 Welcome to Hawaiʻi is my mainland. This is Kaui Lukas. Today I have two guests that speak to something that has been a part of most of my life, the hula, and two kumu hula and two generations of them. We have Puanani Alama, who was in the, for the very first monarch back in 1963. She was a judge and her daughter who is now, well, Mama is still teaching hula and has her own hulao here, but also Baby Pua is carrying on the tradition and spreading it on the continent for us. So she is also a kumu hula, Puanani young. So, veli damae. Welcome. And this is a special weekend. Yes, it sure is. So I haven't asked, you have your hoiki on Sunday at McKinley School auditorium. And what anniversary hoiki is this? Do we know? I can't even count. Really, I stopped having my hoiki as of 1985, would you believe it? And then just last year I resumed doing it in honor of my sister Leilani to bring back her work. She's in heaven, I must tell you. And so after doing it, I decided, well, I'd better get back in the thing of doing it for myself now and show off my work, because I just love my work. It's part of me and it'll always be part of me. So you and your sister, we both have our kumu hula. Yes. And how did that happen? I mean, give us the decades. Are we talking back in the 40s? Yes, in fact, when I was a little, little girl, you know, we never paid for our hula lessons. You have to be chosen. It's not just everybody. Just say, okay, I want to go to hula now, and you just go to hula and pay somebody like they do now. We didn't have very many privileged children, Miss Lucas. So you see, under those circumstances, if you were not chosen, you do not dance, or the hula. And so I was very blessed by having many people offering me my hula. And, you know, up until this day, I still feel very blessed because I see a lot of people who don't know what they want out of life, and from the time I can remember, I always said to my parents, I'm going to be a hula teacher. Did your mother dance hula? No, mom didn't dance the hula. She sang for us, but she never danced the hula. Dad danced the hula though. It was real good. It was real good. And you grew up in Honolulu? I grew up here in Honolulu, yes. And you were just telling us that actually in this very building, the play near Plaza, downtown, where the stage is? In my first hula studio, I opened my hula studio here in 1954, after I left my former place of teaching. And it was available because the gas brode company moved to Bishop Street. And so it was available. So I took over their very top floor. And there I started my hula business in 1954. And you were dancing. You had been dancing for quite a while, obviously, by that time. Oh, yes. Was there a formal uniki process? Maybe some people don't know, but that uniki is the graduation to become a group. Yes, I think I had one, maybe three of them, three hula graduations. And yes, I also like to select. I don't like them to think, okay, I've been at hula for about four or five years, I'm ready for it. I call the shot if they're ready or they're not ready. And out of my hula graduation, I just handpicked maybe three or four to graduate from hula. It's not the whole class. Of course, nowadays they would say, you know, you're kind of being a little too fussy. So that just don't do anymore. But at my time, they all know the way it should be done, which was the way I did it. You choose who you think will be a very good teacher. And then that's how you uniki them. But of course, there's many people involved. You can't just, like anything else, right? It has to be a whole slew of people to make it very comfortable. And like anything else is part of business, you know, because you have to pay for a place of where we're going to have it and blah, blah, and blah, blah, you know. So it hasn't stopped yet. So in the mid fifties, in Waikiki, I'm saying Waikiki, although you said your studio was downtown, I was thinking of the pictures of you and the Hula Historic Preservation Society has compiled some beautiful pictures of you. And let's see some of those. And perhaps you can tell us what's the... This is at the new Malu Hotel, where now it's the Hilton Hawaiian Village. I dance there for many years with George and Opie. Now this is Hula graduation, I think this is. But it wasn't mine. This is my sister's. This is at the Alawaik Clubhouse on Makali and... Makali? What's the name of that street? Kapiolani Boulevard, right. It used to be right across of the... I can't remember that organization. And this here is at the new Malu. Uh-huh, this picture here. I was a feature dancer there at the new Malu Hotel. And this, now we're jumping into another generation. This is baby who is Hula. Perhaps you can just jump in here and talk about your Hula. Yeah, so I currently teach in Southern California in Mission Viejo, actually officially Laguna Hills, California. And this is my 19th year. This year is my 19th year. So next year will be my 20th anniversary. So as a Kumunau, knowing my mom's history with Ray Monarch, it was always kind of a goal for me to be able to take my Hula to the stage of Ray Monarch to kind of bring things full circle. So hopefully make mama proud that something she helped form and create and was a part of from the beginning could come full circle to see her lineage represented on stage. And so in 2014, I was able to, as invited, was able to take my group 2014 and 2015 to the Mary Monarch. Well, since we're on the subject of Mary Monarch, I mean that is an incredibly rigorous, I'm not going to call it an ordeal, honor. Yes. Lots of practice, lots of detail, lots of history. So, and coming from California, I mean, how does that work? Where do you get your materials? How do you do your, I mean, how does that all work? Yeah, it was a big learning curve. It was, you know, we started off, there are a few competitions in California that we participated in. It was first with Ejulamau. And then there's also Yaoya Cala in Northern California. And now we also participate in a competition, Kumukahi, which is in Las Vegas. And so starting off, you know, competing on the mainland, of course, was a great big help, stepping stone to learn a lot of things because my mom never competed. So the competition aspect of it was a big learning process for me. But I was very blessed. I have a lot of good mentors. I have a lot of good hula friends and hula other hula teachers that are a great support to me in addition to mama and my aunt. As far as the competition circle goes, I was very blessed to be have a lot of people to learn from. And so, but, you know, yeah, Merry Monarch is such a much bigger event because you're travel. Just the logistics alone is exhausting. Not, you know, needless to say all the preparations, the flower. I mean, it's a lot of coordination. And like I say, I'm very blessed, you know, having mama behind me and being born here. I did have a lot of people who were willing to lend a hand, which I couldn't have done without, you know, so a lot of good guidance. So let's talk about when I went to visit your mom in her studio, her present studio in Karmaki, which was really fun. It was very, it was like this warm memory just to be able to... The art gallery. Yes. They're my grandchildren. I love dearly. No fun making up their two trees. And that's... I can't help it. Don't get her started. The show will last two hours to start talking about them. It will. It really will. So she said that you actually have an engineering background. I do. I do. How did that work? Well, you know, mama being mom and with her generation, you know, I, everyone, I mean, I knew Hula was always in me and my grandmother and my whole family knew that, but it was always go to school, get your degree, and then you can do whatever you want. So that was always a restriction for me, you know. Okay, you want to do Hula, that's fine, but you go get your diploma because in mama's generation, you know, with the huge western influence, being able to be educated was a very, very important to them. So that was important. And so I had to get my diploma and I worked as a construction engineer for about seven years. And after I had my first son in 1997, then I told my mom, okay, I did what you asked. So what do you think? So at that point, it was like, yeah, you're ready. I mean, yeah, she's been preparing me for it and it was just one of the right timing was. So in 1997, I left my job and raised my son and opened my Hula. And now you, there is another generation. We have pictures of three generations. My twins. Yes, my twins are born in 1999 and they're 17 now. And they are, yeah, the next generation. So this weekend, are they here too? They are here too. We are here too. So we've come down and we will be making a cameo at the show. So we'll be part, but I'm here to help mom to support her and her hoike and we're excited to be here. Well, we're going to take a little break now and then come back and talk some more about Lovely Hula Him. Thank you. My name is Calvin Griffin, host of Military in Hawaii, which airs here on Think Tech Hawaii every Friday at 11 a.m. Please join us. We'll be talking about issues concerning our military, veterans community and other related issues that concern all of us. Aloha. You can join the Hawaii Farmer Series every Thursday from four to five on Think Tech. And I'm your co-host Matthew Johnson here with Justine Espirito. And we are so thankful to have this show to use as a forum to get to know all the movers and shakers in agriculture in Hawaii and hear kind of their background in history as well as. Their perspective on what they're doing and also the future for agriculture in Hawaii. So join us every Thursday. You can tweet in your own comments and suggestions and be a part of the conversation at Think Tech High. And we hope to see you every single Thursday. Welcome back to Hawaii is my mainland. I'm Kaui Lucas. And with me today are two of three generations of this family now dancing Hula in the most beautiful way. The matriarch here, Puanani Alama and her daughter Puanani Yung who is at Kumu Hula currently in California. So the idea of, I mean Hula is, as lots of people know, is incredibly popular in Japan for instance. And then you mentioned there are competitions in California. And I wonder, can you talk about what, I mean, when I do Hula here, I mean you look outside and you smell the flowers and you hear the ocean. But I don't know what it's like to do it somewhere else. Is it different? Yeah, well yes and no. I actually get that question a lot, especially competing and having the girls having to embrace the mele and how do I get them to really feel what the mele is about if they've never seen the place or been to the place. And all I can describe is when it comes to that we have to reach for things that people can take reference to. So if a mele has a certain feeling or it's bringing the composer a certain feeling even though they haven't been to that place we try to get them to somehow capture that feeling with something that they can associate with. So maybe we don't have the same types of waves or winds that they do down in Waikiki, but we can kind of try to explore where we are and what is similar and so how we feel about those things where we're from. So in that sense it is a little bit different for the students because I think that they don't get that touchy-feely type of experiences but on the other hand they love hula so much and when my mom's taught me you love your hula in here. And so that part's not different. That part's not different. My students love it so much and they to some extent soak it up with such vigor because they don't have what we have here and so to that extent no hula's not different because they have that same aloha for it but yes the physical part not seeing the exact mountains and what they look like and sure that part is a little bit and also you know the lifestyle you know just the lifestyle embracing the lifestyle that there's nothing that you can what can I say the island lifestyle and the island people yeah I mean you know there's nothing you can do to replace that honestly but they love their hula. They do love their hula. So who are your students? I have probably 50-50 I have 50% of my students are either displaced Hawaiians or their families are displaced Hawaiians and now sending their kids to me and the other half are just people from every walk of life that love the islands and love hula and want to learn more about the culture and love the dance and just want to learn. And then who are your students? Oh my they all come to Aina they all people from Hawaii here yes they're my students and so now yes how many generations? Oh, families yeah lots of lots of families you know their mom came to take hula and then her children and now their children's children takes lessons oh so you have your grandchildren wow that's fun yeah but now I've stopped teaching the children because as you get older you get a little bit more you don't have that type of patience you need to be a good teacher with the children it's like a game-playing that you play with the children they must like you to be able to my time now you just go because you have to go now you have the children must like you they'll show their stuff to you plus moms with me plus you're with me in that yeah and I go up because I want to be with my grandchildren I want them to know they have a tooth to you so do you teach when you're in California also? mm-hmm wow wow how fabulous yeah no my students are so blessed in fact I think sometimes my students get a little bit more of her attention than they do here you don't want to tell them that do you? so if there's a trademark alumma hula what would that be? a trademark or gesture or way of dancing I mean you know it's sort of every subtle my work is subtle and I like to express every wording of it I just don't like to just stay and just say the moon just the moon I just the moon moves I like that kind of a thing I like my gestures to be very how do you explain that? very specific very yeah well they are but I like a lot of gestures in it I think it's because it means so much to me because I see it in so many ways you know that instead of just saying okay here's the moon straight up front here's the moon no here's the moon there the moon moves about you know I like that kind of a thing that makes it feel real good and for for music do you have a favorite composer or favorite millie well that you would say was kind of a signature all the hula songs I love I don't have a favorite every song I love but my favorite singer not because I worked for him was bill aliello Lincoln he was my very favorite singer today I have another favorite singer but he's going to get real angry with me if I mention his name oh why yeah if he's that good we all want to know I think he's very good not that good he's very good and I think he knows who he is so I'm not going to mention his name so you don't get it well will he be will he be playing music on Sunday at the hoike no it's going to come though I think it's now he had better come or I'm going to go out with my puili and whack him but good if he's not there uncle kimo uncle kimo alama and his group will be performing with mama okay and they are related somehow I'm sure yeah so how is how is he related oh he's my favorite he's my puili he's my puili alright so again let's just refresh that it's going to be at the McKinley Auditorium this coming Sunday which is the 8th no the 9th sorry sorry sorry sorry the 9th the 9th and the timing would so the tickets are 30 tickets are $30 and it is two to four and doors will open at 115 and it's open seating open seating and and McKinley doesn't charge her parking you just might have to walk a little bit yeah and there should be tickets at the door there should be tickets at the door that's a wonderful historic come early because they have a great gallery at McKinley because it's over 100 years old and mama graduated from there oh 1948 so 1958 and my sister also 1943 okay and that's that may just makes it all even more wonderful and special exactly yeah I'm so looking forward to it because it is that that that real hula feeling and I have not done much as I grew older I have the musicians sing the songs and whatever happens I let other people do it for the girls this time I'm working with the girls I'm going to sing their songs I'm going to chant for them so if they want to see how it was done come and see it yeah they'll be just it's going to be quite interesting and I'm just praying that I live up to my to their expectations yeah so how often do you do you come back to Hawaii I try to make it back a couple of times a year you know just to reconnect with not just mom and bring the kids home so that they still have that connection to home even though they were born and raised in the mainland they still have their connection to their family and their Hawaiian roots and are there are there particular things you do to sort of foster that for your students who don't come back to Hawaii do you have any kind of rituals I mean in the broader sense it might be a potluck somewhere yeah no actually I think just you know I feel like just that the halau is there you know the halau really has become a second family to all my students whether they're you know have local roots or not and just the fact they're there and they have this extended halau family to me really is just the essence of being able to to feel that spirit of hula and aloha because some of them thought they'd come in and take a couple months and they just whatever but once they they get connected and they feel this warmth that they don't have elsewhere then you know they're it's part of them um we got a a short video that I'd like to to see and we can keep talking because it doesn't have music with it but it shows pictures historic pictures of you um that the hula preservation society put together and um um I'm 49 okay so you have seen many changes a lot of changes a lot of changes yes was that the new model too the new model okay and now I was advertising raw beer and my mom's not a drinker I'm not a drinker I never do I smoke and I didn't just stopped this is at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel so you also danced at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel I danced and I taught there I taught there from 1948 until 1956 this is at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel oh and that's a and that's a a cellophane a cellophane I have to say I always wanted to do for like the last the last 15 years it's been very uncellophane yes I feel like we've got as authentic as we can go right when you grow your own raw cake and you pound your own papa and you make your own um and so who knows there might be a resurgence I'm not sure I'm not a Mary Monarch no just for fun just for fun that's right thank you thank you so in the in the last minute um just say something about what Hula has meant to me as a life for me it's it's my life right and it's something where I find it has helped me in many ways um made me very independent a very independent woman um I taught it since I was knee high um I didn't go to college my high school was my last was at at McKinley High School where my Hula Hauike is going to be held um it's given me um a lot of um a lot of love in my heart oh really it has thank you a lot of love in my heart and it brings me want to do a lot of things with the people you know at one time it was so difficult for me because I was always so busy I dance at the in the night I taught during the day I mean it was just um my lifestyle was so different but now as I grow older I have the time okay and we can all come and see you in action with your your whole family and your halos um Sunday March 9th 2pm April 9th April 9th April 8th April oh thank you thank you thank you so much know them oh yeah