Nä Kumu Hula (Hula Masters)

Nä Pua o Nä Loea Hula (Students of Hula Experts)

Many of the küpuna we work with are Kumu Hula who collectively embody commitment to perpetuating our Hawaiian culture. As they are all in their 70’s, 80’s and 90’s, they are men and women who devoted their lives to hula when it was difficult to do so. Trained traditionally but needing to make a living in a changing Hawai`i, they successfully carried on ancient traditions by weaving them into their daily work through their own Hula Studios and entertaining the increasing numbers of visitors and military to the islands. Most importantly though, they have given their lives to teaching hula to hundreds and thousands of us. For that gift, we are forever indebted.

Another group of küpuna that HPS has been privileged to come to know are elders whose lives have involved hula in significant ways. Some were born of hula and music families, shaping their upbringing and grounding their cultural knowledge. Others studied with hula masters no longer with us and have vivid memories of those experiences. Some became accomplished solo dancers and Hollywood film starts, while still others became skilled in unique hula forms, such as comic hula. This group of capable and varied practitioners gives us a more broad perspective of the many ways that hula was taught and shared within families, in small remote communities, between islands, and beyond the island chain. Most notably, all were trained and mentored by late hula greats including `Iolani Luahine, Emma Sharpe, Rose Kuamo`o, Helen Desha Beamer, and Mary Kawena Püku`i, to name just a few.