“My mom had small feet but she left me some really big shoes to fill.”
“My mom had small feet but she left me some really big shoes to fill.”
That observation by kumu hula Keolalaulani Dalire sums up one of the most compelling storylines entering this year’s Merrie Monarch Festival hula competition.
The youngest daughter of beloved kumu hula Aloha Dalire assumed the helm of Keolalaulani Halau ‘Olapa O Laka following her mother’s unexpected death Aug. 6. The eighth-generation kumu is bringing the wahine of the legendary Kaneohe, Oahu, halau to the stage where her mother’s — and her own — legacies were cast.
Before she became kumu hula of the halau started in 1963 by her mother Mary Keolalaulani McCabe Wong, Aloha Dalire — who was still Aloha Wong — was the Merrie Monarch’s first Miss Hula 1971. The title was changed to Miss Aloha Hula before Dalire’s three daughters, Kapualokeokalaniakea, Kau‘imaiokalaiakea and Keolalaulani earned their recognition, in 1991, 1992 and 1999, respectively.
Although Keola Dalire has long been involved in the day-to-day operations of the halau, she described being the halau’s sole kumu as “scary.”
“It is a little overwhelming,” she said.
“Although I did actually do a lot of the choreography and teaching for the halau — I kind of ran the halau here in Kaneohe while my mother was alive — I had that security blanket. I could always fall back on her. And this time, it’s just me.”
As much as anyone, Aloha Dalire embodied the Merrie Monarch’s vaunted hula competition. As a dancer and kumu, she participated in all but two Merrie Monarchs since 1971. Her halau often won or placed in the women’s kahiko and ‘auana categories, with her women winning the ‘auana at the festival’s golden anniversary in 2013.
Keola Dalire said all the halau’s performances this year “are connected in some sort of manner, way shape or form.”
The group ‘auana, she said, is “E ‘Ike I Ka Nani A‘o Ha‘ena.”
“It was a song that was written not about the place, but the person,” Dalire said. “She was a very dear companion of Hopoe. My mother chose this song to be done this year, and as difficult as it was to do it, I chose to fulfill her wishes. It talks about passing the torch and how Hopoe and Ha‘ena were actually Hi‘iaka’s mentors in the art of hula.
“It talks about passing the torch from kumu to dancer as my mother did at my ‘uniki in 2008. She’s really done it now, handing over the reins to me the only way she knew I would take them.”
The kahiko mele will be “Maika‘i Maunawili,” in honor of Queen Lili‘uokalani.
“It’s a song written for Maunawili Ranch, where Lili‘u would frequent,” Dalire explained. “The Queen’s Bath is there, as well. The ranch is where Lili‘u is known to have written many of her famed mele, including ‘Aloha ‘Oe.’ It relates to my ‘auana, because many of the dancers who have come back are hula sisters of mine. We’ve grown up together through the Queen Lili‘uokalani Keiki Hula Competition. And now, they’re my haumana; they’re my students.
“We’re honoring Lili‘u because she’s really the one who lit the torch by getting us all together and dancing together and continuing this friendship throughout the years.”
Keolalaulani Halau ‘Olapa O Laka has a tradition of strong Miss Aloha Hula candidates. Kili Lai, Aloha Dalire’s granddaughter and Keola Dalire’s niece, was runner-up last year. Only 20, the daughter of kumu hula Kapua Dalire-Moe could again vie for hula’s most prestigious solo title, but that won’t happen this year. The halau has entered Tiana Kehaulani Arrocena Soares, who, according to Keola Dalire, has been with the halau since age 3.
“She’s actually one of my niece Kili’s best friends,” Dalire said. “And my mom is like a tutu to her. So she’s like my hanai daughter, in a sense. She was my mother’s hanai granddaughter. She would call my mom ‘tutu’ and she’s been around to immerse her life in hula the way my mom’s daughters have, in the same way I have. My mother intended for her to run this year, and with this being my first year, it was a bit overwhelming, but I wasn’t going to let my mother’s unfinished business go unfinished. I was going to complete what she had planned and leave it up to her to guide us in the right direction.”
As a tradition-driven art form, hula often looks to the past, sometimes the ancient past, for inspiration. For Soares’ solo performances, the halau will revisit the more recent past, albeit, to an event that occurred before the dancer was born.
“In 1986, there was a great blackout during the Merrie Monarch and that goes into my soloist’s performance,” Dalire said.
“It was the year they did ‘He Inoa No Hina’ (‘Three Wind Storms of Hina’) and my mother also did ‘He Mele No Hina.’ Both mele are what my soloist is going to do for her kahiko.”
Keolalaulani Halau ‘Olapa O Laka won the wahine kahiko and overall titles that year. Aloha Dalire told the Tribune-Herald in 2013 that the feeling inside the stadium, which went dark for 40 minutes after lightning struck an electrical transformer, was “really awesome … like the gods were watching us.”
The island of Molokai also will figure prominently in Soares’ dances, Keola Dalire said.
“Molokai meant a lot to my mother, its spirituality,” she said.
“It possesses a lot of mana and it has a connection to hula. My soloist has never gone to Molokai. It’s not often you can give somebody a first, especially a hula dancer who’s traveled halfway around the world. But my mother’s first experience on Molokai was overwhelming, and I feel she would have wanted my soloist, Tiana, to experience that. So I chose to do something that could overlap that bridge between the generations and let Tiana have that first experience. During spring break, we’re going to Molokai and she’s going to be able to go to every place that’s mentioned in her ‘auana and kahiko.”
The Dalire legacy also will be represented by Kapua Dalire-Moe, who is bringing her Halau Ka Liko Pua O Kalaniakea wahine. The youngest Dalire sister noted that questions about competing with her sister are similar to those posed to Dalire-Moe about competing with their mother.
“It’s a lot of pressure, and it’s not pressure to do better than my sister or that we’re competing with each other. It’s to make my mother proud,” she said.
“It’s still to make my mother proud, but now that my mother has passed, it’s to make my sister proud. She is my older sister and I have the utmost respect for her. And it’s for her to see that I’m trying to carry on what our mother has taught me, just as she’s trying to carry on what our mother has taught her.”