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| 'Kahekili' recounts Hawaiian history in hula | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| By Chris Page, Get Out | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| February 28, 2008 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
But hula is more than the swivel-hipped, grass-skirted stuff of Hawaiian tourism, or what caused Alice to throw out her back on "The Brady Bunch," the Maui choreographer says, as the touring "Kahekili" comes to the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts tonight. Using traditional hula - less flowery than its modern cousin, more percussive, with dancers of both sexes - and a bit of Hawaiian martial arts, her 20-member dance troupe, Pa'u O Hi'iaka, and a narrator tells the story of the last king of Maui, a ruthless, heavily tattooed ruler who conquered neighboring islands during the 18th century. "He was a tough cookie, you know?" Holt-Padilla says. "He was a fierce person to look at, and he was a fierce person in life, but when the battle was over he was good for his people." It's a production that debuted in 1997 and last year played in New York. Now, the show is playing California and Arizona under a special initiative to revive older works. The point, Holt-Padilla says, is to promote Hawaii's early history and keep its culture alive in mainlanders' minds. "It's important that other people see it as a viable art form as well as any other dance form is," Holt-Padilla says. "It's the ballet of Western dance." 'Kahekili’ When: 7:30 p.m. today Where: Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts, 7380 E. Second St. Cost: $38 Information: (480) 994-2787 or www.scottsdaleperformingarts.org Contact Chris Page by email, or phone (480) 898-5656 |
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