Emma Kapi‘olani Farden Sharpe was born into the Farden family of gifted Maui singers, songwriters and musicians, but at age 15, her interest was hula — something her father forbade her to learn because he considered it immoral.

Much as she loved and respected him, Sharpe secretly approached a kupuna named Kauhai Likua, who had danced in the court of King Kalakaua, to teach her. Three times she asked and three times Likua refused, saying she had given up the dance to follow her faith as a Christian minister.

But Sharpe politely persisted, pointing out that when Likua passed away, her knowledge would be lost to future generations. Finally, Likua relented, agreeing to instruct Sharpe three times a week.

She reserved a room for that purpose in her Lahaina home, not far from Sharpe’s. It was empty save for a lau hala mat and an altar in honor of Laka, the hula goddess. Likua told Sharpe each time she came, she must bring two lei — one for herself and one for Laka.

Complete concentration was required during the lessons because Likua did not demonstrate one step or motion at a time. Instead, she presented an entire verse of a dance, and her young student had to follow as best she could, often taking several weeks to perfect it.

But Sharpe persevered. When Likua deemed her ready to uniki (graduate), Sharpe invited her parents to the ceremony. So beautiful was her performance, it moved her father to tears, and she won his approval to continue dancing.

Sharpe went on to study with Joseph Ilala­‘ole and Mary Kawena Pukui, renowned hula masters, and in the 1920s she founded the Kapi‘olani Hula Studio and performed whenever her career as an elementary schoolteacher permitted. She danced in shows aboard military ships, at clubs and hotels, and for tour groups, visitor promotions and community fundraisers.

A beloved ambassador of hula and the Hawaiian culture, “Auntie Emma,” as she became known, served on the first board of the Napili Kai Foundation, a nonprofit organization that offers free Hawaiian cultural programs for Maui keiki aged 6 through 17, including a weekly hula show.

In 2011, Wailuku resident Daryl Fujiwara was working as a volunteer for Na Mele o Maui, a children’s song competition that launched in 1972, when he noticed something odd about the event’s banner over the stage at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center: The words “Emma Farden Sharpe Hula Festival” on it were crossed out.

“It surprised me because I hadn’t heard of that festival and even more so because there was a line going through it,” said Fujiwara, a graphic designer and event coordinator. “I did some research and found out that Auntie Emma had started a hula festival in the 1980s to run as part of Na Mele o Maui. Members of the Farden family planned it, but because many of them moved from Maui, it was difficult for them to continue doing so. Auntie Emma passed away in 1991, and the hula festival stopped running not long after that.”

Fujiwara felt a strong desire, even a responsibility, to revive it. He researched Sharpe’s life, wrote grants to get funding, secured Banyan Tree Park as the venue, extended invitations to the Farden family and select Maui halau to perform, handled publicity and conceived the Pillar of Hula award to recognize kumu who had dedicated their lives to perpetuating hula. The revived Auntie Emma Farden Sharpe Hula Festival debuted in 2014.

“One thing that stood out to me when I watched documentaries about Auntie Emma is that she lived during a time when interest in hula was fading, but she wanted to learn it so that she could keep it alive,” Fujiwara said. “She taught many of the kumu and dancers who participate in the festival today; they and other students of hers represent her hula legacy on Maui and around the world.”

Among the 10 groups that will be performing this year are the Napili Kai Foundation and the Na Pua o Kapi‘olani Hula Studio, both under the direction of Sharpe’s grandniece Holoaumoku Ralar. When Sharpe died, Ralar and the late Martha Medeiros took over as kumu of Sharpe’s halau, adding na pua, meaning “descendants,” to its name.

Several members of the Farden family will also take the stage in an hourlong segment. Sharpe’s grandnephew Hailama Farden will once again emcee, as he has since the festival’s inception. When he was 9, Sharpe, his paternal grandmother and his aunt Harriet Farden insisted he learn hula from Sharpe. Harriet Farden had danced with the famed Harry Owens Orchestra in the Royal Hawaiian hotel’s Monarch Room from 1935 to 1937.

“Of course, at that age I wanted to play instead,” Hailama Farden said. “One time, when I was in intermediate school, Auntie Emma was teaching me a chant, ‘He Nani Haupu.’ She made me write the Hawaiian words, English translation and hula motions; it was like being in school! But she was a kind, sweet and gentle teacher; she never got upset with me.”

Because Hailama Farden grew up in Waianae with his paternal grandparents, his hula lessons during the school year were limted to when he could visit Maui or Sharpe was on Oahu. Until he graduated from high school, Farden sometimes lived with Sharpe for several weeks during the summer.

“It was not the typical learning environment,” Farden said. “Sometimes my lessons were planned; she would say, ‘Tomorrow we’re going to learn this dance.’ Other times they were spontaneous; I would wake up in the morning, and she would say, ‘I was thinking about such-and-such. Come, learn it.’ I ate with her; choreographed hula with her. We talked about hula, poetry and chant and picked night-blooming cereus at midnight if that’s what she wanted to do. Living with your kumu provides intimate experiences that you don’t get from going to a weekly one-hour class.”

In 1982, when she was 77, Sharpe was interviewed for the oral-history program of Brigham Young University-Hawaii’s Institute for Polynesian Studies. At the end of the session, she was asked how she would like to be remembered.

With a smile and characteristic humility, she said simply, “Auntie Emma.”

And that said it all.

Cheryl Chee Tsutsumi is a Honolulu-based freelance writer whose travel features for the Star-Advertiser have won several Society of American Travel Writers awards.