Hula is more than
dance steps
Rituals, prayer and fern gathering all
By Kekoa Catherine Enomoto
lead up to a performance
Star-Bulletin
IN the predawn chill of Easter Sunday, a small group of hula dancers huddled at water's edge at Kualoa. The women waded into the ocean shin-deep, chanted toward the lightening East and anointed their faces, hair and skirts with the salty liquid.
Kumu hula Michael Ka'ilipunohu Canopin of Halau Kealakapawa walked into the cool tide. His dancers intoned several chants, and he called for them to wade into the wavelets
"We chanted, 'E Ho Mai,' asking for inspiration," he said. "From there they began their presentation -- everything they're going to do as far as the hula kahiko. Then we concluded with the aloha hula, a prayer and all pau."
The dawn rituals were part of the dancers' pre-Merrie Monarch activity, which included crater-side chanting and mountaintop fern gathering.
By Dennis Oda, Star-Bulletin
Michael Canopin leads the ladies of his Halau Kealakapawa
in practice in the Aliamanu Elementary School cafeteria.
Kealakapawa means the trail of the morning star, referring to the last star on the horizon as the sun rises. So it is traditional for the halau to offer their competition dances at daybreak before any contest."They went into the water for cleansing -- pi kai," Canopin said of his dancers and Miss Aloha Hula contestant, Alexandra Makaonaona Obra, at Kualoa. "They were dressed in their kahiko outfits."
Then, yesterday, the halau members traveled to Halemaumau Crater at the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park on the Big Island, chanted and presented ho'okupu (offerings). They had come almost straight away from Hilo Airport, stopping only to unload luggage at their hotel; then boarded vehicles for Pele's home.
And, 11 days earlier they had spent all day hiking up Mount Kaala in Waianae. They had gathered palapalai, then washed and stripped the ferns in readiness for lei making.
All of these rites laid the groundwork for the dancers' Merrie Monarch performances tonight through Saturday.
Canopin took pride in his students' learning and preparing on many levels, in various directions. "We're not just people who entertain you. There's much more that we know. There's so much that we're involved in," he said, referring to dancers' language study, research at Bishop Museum and the State Archives -- even studying oli at an 'Ilio'ulaokalani Coalition workshop.
"There's much more to hula than choreography and dancing to the music," he said.
The many-faceted foundation mirrors Canopin's own multi-dimensional life. The thirtysomething kumu teaches hula at Iolani School, is the newlywed father of a 7-month-old son, and aspires to earn a bachelor's degree."I just have a desire to do a lot of Pele dances, I always did," said Canopin, who became a kumu in 1990 under the late Palani Kahala -- by way of Kaimuki High School, Columbia School of Broadcasting and work in Seattle. Canopin also studied hula in the Hilton Hawaiian Village halau and under na kumu hula Chinky Mahoe and Robert Cazimero.
Kealakapawa's style is subtle, complex, although not flashy. For example, at Merrie Monarch look for gray kahiko costumery with red underskirts, reflecting the glow of Pele's molten lava.
Canopin said his choreography is a combination of elements from Kahala's bombastic style, Mahoe's manly grace and Cazimero's remarkable timing.
"Whenever Palani (Kahala) would teach the Pele chants, they just excited me; so to share these things with the kids, 'Do this, do that. See the lava moving. Hear the crackling sounds ...' "
Canopin speaks with quiet excitement about the halau's short but explosive kahiko chant: Nani wale o Kilauea, i keahi a ka wahine (So beautiful indeed is Kilauea, because of the fiery display of Pele).
"I like the idea of researching," he said. "You learn so much more, you find more stuff. I could be learning about Pele, then I find something else for next year."
For him and the Kealakapawa dancers, competing is about learning, growing, preparing. Then, the morning star at dawn greets another day of dance and life.
