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Keiki Hula Competition Prepares Next Generation of Dancers

Kahu Kalani Wong

In the world of hula, Hilo has the Merrie Monarch Festival and Honolulu has the Keiki Hula Competition. For the past 42 years, Keiki Hula has cultivated the next generation of hula dancers – some as young as five years old. The group competition kicks off tonight with traditional hula. HPR’s Ku?uwehi Hiraishi has this story.

"Aloha my name is ?Iliahi Paredes. My wife is Haunani Paredes, and we are kumu hula of H?lau Kekuaokal??au?ala?iliahi." 

Credit Kahu Kalani Wong
Halau Kekuaokala'au'ala'iliahi outside the Neal Blaisdell Arena where they will perform tonight in the 2017 Keiki Hula Competition.

Of the 150 keiki hula dancers in Paredes’ Wailuku-based h?lau, only 52 made the cut to fly to O?ahu to compete in the Annual Queen Lili?uokalani Keiki Hula Competition. That includes 11-year-old K?ha?o Murray. This will be Murray's fifth year competing.

"I’m excited. I feel very prepared and this competition helped me to face my fear in front of very, very large crowds," says K?ha?o. 

Credit Ku'uwehi Hiraishi
11-year-old Kuha'o Murray and his father Pono join the halau for service work at Uluhaimalama on O'ahu.

"We train our keiki for this competition for about seven months and the biggest thing we want them to take away is that they can," says Kumu Iliahi Paredes. 

Preparing for competition is a family affair. Here's K?ha?o's father Pono.

"They have us go out and do the gathering a lot of the plants that are used for the competition. The feather leis that are used in the competition are the parents kuleana. So that’s many hours," says Pono.

 

Credit Kahu Kalani Wong
Girls from Halau Kekuaokala'au'ala'iliahi rehearse at Honolulu's Halau i ka Wekiu's studio in preparation for the Keiki Hula competition.

The three-day competition was established in 1975 by the Kalihi-P?lama Arts & Culture Society. Trisha K?haulani Watson-Sproat is society board President.

"The idea really was to foster their love of hula and their pride in their culture and to just hone their skills," says Watson, "So this is our competition specifically for children from ages five through twelve. So this takes them all the way up to the year they can entire Merrie Monarch."

Credit Kalihi-Palama Arts & Culture Society
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Kalihi-Palama Arts & Culture Society
Young male hula dancers from Halau Kekuaokala'au'ala'iliahi competing at Keiki Hula.

Kumu Hula ?Iliahi and Haunani Paredes both took part in the keiki hula competition as young hula dancers in the 1980s.

"We started off hula when we were keiki. Both of us at three years old," says ?Iliahi, "And we know that with time and effort and love by the kumu, these keiki can just blossom."

Credit Kalihi-Palama Arts & Culture Society
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Kalihi-Palama Arts & Culture Society
Kumu Hula Haunani & Iliahi Paredes of Maui's Halau Kekuaokala'au'ala'iliahi.

For K?ha?o, this year’s keiki hula competition will be his last. He turns 12-years-old next Thursday and plans to take his hula game to the next level.

"Hoping to go to Merrie Monarch," says K?ha?o, "I’m gonna miss my hula brothers and hula sisters very much."

Credit Kahu Kalani Wong
Kuha'o competed in the 2016 Master Keiki Hula Competition.

K?ha?o and his h?lau take the stage tonight at the Keiki Hula Competition. Advice from dad?

"It's way more than a competition," says Pono, "And like kumu said no matter what the outcome they have become better people and greater Hawaiians and truly know that hula has made that possible."

Kuʻuwehi Hiraishi is a general assignment reporter at Hawaiʻi Public Radio. Her commitment to her Native Hawaiian community and her fluency in ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi has led her to build a de facto ʻōiwi beat at the news station. Send your story ideas to her at khiraishi@hawaiipublicradio.org.
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