20 Sunday, April 16, 2017 Hawaii Tribune-Herald 2017 Merrie Monarch Festival A LEGACY LIVES ON Hula Halau O Kou Lima Nani ‘E If hula had a Mount Rushmore, George Na‘ope’s likeness would almost certainly be memorialized in stone. Na‘ope, co-founder of the Merrie Monarch Festival, died at age 81 in 2009, but his hula lineage lives on. And when kumu hula Iwalani Kalima decided to bring her Hula Halau O Kou Lima Nani ‘E to this year’s Merrie Monarch hula competition, the news created excitement — in part because her Hilo halau last appeared on hula’s biggest stage in 2006. Of at least equal importance is Kalima’s status as a student of Na‘ope, revered as one of hula’s greatest masters. Kalima said her hula brother, Punahele Andrade, planted the idea she should enter the halau “to keep Uncle George’s legacy alive and perpetuate his hula, his style.” “I am very proud to be a student of Uncle George’s and very proud that I have this opportunity to showcase his style. He always said, ‘Hula is aloha and hula is Hawaii.’ And this is what I would like to share,” Kalima said. Kalima’s experiences on the Merrie Monarch stage are relatively few in number, but the history has taken on an almost mythic aura. “I never actually was able to dance in the Merrie Monarch in a group. I was entered as a Miss Hula (now Miss Aloha Hula) in 1979. Uncle said, ‘Get out there and do it,’” she recalled, laughing. “I didn’t place, but it was a wonderful experience and I learned to feel more confident.” Certainly, Na‘ope had confidence in Kalima. In 1982, she received her ‘uniki, hula’s graduation, from Na‘ope — and that same year, she again took the Merrie Monarch stage, this time as a kumu. “It was actually Uncle’s students, but because Uncle was (the festival’s) co-founder, in ’82, he asked me to take them and I took them as Kona Gardens School of Hawaiian Arts,” she said. Kalima founded Hula Halau O Kou Lima Nani ‘E in 1986. Since returns for first time since 2006 then, the wahine halau has become a fixture at community and cultural events, at noncompetition hula festivals as well as Merrie Monarch week events around Hilo town. Its only appearance on the competition stage in the Edith Kanaka‘ole Multi-Purpose Stadium, however, was in 2006. “I really enjoy hula and I want people to understand that hula is not just about who’s the best,” she said. “There are many, many halaus that don’t have the opportunity to come and still hold the traditions of hula.” Kalima will have 14 haumana, or students, dancing, she said, ranging in age from 13 — the youngest allowed under festival rules — to 42. “I actually only have one girl who has experience in the Merrie Monarch. She entered in 2006 with me. Otherwise, these are all new girls; they have never been on the Merrie Monarch stage,” she said. Kalima said her halau’s hula kahiko, or ancient hula, is “A Hamakua Au,” from Nathaniel B. Emerson’s 1909 book “Unwritten Literature of Hawaii.” “We have not been By JOHN BURNETT Hawaii Tribune-Herald See LEGACY Page 21 Kumu hula Iwalani Kalima stands in for a dancer during practice. HOLLYN JOHNSON/ Tribune-Herald
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