“Alohi means sparkle, shine and brilliance,” says Kumu Hula Lani Isaacs, the lifelong dancer, teacher and choreographer who conceived the Alohi Polynesian Dance Academy.
“Alohi means sparkle, shine and brilliance,” says Kumu Hula Lani Isaacs, the lifelong dancer, teacher and choreographer who conceived the Alohi Polynesian Dance Academy.
Isaacs opened the doors of her Waimea studio in 2011 as a refuge for authentic hula, Tahitian and Aotearoa (Maori) forms of dance to flourish. With 35 members in the multi-generational cast that will perform “Huaka‘i: A Polynesian Adventure” on Saturday night, Alohi Polynesian Dance Academy has mightily flourished.
The performers will take us on a “huaka’i,” which in halau terms, is a traditional journey with a specific itinerary and set of sites you will see during the adventure. The adventure begins at 7 p.m. Saturday at Waimea’s Kahilu Theatre.
The production takes the viewer on an exhilarating adventure through the Polynesian Triangle, but the voyage has multiple meanings. Isaacs choreographed the concert to reflect the “journey through hula, the ups and downs” of establishing anything of value.
“The students make their own drums, poi balls and costumes,” she said. “When we come into the halau, we leave pilikia (troubles) outside, then ask for permission through the oli to be allowed to come in. We have meals together. We practice hooponopono (right relationships and forgiveness). There’s a lifetime’s worth of value in the halau.”
Halau is a Hawaiian word meaning a school, group or academy, but literally, the word means “a branch from which many leaves grow.” Having danced hula and Polynesian dance all her early life, Isaacs went on a unique path, exploring jazz, hip hop and modern dance. Her professional career as a cultural resource director and certified corporate trainer proceeded alongside her performances as a celebrated dancer.
“There’s so much self-discovery in dance,” she says, describing herself as someone who speaks her mind, a “shoot-from-hip kind of person,” appropriate for someone who has used her virtuoso hips professionally since 1978.
On this “huaka’i,” attendees will hear traditional chant invoking the patron goddess of hula, Laka, and learn of ancient legends from Polynesia in story and song. They will see dances that were considered so fast, focused and sensuous that, even though they were sacred dances, they were banned by missionaries in the 1800s.
Travelling in the vehicle of heart-pumping song and rhythmic drums, event-goers will visit sites in the dance landscape to spark memories and emotions that motivate a dancer’s incomparable discipline. Attendees will thrill to the magic of dazzling precision and go to new places they may have never have seen before.
Like her teacher, Kumu Hula Keala Kukona of Maui, Lani believes the goal of dance is to educate, as well as entertain.
“It’s my calling,” says Isaacs. “I’ve left dance many times but something always happens to bring me back into the circle of dance.”
“What I really want is for my dancers to learn and excel through hula. I want them to experience what I did. Hula is such a wonderful thing. It helps the individual.”
Tickets range in price from $15 to $37 and can be purchased online at www.kahilutheatre.org or by calling the Waimea theater at 885-6868.
For more information on the academy, visit www.alohidanceacademy.com.
Contact the writer at marya.mann@gmail.com
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