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Sellin’ the sway
Hula instructor Kent Ghirard, 86, will
be honored at the Waikiki Shell for his
contributions to Hawaiian dance
'Uncle" Kent Ghirard had strict requirements for his Hula Nani Girls troupe.
"They had to be precise in their movements like the Rockettes, have long hair, be polished, synchronized in both ancient and modern hula, and pretty," says Ghirard from his Diamond Head-area home, where he's lived for 57 years.
The Kent Ghirard TributePresented by the Hula Preservation Society with a reunion of two dozen of his original 1950s Hula Nani Girls troupeWhere: Waikiki Shell When: 8:30 to 9 p.m. Saturday as part of the final night of Ho'i Mai i ka Piko Hula, the World Invitational Hula Festival, beginning at 5:30 p.m. today through Saturday Tickets: $10 general, $15 for loge and $25 for Judges' Golden Circle, available through the Blaisdell box office and Ticketmaster Call: 247-9440 for tribute, 486-3185 for festival
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The preservation society has been documenting Ghirard's hula life since 2001, and began digitizing his collection last year to make it available to the public.
Ghirard has compiled an irreplaceable collection of photos, slides and scrapbooks of him and his troupe in various venues, including celebrity airport greetings, military ship arrivals, VIP presentations, Hawaii Visitors Bureau photo shoots and hula shows, as well as photos showcasing their costuming and adornments.
"Of course, I feel honored, but I was just doing what I loved," he said.
"Uncle" Kent and his Hula Nani Girls were the biggest hula group from the late 1940s to Hawaii's statehood. Ghirard and his group performed throughout the islands and at all of Waikiki's major hotels, including the Moana, Niumalu, Surfrider, and Royal Hawaiian. Performing with them were such musical legends as Alfred Apaka, Lena Machado, Ray Kinney, Nona Beamer, Mahi Beamer, Alvin Isaacs, Pauline Kekahuna, Annie Kerr and Gabby Pahinui. Ghirard and his troupe also headlined the Edgewater Beach Hotel in Chicago and were the first hula group to perform in Japan after World War II in 1955.
Not bad for the self-described "haole boy" from San Francisco who fell in love with Hawaii at age 12 while vacationing at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel with his parents.
"I was instantly touched by the music and dancing," Ghirard said. "I hated the cold and fog of San Francisco."
He attended summer school in Honolulu in 1938 but often cut class to watch the Kodak Hula Show. He began learning hula movements in San Francisco during visits by Marguerite Duane, a professional dancer and friend of Hilo Hattie. Ghirard moved to Hawaii permanently after graduating from Stanford University in 1947.
"I loved the dance, but it was the music that really got to me," he said. "I'm just as much a Hawaiian music buff as I am a fan of the hula."
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HE SETTLED IN Waikiki, studying with Alice Keawekane at the Bill Lincoln Studio, and later taught privately and held classes at the Betty Lei Studio. He learned several kahiko from Mary Kawena Puku'i but concentrated his hula efforts primarily on hula 'auana.
Within a few years, he had established the Hula Nani Girls, and they became a staple in the hula and tourist scenes of the 1950s.
"When I moved here, I didn't know what I was going to do," he said. "I got a job across the street from the Moana Hotel at a record store that sold only Hawaiian music."
Ghirard led hula classes in a tiny room of the record store until the day the Moana Hotel's social director hired the troupe to dance there.
"I had the best Hawaiian music in town, and that was very important," said Ghirard, whose fondest memory of his hula years is the troupe's first visit to Japan in 1955.
"We played all over the country, and wherever we went we were treated like royalty," he said. "And I remember us performing at the Moana with Alfred Apaka before he was a big star."
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