Two performances will be held at 1 p.m. and 6 p.m. this Saturday only. Doors open an hour before each show begins. Tickets are $20 and may be purchased at the Palace Theater or from halau members at 935-8878.
By PETER SUR
Tribune-Herald staff writer
When the kumu hula of Halau Hula ‘O Kahikilaulani died of a heart attack on Oahu in 2010, weeks before the Merrie Monarch Festival, halau members were overcome with grief.
Then they remembered the words of their kumu, Rae Fonseca: If anything should happen to me, the show must continue.
The show did continue, and on Saturday, the storied halau will write its next chapter with a showcase performance at Hilo’s Palace Theater.
For two performances, beginning at 1 p.m. and 6 p.m., under the guidance of kumu Nahoku Gaspang, more than a hundred practitioners of the ancient art will take the stage, performing some two dozen kahiko and ‘auana numbers to show that the legacy of Kahikilaulani continues on.
That’s the English translation of the theme of this Ho’ike: “Mau No Ka Ho’oilina O Kahikilaulani.”
Even today, nearly two years after Fonseca’s death on March 20, the halau looks to him for guidance. His portrait, in the form of a painting, watches over every practice in the halau’s home off Banyan Drive.
Fonseca began staging the Ho’ike so that halau members could share and perpetuate the style of hula that he learned from his kumu, the late George Na’ope.
It’s also a way for the halau to raise funds.
In the last year, following the halau’s successful showing in the 2011 Merrie Monarch Festival, Kahikilaulani performed in Japan in October and November. Younger members of the halau will also be competing in this year’s Keiki Hula Festival, held in July in Honolulu.
The halau is sitting out this year’s Merrie Monarch Festival, except for one float in the Royal Parade, but it plans to enter the 2013 contest.
While the Merrie Monarch’s rules require each entrant to perform two numbers — one kahiko, or ancient style, and one ‘auana, in the modern style — for Saturday’s Ho’ike there is no limit to what Kahikilaulani can show. As Gaspang said, there will be performers young and young-at-heart, kane and wahine, experts and novices.
There will be mele that Fonseca taught Gaspang all the way back in 1978, and there will be mele that were created and choreographed recently. Also returning: the halau’s 2010 Miss Aloha Hula entrant, Ashlyn Tavares, who stayed off the stage last year while on maternity leave.
“I have about seven kahikos, 17 ‘auanas,” Gaspang said, adding that there will be an intermission.
“We’re all excited,” said another senior member of the halau, Roxi Kamelamela.
She’s also having some of the halau’s senior members work on the opening of the show to give them experience in creating a large production.
In the final week the dancers have been doubling down on their practices, making their adornments and their costumes, and checking the fine details.
“Some of the girls left this morning to pick up liko and ‘a’ali’i (traditional plant adornments) because we ran out,” she said. “It shows how well-disciplined the students are to go out and get it.”
“We thank all the people that have supported us,” Gaspang said. “We’re just going to keep Kahikilaulani alive for as long as we can.”
There may not be any judges at this show, so the pressure isn’t as high, but the Ho’ike serves an important purpose, Kamelamela said.
“With the Ho’ike, it helps prepare the girls, the senior girls, for Merrie Monarch,” she said. It’s kind of a dress run of the skills required to perform in the world’s most prestigious hula competition. During the runup to the Merrie Monarch Festival competition, halau members might rehearse a mele a dozen times to correct a hand motion. In the Ho’ike, Gaspang still wants things to be perfect, but there’s less pressure and more opportunity for halau members to perform Kahikilaulani-style hula.
Toward the end of the interview, Kamelamela began to describe how grateful she is that the halau is continuing with Gaspang at its kumu.
“I’m so happy that he uniki’d (graduated) her as a kumu to take his place,” Kamelamela said, gesturing toward Fonseca’s portrait. “I just want to say that I’m very proud of what she did” to lead the halau after Fonseca’s death.
The two think Fonseca would be proud of what the halau has done in his absence. They often wonder how Fonseca, or “Kumu,” would do a certain thing.
The name “Kahikilaulani,” which Na’ope gave to Fonseca, can mean several things. One interpretation is “the staff from heaven,” a fitting name for one of Na’ope’s favorite students. “Lau” also means leaf, and in a poetic sense the students of Fonseca’s lineage are like leaves, branching out from the source.
Two performances will be held at 1 p.m. and 6 p.m. this Saturday only. Doors open an hour before each show begins. Tickets are $20 and may be purchased at the Palace Theater or from halau members at 935-8878.