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Fran Guidry
Ha`aha`a
USA
1579 Posts |
 Posted - 09/18/2006 : 05:47:31 AM
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The title is a little bit of dark humor if you're from the SF Bay Area, where Rossmoor is a pioneering "senior community" (apologies to any Rossmoor residents reading this, bu I'm over 60 myself so I feel entitled to make fogey jokes). But the Na Mamo No`eau show last night was definitely no joke!! Kumu Rick Smith remembers seeing the original Hawai`i Calls radio show when he was a kid, so he had the idea to recreate the experience for this year's Rossmoor Lu`au.
I must admit that I was skeptical - in my mind the old show exemplified the less attractive aspects of the territorial era. But Rick saw and recreated the positive side: the audience involvement, the glamor, and the pure joy of performance. The result was startlingly good. I willingly suspended disbelief along with the rapt audience, while Rick, as radio show producer/director, brought out his "acts." The voice of Webley Edwards wafted through the sound system between most numbers, accompanied by the sound of Waikiki surf.
The choreography was the strong point of the show for me, but the dancers executed Rick's ideas really beautifully and the costuming worked very well too. The opening number featured his new troupe of kane dancers between two groups of wahine - a medley of songs and chant pulled the focus from one group to another and really built the excitement level from the very beginning. One of my favorite songs is "No Ke Ano Ahiahi" and they presented a version with a melody different from the one we hear today. We had a lovely keiki number, a sassy trio of "Hilo Hattie"s, and a kupuna group dancing "Holoholo Ka`a." The mothers and daughters in the halau did a very enjoyable "teach me to hula" segment complete with rowdy sailors trying to run off with the daughters. The sold out audience just busted up!
Na Mamo also has a Tahitian program, led by Hope Keung, and they were the main focus of the second half of the show. Some serious log pounding, and plenty farapu going on, once again with beautiful costumes and very very effective choreography.
They closed with "Aloha `Oe" and the audience spontaneously stood and swayed, it was obviously as special for them as it was for friends and family of the halau. After the show Rick announced that they will be doing the show again in the spring, this time in a real theater. I can't wait!
Oh, and we heard from a Rossmoor employee that there was another hula event at a different clubhouse that night. Any taropatchers part of that? Sil??
Fran
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