Do It: Huliau, Celebrate the Arts, Candi Shell, Friendship Jam

SATURDAY

>> Show explores music of hula

When we watch hula, we’re usually mesmerized by the beautiful movements of dancers. Kumu hula Michael Pili Pang would like you to think about the music that inspires all that and who wrote it.

“We decided to look at composers who wrote music that became famous for hula,” said Pang, whose Halau Hula Ka No‘eau will perform at his annual Huliau show at Hawaii Theatre on Saturday.

The show will feature songs used to teach hula, hapa haole music, and works composed for Pele, goddess of fire and volcanoes, from the pre-contact era.

“Composers at that time didn’t own the compositions. They actually looked at the compositions as when you write something, it’s the person who you honor. That’s who owns it,” Pang said.

Examples of the music’s evolution are included, going from songs honoring gods and royalty to songs of romance and everyday life in the mid-1800s. “Luckily, most of the traditional Hawaiian music written in the mid-1800s was on the 4/4 (time signature), which allowed us to dance very simply,” Pang said. “It was very different than waltzes, which were also written in the 1800s but which you can’t really dance hula to.”

The songwriting collaboration of Mary Kawena Pukui, a major figure in Hawaiian poetry and literature, and Maddy Lam, a classically trained composer, is one of the highlights. “Their poetry had nuances that created gestural movements that allowed us to dance, that were very descriptive for us to use in hula,” Pang said.

>> Exercise drawing skills at Chinatown street fair

Grab a pen, pencil or brush and come to Chinatown for the Celebrate the Arts Chinatown Street Fair on Saturday.

Would-be artists are invited to come to the corner of Bethel and Pauahi streets, where local artists will provide on-the-spot feedback, with musical accompaniment by Hawaiian group Maikapuuwai, folk band Hook + Line and rock group Little Secret.

“We’re going to have about 40 artists, and we’re encouraging people to draw or sketch to the music,” said Sandra Pohl of event sponsor Creative Arts Hawaii. “We’re encouraging people to bring their sketchpads or easels so they can paint or draw, and if they don’t bring them, we’ll supply them, until the supplies last.”

If you need a Halloween costume, check out The ARTS at Marks Garage. The art space will be selling costumes from the Hawaii Shakespeare Festival and other theaters. The facility will also host a beading workshop by 97-year-old artist Esther Nowell and a Friends of the Library book sale. Discounts will be available at several galleries and boutiques upon request.

The fair is a follow-up to the recent cleanup and repainting of a decommissioned pump house at Sun Yat-Sen Park and is a precursor to a three-month planned rehabilitation of the park scheduled to begin Monday. “We think art transforms neighborhoods and people’s lives,” Pohl said.

SUNDAY

>> Song spoofs score laughs for drag queen Candi Shell at Hula’s

If you’re looking for one of the more intriguing drag acts in town, check out Candi Shell, a singing drag queen who specializes in hilarious song spoofs, at Hula’s Bar & Lei Stand on Sunday.

Many drag queens sing popular songs, or lip-sync them, while they dance and pose, but Shell is one of the few that composes her own songs. One of her funnier bits is her send-up of the song “Part of Your World” from Disney’s “The Little Mermaid.” Called “Under the Knife,” it has lyrics like: “I’ve had Botox and lipo aplenty. I’ve had microdermabrasions galore. Collagen injections? I’ve had 20, but who cares? No big deal. I want more.”

Shell is the alter ego of Dan Paul Roberts, an artist, singer-songwriter and actor originally from Texas. Several years ago, Roberts went drag for Halloween — after having dropped LSD — and wound up creating a character that would propel him to fame. Since then, Shell has appeared on the TV show “Ugly Betty,” and Roberts’ band She-Dick opened for the late Joan Rivers.

Now a resident of Hawaii, Shell appears every third Sunday of the month at Hula’s, hosting the variety show Mimosas & Mary’s.

WEDNESDAY

>> Actress Hu to host Friendship Jam

Actress Kelly Hu, the 1985 Miss Teen Hawaii whose talents and ambition have led to a Marvel-ous career – as Lady Deathstrike in “X Men 2” – returns to town as the celebrity host at the sixth annual Best Buddies Friendship Jam on Wednesday.

Hu’s first television role was 30 years ago on “Growing Pains.” She considers it a stroke of luck that she got the role. “I had just gotten into SAG (Screen Actors Guild), because SAG Hawaii was trying to get more members,” she said in a phone call. “I had done a bunch of commercials, so I was able to get in that way and I was able to get the audition.”

Hu ran with the opportunity, moving to Los Angeles at age 18, taking out a full-page ad in Variety magazine, and sending agents a resume full of fake acting jobs to fool them into thinking she was an experienced actress. “I was so cocky back then, I said I was ‘now available for West Coast representation,’ ” she said with a laugh. “I got 20 letters before the show even aired. I think every agent needed to have an Asian actress on their roster.”

She’s got fond memories of her career, from getting fired from the soap “Sunset Beach,” her first recurring role (“It was the hardest job I’ve ever had. You’re shooting a one-hour show every day”), to starring roles in the film “The Scorpion King” (“I had to wear a special body suit underneath the costume. Everybody thinks I was naked underneath. Uh-uh. No way.”)

Best Buddies is a national organization that assists youth with developmental disabilities. The local chapter has programs at 14 local public schools and the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

“This is a great organization that is all about inclusion,” said Hu, who has friends and relatives with special needs children. “I feel like if people could just accept each other for what they are, so many problems could be eradicated.”

The Friendship Jam includes dinner and an auction. Entertainer Al Waterson, pictured inset, emcees. “Hawaii Five-0” actor Jorge Garcia also is set for a guest appearance, with a full slate of music from artists including John Cruz, Jordan Segundo, Ginai and Starr Kalahiki.