Hapa Haole music and hula helped to create the first global Hawaiian music craze. The concept of crafting songs about Hawaii and its culture in the English language, sprinkled with a few key Hawaiian language references, offered new accessibility to non-speakers. But more importantly, as the acculturation of the Hawaiian Islands accelerated, the Hawaiian language was being discouraged, resulting in the first generation of Hawaiian musicians and dancers who were not fluent in their native tongue.
The adaptation of Hapa Haole songs did not harm traditional Hawaiian music, but rather kept the art form alive until the Hawaiian renaissance of the 1970s could revive all aspects of Hawaiian culture.
Harry B. Soria, Jr., founder and host of the vintage Hawaiian music radio show, Territorial Airwaves, for the past 4 decades, conducts this fascinating analysis of the Hapa Haole music history with a riveting power point presentation. John Berger, in Hawaiian Music and Musicians, says of Soria: “…no one did more during the final decades of the 20th century to preserve and perpetuate the musical legacy of the Territorial Era (1900-1959).” Territorial Airwaves received the Na Hoku Hanohano Lifetime Achievement Award on October 15, 2017.
Kilohana Silve, noted Kumu Hula of Halau Hula O Manoa, with students in Paris, France, Rome Italy, Juneau, Alaska, and Manoa, Hawaii, underscores the presentation by dancing hula representative of each era depicted in the workshop. Kilohana has studied hula and with Emma Bishop, Ellen Castillo, George Holokai, and Kimo Alama Keaulana, and chant with Sam ‘Ohu Gon of Halau Mele.
Harry B. and Kilohana have teamed up on this highly entertaining and educational workshop for Kamehameha Schools and the Royal Hawaiian Center in Honolulu, Hawaii, the France-Hawaii Association in Paris, France, the Chigasaki Makana Hula Festival in Chigasaki, Japan, and the Alaskan Folk Festival in Juneau, Alaska.
This workshop can also be expanded to include a hula workshop conducted by Kilohana Silve where she will teach a representative hula to any number of participants.
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