Kuahu
A light mist hovers over the nahele (forest), the out breath of innumerable trees and plants that call in and capture life-giving rains from above. ʻŌlapa (dancers) breathe heavily, their skin glistening with sweat as the echoes of ancestral movements animate their bodies, passed down through generations. A portal connects the forest and the dancers, strengthening the kinship with our other-than-kanaka relations. That entryway is a kuahu, an elevated space in the hālau where Laka, the primary hula deity, comes to visit when properly enticed. Lovingly layered with kinolau (plants representing various aspects of this deity), the kuahu mimics the greater nahele, Laka’s home where those kinolau grow in wild profusion. During ʻaha (ceremony), it is the leo oli (voice of the chanter) that opens the portal and asks for the same potentials contained in the kinolau to be activated within the dancers. Under the direction of Kumu Hula Kealiʻi Reichel and Henohea Kāne, Hālau Keʻalaokamaile is decades deep in their kuahu practice, which at its core is about focusing intention and honoring the creative forces larger than ourselves. It is a way of constructively bringing forth into the light (Laka) that which is hidden from view in both the subconscious and the fertile potential of the pō (Kapōʻulakīnaʻu). This collaborative design illustrates some of the kinolau that Keʻalaokamaile place on their kuahu, including ʻieʻie, halapepe, lehua, maile, palapalai and lama, the spiritual vessel of Laka. Visit Kealopiko Moʻolelo to learn more about how and why kuahu has become a powerful and permanent part of this hālau hula.
