Seven months before she swayed gracefully through the steps of “Kawaipunahele” at the Hawaii Kupuna Hula Festival, Kepi Davis could not move her body.
Seven months before she swayed gracefully through the steps of “Kawaipunahele” at the Hawaii Kupuna Hula Festival, Kepi Davis could not move her body.
The Ocean View resident feels blessed she was practicing with her halau, Hannah’s Makana Ohana, that day in February when she felt herself sink through the floor. Otherwise she would have been alone.
In the days she spent recovering from a brain stem stroke, Davis, 61, tried to remember how to move. She was surprised to find that even when she couldn’t recall how to eat, add or subtract, music kindled memories of hula.
Davis started her therapy from a sitting position, doing small hula movements with her hands, aided by the halau’s alakai Marla Hubbard. Her kumu Hannah Uribes and Hubbard took care of her property and pets, and members of her halau drove her to hula and physical therapy.
To be on stage at the Sheraton Kona Resort & Spa at Keauhou Bay on Thursday was a triumph in itself. And Davis, in a saffron dress with plumeria lei, was all smiles.
“It takes the spirit inside me and puts it to good use,” Davis said. “My doctor has told me that in seven and a half months, we’ve done what takes two years.”
The shared facing of life’s challenges is not new to the hula school’s 18 participants, aged 57 to 78. In the past, two members of the halau came down with cancer. Their sisters in hula drove them to chemotherapy. They are both now cancer survivors.
Ginger Sizemore, 70, broke her leg in two places last November. She hadn’t been sure she’d be able to perform this week. Thursday, she said that many kupuna thank God just to be able to get up and dance.
“We do what we do as a gift to each other and the community,” Uribes said.
The themes of sisterhood and brotherhood surfaced repeatedly Wednesday and Thursday, the 32nd straight year the friendly and quite noncompetitive competition has been held for hula performers 55 and older.
“It’s really about the camaraderie of all the friends being together,” said Buzzy Histo, kumu at Kalikokalehua Hula Studio in Waimea. “It’s a nice way to get together and visit and make new friends.”
This year’s theme of places and stories of Oahu drew strong interest, said Kelly Hudik, program director with Hawaii County Department of Parks and Recreation, Elderly Recreation Services, which puts on the event with the help of numerous sponsors. Twenty-six halau with 500 performers came from Japan, Okinawa, California and the Hawaiian Islands. Eight of the schools were participating for the first time.
“This year, we had an overwhelming response from the halau,” Hudik said. “we had to start wait-listing people in March. That’s almost unheard of.”
Participation from Japan has been strong, Hudik said, and demand for tickets was also high this year, with the resort convention center’s 980 seats selling out in July, a month earlier than usual.
“A lot of kupuna wait every year for this because they can watch other kupuna dance and they can remember how they used to dance,” Uribes said. “Many have been inspired to join kupuna halau.”
Performing “Pauoa Ka Liko Ka Lehua,” seven wahine of Kalikokalehua Hula Studio drew roars of appreciation from the audience. A spark from the performers seemed to suddenly awaken the room as the wahine demonstrated an uncanny knack of connecting to the audience with their eyes, expressions and movements. With more than 30 performances still to go, the halau would later be announced the winner of the wahine group competition and sweep other awards as well.
“We love the music and the songs,” dancer Sherry Pettus explained during intermission. “It’s always from the heart.”
Uribes believes the exercise, the precise coordination of feet, hands and facial expressions, sharpens the mind and tones the body, retarding the effects of aging. She is certain that hula even heals the brain and nerves.
“I tell them, hula will wake up the part of your brain that’s been sleeping,” Uribes said.
Participants come to class stiff-jointed, some walking with canes. But they are soon picking up the pace, breaking a sweat, and loving it.
“When the music starts, we’re all up,” Hubbard said. “We’re swinging our hips and moving our arms.”