants softly. She corrects a knee position here, a hand movement there. She smiles and never scolds.Manoa breezes do not stave off the sun's heat and perspiration shows on youthful brows. Sylva adjourns the group briefly so they can get a drink of cool water.
"It's just breathtaking to see their development and how they've gone almost from child to adult, sometimes in one year," says Sylva, 25, a Kamehameha Schools and UH graduate in anthropology. She cites the interdisciplinary nature of hula -- embracing literature, mythology, genealogy, language, movement, protocol, botany of lei flora and craftsmanship in lei making.
"If there's anything I want them to take with them," Sylva says, "it's the appreciation for an art form that they've had the privilege to become a part of."
Roland Kekaiola Hobson, Christine Lee and Dana Pang are seniors whose dance positions are front row center.
Hobson, 18, is a boarding student from Airai, Palau, in his fourth year of hula at Mid-Pacific. He'll be able to put hula-related lessons into practice next year at the Merchant Marine Academy on Long Island, N.Y.
"Everything you do starts small, but then it grows into something more," he says. "Each step is important that you take in preparing for the final dance or whatever you do. Like in making the lei, each step we took in collecting the seeds and stringing them and drilling the holes -- each step is really important and you can't overlook it or slack off on it."
Lee, 18, is a fifth-year Mid-Pacific hula student who aspires to study nursing. Hula has helped through a family crisis.
By Kathryn Bender, Star-Bulletin
The men practice with intensity.
"My dad died this past summer and I wanted to make it for him," she says of the wiliwili seed lei she strung for a performance. "Drilling the seeds was really hard and I wanted to give up, but I just kept doing it for my dad."Pang, 17, plans to study business, communications and Hawaiian at UH after Saturday's hula finale, for which she's trained hard.
"I feel tired but good ... at the end of the three hours, you feel like you accomplished something," says the fifth-year dancer.
It's 5:55 p.m. and the Mid-Pacific campus is quiet. Pang makes her way toward the parking lot and reflects on her hula 'ohana.
"It's unique because we can come to Lanakila with our problems, whether family problems or personal. He's looked for some of us and called our houses at 10:30 or 11, just to see if we're OK. That just gives you more of a feeling that, even though your family life may not be good, you can always come and you'll have your hula family. It's really something to be happy and proud about."
Competition lineup
Intermediate Division
King Intermediate (kumu Al Barcarse)
High School Division
Hula competition
