“Hula is connected to the culture. As a hula teacher, I am nothing without my culture. I am nothing without the connection in my stories to the land, to the sea and to the sky,” states Michael Pilli Pang.

Michael is a Kuma Hula which, roughly translated, means “source of dance”. He is the founder of Hālau Hula Ka No’ Eau, located in the foothills of Manoa Valley on Oahu. His Hālau is a group of multi-generational dancers, from 5 to 90 years old, that readily see themselves as family learning and carrying on the art of Hula dancing.

At the age of 8, Michael was introduced to Hula by a teacher at his school. “We went down to the library, and as we walked past some coconut trees, you can see it through the glass doors. A hula class was being taught. That was my first introduction to hula and I fell in love with dance.”

Even though they did not let him dance right away, sitting in the back of the class he met someone who would change his life forever. Seated beside Michael at those classes was Maiki Aiu Lake, the mother of Hawaiian Renaissance on the 1970’s. She opened the doors to him and many others to a very different way of teaching.

“She tried to create things that you could relate to and simulate in addition to learning in class,” Michael recalled. “I also was privileged that I would spend time with her at her house. She would ask me ‘You know why we're planting this plant’ and then she would explain how the plant grew and to what age, when the flowers would come, when we would pick the flowers and what was the plants purpose.”

Michael believes he was drawn to Hula given his curiosity in knowing the “hidden meaning behind a story. It was natural. If there was a flower Lei. Well, that's a child around your neck, it's a sweetheart around your neck. It was easy for me to understand the connection.”

His journey to become a Kumu Hula was also helped by another mentor, Mae Kamamalu Klein the koakuma, or sister, to Auntie Maiki. She help encourage Michael to finish his training.

“I was 23 years and had no intention of doing any of that just yet,” Michael said. “I didn't even start enjoying life. I just got another car. I didn’t even have my first job. But she told me that Auntie Maiki said that I had to satisfy my kumu. This is what she wanted.”

So Michael moved to the island of Hawaii, the big island, and started a Senior Center which helped him build his Hālau. “I met wonderful people and that's when I started to understand that if I'm going to create a Hālau it has to be good enough for my students. All I wanted to do was build a great Hālau and to enjoy the company of my hula brothers and sisters.” Michael said.

When the school was up and running, Michael started participating in competitions with his Hālau. He was surprised and honoured when people started saying “those are Autie Maiki dancers, where did they come from?”

“I thought this a really big compliment that if my dances look like my teachers’ then I did something right,” Michael said with a big smile. And although competition was very popular and a great way to build your school, Michael and his dancers decided they didn’t want to do competitions.

“We don't want to be dancing five months a year with the same dance. We wanted something better. So we started to do a cross-cultural exchange with Mary Day’s Ballet Group from Washington. D.C.,” Michael recalled fondly. And with this connection, another door opened when they were asked to tour with Mary Day’s school.

“We created a performing company called Hawaii Arts Ensemble,” Michael said, “that we took on the road from 1992 to 2002 for 10 years traveling's 4 to 8 weeks a year from Hawaii to the United States, Asia and many other places. It was fabulous.”

This experience instilled in Michael the need to be better at his art. He went to University of Hawaii for a Master in Fine Arts and found this new challenge “opened doors for me in the sense that it helped me learn how to communicate to non-dancers. It was easy for me to tell my hula dancers what to do and how to do it because they were in tune with the inside stories. It was difficult for me to explain outside the story.”

Michael was soon recognized by the community as an important teacher of Hawaiian culture. Mayor Mufi Hannemann asked Michael if he would serve as the Culture and Arts Director for the City and County of Honolulu.

Michael remembers being asked by the Mayor “if I give you this job, what are you going to do with your Hālau?” Michael was clear in his answer. “I'm not giving up my Hālau. I would never give up my Hālau for you.” The Mayor responded “that's the answer. I want a working artist to take this place.”

This allowed Michael to really expand his Hālau. “We own our space which is an art residency. We have outreach programs and over 30 Kumu Hulas out in the community teaching all the way from New York City to Japan. It has created such a great opportunity for me.”

As Michael and the dancers prepare for class, he provides us with his final insight. “We see nature as people, as humans. The mountain is a person. Our goddess Pele creates a lava flow which is our land. Wakea is our Sky Father and Papa the Earth Mother. The connection is there. I would never disrespect my biological mother. Why would I do this to my Earth Mother? I would never swear at my father. Why would I do that to the heavens? You know, why would I damage that? So it creates this connection.”