In Search Of Hula, Part 1

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​In Search Of Hula, Part 1

...Continued from previous post:     
     A few days after Tom's and my arrival in Honolulu some family members would be joining us. Everyone had something they really wanted to do while in Hawaii. Some wanted to go snorkeling. 

   And some had a hankering to play some beach volleyball. ​

​     And we all couldn't wait to hit the great Hale Koa breakfast buffet.

      As for me, I wanted to see some hula.
     I love hula, the beautiful, expressive dance brought to Hawaii a thousand years ago by the first ancient sea voyagers to arrive on the islands and still alive and present today. Every year that we've visited the island I've try to catch a live hula show, and if we happen to be there the week of the Merrie Monarch Festival, a cultural celebration held every spring in Hilo on the Big Island, then I watch the hula competitions at night on TV. ​

​      This year the Merrie Monarch festival happened not to fall on the week of our visit, but this year what I really had my heart set on was seeing the Kilohana Hula show.

     The Kilohana Hula Show was inspired by the iconic Kodak Hula Show, a popular free Waikiki attraction that ran from 1937 to 2002 and was sponsored by the Kodak Camera company.  ​

​     Kodak offered the hula show as an incentive for tourists and locals alike to buy film to take photos of the colorful dancers - which they did, by the millions. According to Kodak officials, only Disneyland and Disney World sold more film than the Kodak Hula Show.
       I heard about this new, re-envisioned version of the old Kodak hula show last year when Tom and I spent a few days in Paradise Bay on the lush windward side of O'ahu (see post from 6/9/2024, https://www.ailantha.com/blog/adventures-in-paradise-bay-part-1-valley-of-the-temples-and-other-wonders). We were told about the new Kilohana Hula Show by Danny, a golden-voiced singer of Hawaiian songs who played and sang every night at Paradise Bay.

     And so on our next trip to Honolulu, seeing the Kilohana Hula Show was number one on my list of things to do, especially when I learned that some of the Merrie Monarch dancers would be among the performers. I also wanted the whole family to see it, as this was a slice of authentic Hawaiian culture.
      Except that I couldn't quite figure out where and when the show took place. I thought that Danny said the show was in Kapiolani Park. I wasn't sure where Kapiolani Park was, but I knew it was somewhere in Waikiki. 
       But as the time for our trip approached and I looked up the Kilohana Hula Show online I found conflicting information. One site said it was located at the Waikiki Shell, another at Kuhio Beach Park. I wasn't sure where those places were, either, but I figured if I knew which place I was looking for I could find it.
        One reputable-looking site called ​experiencekilohana.com gave this information:

      When we arrived at the Hale Koa I asked the worker at the front desk if they knew where the Kilohana Hula Show was, but they didn't know. So I decided I'd do an advance reconnaissance before the family arrived, starting with the Hula Mound at Kuhio Beach, wherever that might be.
      The following morning, Wednesday, April 9, we started out the day with breakfast at the Koko at Kalia,

...the Hale Koa breakfast eatery, ​

​...with a beach view,

​...and a vast breakfast buffet,

...which included a waffle station with all the fixings,

​...and a terrific and terrifically friendly omelette chef.

​      After our glorious breakfast we headed off in search of the Kilohana Hula Show. According to Google Search, Kuhio Beach was a mile away from us and a 20-minute walk. As we wanted to get there in plenty of time we started out at 8:40 am, crossing DeRussy Beach Park,

...to Kalakaua Avenue, which runs parallel to the shoreline all the way to Kuhio Beach.
         Walking along Kalakahua Avenue makes me think of walking through New York City,

​​ The beautiful Bank of Hawaii building

...but with palm trees,

...and with the ocean on one side,

...and mountains on the other.

      We reached Kuhio Beach at about 9:10 am,

...and came upon what looked like a mound, mayhaps the Hula Mound, where folks were sitting, mayhaps waiting for the Hula Show, 

...so we sat there, too.

      By 9:20 am there was no activity around us, which made us wonder if this were not, in fact, the Hula Mound.
      We saw some workers nearby so I walked over and asked them if they, by chance, knew where the Kilohana Hula Show was. 
      One of the friendly workers told me that normally the Hula Show was here where we were, but it hadn't been here all week, though he didn't know why.
        This was perplexing. And troubling. I pulled out my phone to try and find out what happened to the Kilohana Hula Show.
         I had to scroll down a good ways before I came across a local news article from which I gathered that the Hula Show came to a  sudden end the week before. Apparently the original venue of the Kilohana Hula Show was the Waikiki Shell, which is located in Kapiolani Park. But when the Shell went under construction the show moved to the Kuhio Beach Hula mound, which was meant to be a temporary location. However, when the Waikiki Shell reopened the free Kilohana Hula Show was not permitted to return, as the new plan was that the Shell would be used by the Hyatt Regency Waikiki to offer a luau and hula show package with a ticket price of $179 per person.
           The Kilohana Hula Show then opted not to continue at the Hula Mound and its members are looking for other performance space options.
            I was, to say the least, bummed.
           To be continued...

​*"Everyone is welcome" is, I think, approximately what this phrase means.

​Reference:
https://imagesofoldhawaii.com/kodak-hula-show/