Halau O Kekuhi. - Neal Blaisdell Concert Hall, Honolulu, Hawaii - dance reviews

Dance Magazine, May, 1996 by Paula Durbin

NEAL BLAISDELL CONCERT HALL, HONOLULU JANUARY 10-11, 1996 REVIEWED BY PAUIA DURBIN

Holo Mai Pele, or Pele's Travels, represents the first-ever transposition of mele hula and mele oli, ancient Hawaiian dance and chant, to a concert venue as theater. Halau o Kekuhi directors Pualani Kanaka'ole Kanahele and Nalani Kanaka'ole, two scions of a seven-generation matrilineal hula dynasty, have woven verses from the Hawaiian epic poem celebrating the volcano goddess into a three-hour extravaganza whose themes-love, jealousy, betrayal, death-and proportions are common to grand opera.

Ancient Hawaiian dance, a discipline akin to classical ballet in its strictness of form, was in fact traditionally performed on this scale, as a visual accompaniment for whole cycles of legends chanted in succession to two alternating rhythms of the ipu, a gourd. Holo Mai Pele incorporates forty-nine of these songs and a gamut of emotions, folkways, and even topography. The robust, low-postured style of the Kanaka'ole school is at its most earthy in the opening sequence, "Ku Makou E Hele Me Ku'u Mau Poki'i," honoring the Pele clan's arrival from Tahiti, when the corps de ballet, thirty strong, seems to erupt out of the ground. Later, in the oldest known hula, a smaller, more subtle group rustles their pandanus leaf skirts, exquisitely evoking the ebbing tides.

From that point on, the story thread becomes, at times, difficult to follow in spite of the English-language preface to each act. But no one seemed to mind; scrupulous authenticity and sheer magic carry this show. And the audience's favorite, "No Ka Ho'i'Ana I Hawai'i Kilu" is so explicit that narration seems superfluous. Kilu is a courtship game requiring young couples to flaunt their sexual prowess while the entire village observes. As one strapping young man pulsates into a backbend during his kneeling hula, the local matriarch (played by one of the Kanaka'ole sisters in a cameo role) and her attendants add to the hilarity by frantically fanning themselves as if they might swoon.

Premiered on Maui in 1995, Holo Mai Pele was performed on Oahu thanks to support from the richly endowed Office of Hawaiian Affairs and the Kamehameha Schools/Bishop Estate. As with many ethnic ballets, it is also subsidized by the performers, mostly devoted amateurs, who, for example, construct their own costumes by coaxing synthetics to simulate the shimmering pastels and silken drape of fine tapa, or bark cloth. They deserve the opportunity to share their expertise and enthusiasm with a wider audience that might not know how deeply the roots of contemporary Hawaiian culture reach into an ancient heritage.