HILO >> What people see on the Merrie Monarch Festival stage is but a fraction of the year-round work, struggles and heartbeat of a halau.
Some halau begin planning for the next Merrie Monarch, the world’s most prestigious hula competition, almost right after they finish the last one. There are chants and songs to research and/or write, costumes and lei and adornments to design and test and build, painstaking fact sheets for the kumu hula to construct, travel logistics to plan, fundraising events to defray the thousands of dollars of out-of-pocket costs for each dancer, and much more.
Many halau members also are duty-bound to their jobs, families and high school or college homework and grades. But as the festival draws near, there are choreography and Hawaiian language to meticulously perfect through practice, practice, practice, ramping up to daily as the competition draws close. They rehearse smiling despite achy muscles and wraps on their knees.
But the pain and struggles fall away when they finally come to the hallowed stage of Edith Kanaka‘ole Multi- Purpose Stadium in Hilo.
Or at least making it all look effortless is a goal.
At 3 p.m. Wednesday, the day before the three-night onslaught of competition performances was to kick off, it was Halau Ka Lei Mokihana o Leina‘ala’s turn for rehearsal inside the still closed, mostly empty stadium, and the halau’s Miss Aloha Hula contestant, Breeze Ann Kalehuaonalani Vidinha Pavao, showed zero stress in her radiant expressions and flowing movement as she ran her numbers.
If she had been feeling any extra pressure, she could be forgiven, especially since her halau in 2022 swept both women’s first-place hula awards, for kahiko (ancient) and auana (modern) hula, and was named overall winner. Her kumu hula, Leina‘ala Pavao Jardin, happens to be her mother.
But both women insisted they felt unburdened, that they had not come with again winning awards as their objective.
Asked what kind of instructions she’d given her charges this year after 2022’s massive sweep, Jardin said, “At the end of the day, it comes to just enjoying, you know? … Yes, you enjoy the hula part, the execution of it — but enjoy the story. The whole thing, all that it encompasses. When you dance with humility but yet with pride, when you dance with graciousness yet with some, you know, outward kolohe (mischief) — all of it.”
Pavao added, “Like my mom always says, we don’t change anything. Last year we were just blessed, you know; God just granted us with the highest accolades, which was really nice. But this year we’re just coming back and telling our story, same thing we did last year.”
The quiet reflections and moments that make an ohana of a halau and tie together generations also often go unseen by the casual audience. As Pavao on Wednesday practiced a chant composed by her great-great-grandfather Moses W. Keale, with her hula sisters sitting at the foot of the stage as her only audience, many wept happy tears for her. Her kumu beamed, swaying slightly in her chair, mirroring her daughter’s movements.
“I’m just so proud of her,” Jardin said. “When I look at her onstage, I see that she is carrying all of her family from Niihau with her.”
MERRIE MONARCH FESTIVAL
Continues through Saturday in Hilo
HULA COMPETITION
Edith Kanaka‘ole Multi-Purpose Stadium, 6 p.m. (sold out)
>> Today: group hula kahiko (ancient style)
>> Saturday: group hula auana (modern style) and awards
OTHER MAJOR EVENTS
>> Merrie Monarch Hawaiian Arts and Crafts Fair, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. today, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Afook-Chinen Civic Auditorium and Butler Buildings; free admission
>> Royal Parade, 10:30 a.m. Saturday, downtown Hilo
The hula competition will be broadcast on KFVE and livestreamed at hawaiinewsnow.com/merriemonarch. Find Honolulu Star-Advertiser coverage at staradvertiser.com/merrie-monarch. For more information on the Merrie Monarch Festival, visit merriemonarch.com.
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Editor’s note: Esme M. Infante is a student of Halau Na Mamo o Pu‘uanahulu, one of the halau competing at the Merrie Monarch Festival.
