File photo
Bring your own drum to a community jam session 2 p.m.
Sunday at Waimea Valley Adventure Park, or just
listen to the rhythms.

Many cultures, one rhythm

By Cynthia Oi
Star-Bulletin

When Blaine Kia strikes the pahu, he isn't just playing the drum. He is pounding out the beat of his heritage, his love of hula and the Hawaiian language.

The kumu hula will be one of dozens of people at the 2nd Annual World Drum Festival who will convey how drumming plays a part in their cultures.

Kia, a student of the late master Darrell Lupenui, will also bring dancers to the fest. The dancers are "not optional," he said.

"There's no way I can pound the pahu and not have hula," Kia said. "Presenting the pahu must involve dance because the two belong together, the two meld."

WORLD DRUM FESTIVAL Introduction to World Drumming: 10:20 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. tomorrow, University of Hawaii Campus Center, free. Call 524-8416 Sundrum performance: 6 to 7 p.m. tomorrow, UH Manoa Gardens, free Second Annual World Drum Festival: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday at Waimea Valley Adventure Park; community jam session at 2 p.m. Bring your own drum. Cost: $12 at the door, $10 advance kamaaina, available at UH Campus Center ticket office or by calling 372-5951 or 524-8416 Native American Drums and Dancing: Noon to 1 p.m. Oct. 11, Kapiolani Community College Ohia Cafe, free. Information: 377-DRUM (3786)

At 36, Kia has been involved in the island entertainment industry for many years. He had roles in "Aloha Summer" with Tia Carrere, "Magnum, P.I." and "Island Son" with Richard Chamberlain.

He began learning hula at age 5 and has established two halau, the Ladies of Ka Waikahe Lani Malie and the Men of Kahulaliwai.

He turned to teaching four years ago when he married. "I gave up the nightlife then to pursue cultural and family-oriented lines," said the father of a 2-year-old girl. (His second child is due in March.)

Kia teaches on Oahu and Kauai, conducting three classes a week on the Garden Island.

"Kauai has embraced us. They are hungry for the culture," he said. His students there now number 50, about half of all his pupils.

Kia majored in music theory at the University of Hawaii and is eager to listen to all forms of music.

"It helps me when I create music to involve other cultures and their instruments," he said, so he is looking forward to the festival, which will feature percussion from Japan, China, Brazil, African countries, Korea, the Cook Islands, Tahiti, Fiji and Tonga, among others.

He sees similarity between the Hawaiian culture and those of the American Indian and indigenous people of Alaska.

"They are not similar in tempo or rhythmic beats," he said, "but when they cantillate their music, it involves dance, too, like the pahu and hula."

"There are many people and cultures who survived the same way Hawaiians have, who now have the same problems we have," he said. "I like to share the hula with anyone who wants to learn or to just experience it."

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