[soft music] [soft music continues] [waves crashing] [soft music] [soft music continues] [water trickling] [soft music continues] - [Honor] Ooh!

Ah!

[person chuckles] - I like dancing hula 'cause it's a part of my culture and who I am.

And I wanna be like my brother.

I wanna be just like him.

[soft music continues] [soft music continues] [soft music continues] [no audio] [traffic rumbling] [brakes squeak] - Hi, Booski!

- Hi, Dad.

- Haven, say, "Hi, Brother."

You excited to see her?

- Yeah.

- She missed you today.

[parent laughs] - Haven!

Haven?

When we get home can I hug you?

- No!

[parent laughs] - No?

Why?

- I watching video.

- Oh!

- She's watching a video.

- Okay.

- Watching.

- Come on.

Come!

Train, train, choo-choo train.

Five, four, three, two, one, money!

Okay, let's go!

- Money?

Ho, expensive, huh, the ride?

- Say, "Bye-bye."

- Bye-bye.

[Hawaiian music] [singing in Hawaiian] [person speaks in Hawaiian] [Hawaiian music] - I used to dance hula with my brother, but not anymore.

He went to the older class, the kane class.

And now I'm in the keiki class.

- Hey!

- Hee-hee!

[group applauds] - Hanalei started dancing when he was six years old and Honor was two then.

He loved watching his brother dance, like really loved it.

And he asked every day that Hanalei had practice and he came down, he's like, "Mom, I wanna dance hula."

And for your 2-1/2-year-old to tell you that is kinda like, "Oh, really?"

- [Kumu Hula] Evan, stay with the beat.

One, two three.

- We asked the kumus, "We know he's a little bit younger, like, is there any way when he turns three, like, if he could dance hula?"

And Kumu right away was like, "If your keiki wants to dance we'll take them."

[Kumu speaks indistinctly] - When we put tapes on the ground you have your own square and we have to duck walk.

And after that, we have to practice our 'auana and our kahiko for keiki hula.

[soft music] This is a █uwehe.

Right, left.

Right, left.

[soft music] [indistinct] you have to bend your knee a lot.

Sometimes, we have to put our knees to our ankles, like this.

Oh, [laughs].

[soft music] After we do that like about two minutes we do a k█holo.

Bend your knees 12 inches, 6 inches.

And after, all the way down and back up like 10 times.

That's the hardest thing for hula.

Makes me feel like happy and makes me feel back in the day it was always like this.

[group murmuring] [group singing in Hawaiian] [group chanting in Hawaiian] - Hula is not just like dancing, you know?

Hula is like, basically life.

[Kumus chanting in Hawaiian] They're chants.

Not only that we tell stories, but we also learn our language.

[Kumus chanting in Hawaiian] [group chanting in Hawaiian] So it's very powerful because I'm stepping in the feet of my ancestors and they have carried on this tradition for a while.

[group chanting in Hawaiian] What I heard from my grandfathers, back in the day all of that was like prohibited.

So, like, basically, they would get beaten up for doing any cultural practices or speaking the language.

[group chanting in Hawaiian] - We danced about Gods, we danced for Gods, and Goddesses.

We danced about our akua.

WHat we call nature, natural phenomenons, we call them akua.

When the Christian missionaries would come here felt that these practices were not appropriate according to their standards and they banned everything.

[group chanting in Hawaiian] We lost so much of the rituals, we lost many of our history.

- Our culture could've died instantly, right?

But there was that some minimum people that practiced it on the side and taught it to the next generation, so I'm grateful for those people that did that.

[Kumu speaks indistinctly] [group murmuring] [children singing in Hawaiian] - It's very important to know Hawaiian culture because before, in the olden days, with our tutus and grandpas they have to talk in English.

Like, they couldn't talk in Hawaiian.

Now, we can, so I'm so lucky to be in Hawaiian school and dance hula.

[group singing in Hawaiian] It's a culture that should keep on spreading around.

[teacher speaks in Hawaiian] [child hums] [teacher speaks in Hawaiian] [children speak in Hawaiian] [teacher speaks in Hawaiian] [children speak in Hawaiian] It was hard at first.

And after like two years I started to speak more Hawaiian.

[children speak indistinctly] [Honor speaks in Hawaiian] [Hawaiian music] - Throw the head back.

Throw the head back.

Very good, Taisha.

[Hawaiian music] - It's okay?

- Yeah.

Because we're gonna be wearing our jeans, right?

- [Dancer] Yeah.

- One, two, three, four, and just walk down the steps.

- We've been practicing these past four months for Merrie Monarch.

- Boys, get ready.

- For our culture, it is like the Olympics of hula.

- Merrie Monarch is the biggest competition in mainstream hula.

[crowd cheers] The best of the best enter Merrie Monarch.

But more than that, that representation of the practice.

- Really hard to get chosen for Merrie Monarch.

You have to meet a lot of requirements, practice hard, train hard every single week.

If you were to get picked by your kumu it's very honorable because that means your kumu has a vision.

They can see you dancing in his line.

[Hawaiian music] - [Kumu Hula] Lift the knee.

Lift the knee.

[Hawaiian music continues] [Hawaiian music continues] - My kumu is probably, basically, like my ohana too.

They teach me a lot of valuable lessons and, like, just stay grounded to know what's right and wrong.

I'm very grateful to have them.

[Hawaiian music continues] Hey!

[speaks Hawaiian] Ooh, you gotta say that louder than that 'cause if that place goes on you go [speaks Hawaiian] nobody's gonna hear you.

- Okay, good practice.

- Good practice.

[group applauds and cheers] [group laughs] [Honor hums] - Every day, my brother came home, he was tired.

After school, he has hula, so I barely seen him.

- What's up, rebel?

Hanalei is a good brother to me a lot.

He's very loving.

I love him so much.

- Can I make that?

[person speaks indistinctly] - Did I make it?

- Okay.

Okay.

Yeah, you made that.

What'd you do?

- I turned around.

- You turned around?

- Yeah.

- Actually- - Mm-hmm.

- Okay, look.

- [laughs] Ah-ha, air ball!

- This guy.

- Are you ready, Haven?

Let's go.

[Haven sings in Hawaiian] [group sings in Hawaiian] [Haven sings in Hawaiian] [group singing in Hawaiian] [Haven sings in Hawaiian] [group singing in Hawaiian] [Haven sings in Hawaiian] [group singing in Hawaiian] [Haven sings in Hawaiian] [group singing in Hawaiian] [Haven sings in Hawaiian] [group singing in Hawaiian] - [speaks in Hawaiian] Mahalo, Haven.

[group speaks in Hawaiian] - [Parent] Good job, Haven.

Thank you.

- Good job, baby.

[group laughs] [soft music] [airplane roars] - [Chy] We're here now in Hilo because Hanalei is dancing in Merrie Monarch.

- Everyone's gonna watch it.

At the stadium there's about like 5,000 to like 8,000 people that's gonna be watching in there.

Plus, on television, so it's probably be like a lot actually.

[soft music] - I only seen it on the TV.

I'm so proud of him.

The last one he made it this far to dance Merrie Monarch.

[traffic rumbling] [group murmuring] - Kane, look for your spots.

Walk around the stage so that you kinda get your bearings.

And then, we'll run right through.

Okay, so let's line up, let's circle up.

- I'm so nervous.

- Don't be nervous 'cause if you're nervous you're gonna dance nervous.

Like, if you're confident, you're gonna dance confident.

Did you ever watch Merrie Monarch?

- I've never been to the show.

- I know.

Me neither.

- Okay, boys.

Five, six, seven, and [speaks Hawaiian].

Step, step, back to your spot.

And bum, bum.

[group chants in Hawaiian] Hands off of your body!

Arms off of your body!

Stand strong!

Oh my gosh.

- Keep going, keep going, keep going.

I'm trying not to tell, you guys.

I'm trying not to yell.

Okay.

I'm always proud of them.

I'm always proud of them.

I am also very strict.

And that is because I expect excellence.

300% excellence.

The integrity of my culture depends on the excellence in which we execute our culture and practice our culture.

You shouldn't be bending your knees.

You should not be bending your knee!

We don't have the option to fail.

When your culture and your cultural practices are threatened or have been devastated you don't have the option to fail.

- You become your student's connection to Hawaiian culture and it's a great responsibility.

The payoff is definitely seeing them understand who they are as a Hawaiian, to have the connection to this land, and hula allows that.

It allows you to connect to the place that we are.

[soft music] [birds chirping] - We're gonna go in right over here do our oli kahea.

When the forest allows us to go in, we'll go in, spread out, but make sure that we're in eyesight of each other.

But before we inside, we need you folks to clean off stuff that may have been on your feet.

Come.

Come, come, come.

[group chanting in Hawaiian] - When we go to the mountains to gather our stuff, first we have to always chant before we enter the safe space because we wanna make sure that we're asking for permission and we're safe while we're collecting these items.

[group chanting in Hawaiian] [birds chirping] - This is palai.

This.

Now, there█s plenty over here.

But we're not gonna pick over here.

We're gonna go deep into the forest and pick into the forest.

We don't want to plunder and just take from just one area.

The main thing is that we're treating the forest with dignity and respect and care.

[soft music] [birds chirping] These are all our plants that is necessarily for hula.

And not just to adorn ourself for inspiration, but life of hula and not just the aesthetic usage.

[birds chirping] [soft music] The plants become activated again when they're made into lei and used as inspiration.

And they regenerate into energy for hula.

[soft music] [soft music continues] [group chattering] [group chattering] - We're making leis for the girls' performance.

- There's so much behind the scenes.

The halau, the kumus, the families.

A lot of sacrificing, a lot of so much time.

- Yeah, more flowers [indistinct].

- But then we learn about each other and the kids and [laughs] ... - Mm-hmm.

[group chattering] [group chattering] [group chattering] [group chanting in Hawaiian] [group chanting in Hawaiian] - I saw you guys just relaxing.

This is not Ho█okipa.

Okay, get off the stage.

[soft music] - Kumu is a little bit nervous for us.

Didn't know if he even wanted to have us on the stage, right?

[soft music] But we had a couple of talks.

Let's rock it tonight, guys.

- Yeah, [indistinct].

- And bounce back.

Just bring it tonight.

We came this far, you know?

[dancer speaks indistinctly] [soft music] - So for me, Merrie Monarch is much more than just a competition.

We, all of us, all these halau that are participating in the Merrie Monarch Festival, we are here to make Hawaiian people and the Hawaiian culture proud and to make the hula community and hula proud.

[upbeat music] [upbeat music continues] [group chanting in Hawaiian] [upbeat music] [upbeat music continues] [upbeat music continues] [upbeat music continues] [upbeat music continues] [audience cheers] - [Announcer] Ladies and gentlemen, under direction of Na Kumu Hula, Robert Ke'ano Ka'upu IV and Lono Padilla.

Welcome, Halau Hi'iakainamakalehua.

[Hawaiian music] [singing in Hawaiian] [singing in Hawaiian] [singing in Hawaiian] [singing in Hawaiian] - We were doing the [indistinct] not only for the people that are watching, but for our ancestors.

[singing in Hawaiian] - It's actually surreal 'cause it's something I've always watched on TV, we've always heard about, but to actually be here, have my kid on the stage, and then have my other child, right?

Pretty surreal.

[singing in Hawaiian] - I felt very proud of him because he and all of hula brothers put in hard work.

[singing in Hawaiian] [audience cheers and applauds] [audience cheers] [soft music] - They achieved what our grandparents couldn't growing up.

They are continuing to carry on the culture and it is the best thing ever.

[soft music] - Amazing.

Gentlemen, that was amazing!

- So much fun.

- Yeah.

- [Announcer] First place with 619 points ... [soft music] [group chattering] Robert Keano.

[group cheers and applauds] [group cheers and applauds] [person screams excitedly] - Now that our kumu has passed hula down to us, our generation can pass it on to the future.

And make sure that they keep passing it on and passing it on.

[soft music] [soft Hawaiian slack key music] [soft Hawaiian slack key music] [air whooshes] [soft music] [soft music continues] [triumphant musical flourish]