HILO >> In the moments after Ka La ‘Onohi Mai o Ha‘eha‘e was proclaimed for the third year in a row as the hula halau with the winner of the Miss Aloha Hula title at the Merrie Monarch Festival, news reporters crowded around kumu hula Tracie and Keawe Lopes with the same echoing question:
How in the world are you folks doing that?
Both kumu hula insisted they don’t have any special formula for producing winners of the world’s most prestigious individual award in hula.
“I can’t explain,” Tracie Lopes said after the Thursday night win. She said she felt stunned.
“I mean, we embrace our students with the most possible love. We surround them with prayer. And we always strive to honor our kumu and continue their legacy the best possible way. But we are just very, very humbled and grateful that the judges enjoyed our (dances) sharing our home, Kane‘ohe, and her ohana from Kaua‘i,” referring to winner Agnes Renee Leihiwahiwaikapolionamakua Thronas Brown’s mother’s family from the Garden Isle.
Keawe Lopes added that preparation always begins with ‘olelo Hawai‘i, the Hawaiian language, as the foundation, with artistry and storytelling layered with it.
He added that each of their haumana, their students, and every one of their Miss Aloha Hula candidates comes with a unique set of strengths. The teachers focus on “giving the opportunity for the dancer to recognize their untapped potential … so they can experience another level that they never thought they had.”
Whatever it is, it’s working.
Ka La ‘Onohi Mai o Ha‘eha‘e is the only halau other than Halau Na Mamo o Pu‘uanahulu to produce Miss Aloha Hula winners three years in row. Halau Na Mamo o Pu‘uanahulu, led by kumu hula William Kahakuleilehua Haunu‘u “Sonny” Ching and Lopaka Igarta-De Vera, did it in 2003 through 2005.
Halau o ka Ua Kanilehua, led then by the late kumu hula Johnny Lum Ho, holds the record for the most Miss Aloha Hula winners in a row, at four, from 1980 through 1983.
>> PHOTOS: Miss Aloha Hula competition opens Merrie Monarch Festival
>> PHOTOS: Kahiko competition highlights Friday night at Merrie Monarch Festival
On the morning after Thursday’s win, Brown, 21, the new Miss Aloha Hula, was running on only a scant few hours of sleep and adrenaline but already learning to juggle the duties of her new title, fielding multiple news interviews while preparing to join her hula sisters on stage at Edith Kanaka‘ole Multi- Purpose Stadium for rehearsal for the kahiko (ancient) and ‘auana (modern) competitions on Friday night and tonight, respectively.
Brown, a daughter of Ryan and Mandy Brown of Kaneohe, has danced hula since she was 9 years old, exclusively with Ka La ‘Onohi Mai o Ha‘eha‘e. The part-Hawaiian Kaneohe resident said her middle name means “precious child from the bosom of her parents,” and was given to her by the late kumu hula O’Brian Eselu.
Brown impressed the judges with her flowing performances of “Poli Laua‘e o Makana,” a hula kahiko honoring Kaumuali‘i, the last ruling king of Kauai and Niihau; and “Ku‘u Home a i Kane‘ohe,” a hula auana remembrance of a beloved Windward Oahu home of composer Louise Hart Hopkins, in the same hometown of both Brown and her halau.
Asked what advice her kumu gave her before the competition, Brown said, “Just to enjoy and to leave it all on the stage.” She said while performing, her goal was “to represent my halau and my family well, to make my kumu and my ohana proud and to tell the the story of the places I had the opportunity to honor.”
And on whether she plans to use her new title as a steppingstone to become a kumu herself one day, she offered that she is a Chaminade University student, majoring in elementary education, and is set to graduate with her Bachelor of Science degree in May — “so I am going to be a teacher,” she said.
Chaminade issued a statement saying the university is “thankful for and proud of the countless people who make the Merrie Monarch Festival such an important and historic cultural event for Hawaii and beyond our islands. This includes all of those on stage and behind the scenes who prepare year-round for the festival, including our very own senior Agnes Renee Leihiwahiwaikapolionamakua Thronas Brown being recognized this year as the 2023 Miss Aloha Hula. Congratulations to all.”
As for the halau’s future course, Tracie Lopes said the ohana will “just continue to stay humble and maintain what we’ve always done. The reason we actually started (the halau) in the first place was love.”
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2023 Miss Aloha Hula results
>> Winner: Agnes Renee Leihiwahiwaikapolionamakua Thronas Brown, Ka La ‘Onohi Mai o Ha‘eha‘e, kumu hula Tracie and Keawe Lopes — 1,148 points
>> First runner-up: Breeze Ann Kalehuaonalani Vidinha Pavao, Halau Ka Lei Mokihana o Leina‘ala, kumu hula Leina‘ala Pavao Jardin — 1,144 points
>> Second runner-up: Meleana Kamalani Mirafuentes, Halau Na Mamo o Pu‘uanahulu, kumu hula William Kahakuleilehua Haunu‘u “Sonny” Ching and Lopaka Igarta-De Vera — 1,143 points
>> Third runner-up: Karlee Pohaikealoha Rita Chong Kee, Halau Kekuaokala‘au‘ala‘iliahi, kumu hula Haunani and ‘Iliahi Paredes — 1,130 points
>> Fourth runner-up: Tayla-Nohealeimamo Kamaehukauikapono Ta‘uhere Vaughan-Darval of Halau Hula Ka Lehua Tuahine, kumu hula Ka‘ilihiwa Vaughan-Darval — 1,129 points
>> Hawaiian Language Award: Mirafuentes — 49 points
Past Miss Aloha Hula winners from Ka La ‘Onohi Mai o Ha‘eha‘e:
>> 2022: Pi‘ikea Kekihenelehuawewehiikekau‘onohi Lopes
>> 2021: Rosemary Ka‘imilei Kamoai-Strickland
>> 2014: Ke‘alohilani Tara Eliga Serrao
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MERRIE MONARCH FESTIVAL
Continues through today in Hilo
HULA COMPETITION
Edith Kanaka‘ole Multi-Purpose Stadium, 6 p.m. (sold out)
>> Today: group hula ‘auana (modern style) and awards
OTHER MAJOR EVENTS
>> Merrie Monarch Hawaiian Arts and Crafts Fair, continues 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. today, Afook-Chinen Civic Auditorium and Butler Buildings; free admission
>> Royal Parade, 10:30 a.m. today, downtown Hilo
The hula competition will be broadcast on KFVE and livestreamed at hawaiinewsnow.com/merriemonarch. Find Honolulu Star-Advertiser coverage at staradvertiser.com/merrie-monarch. For more information on the Merrie Monarch Festival, visit merriemonarch.com.
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Editor’s note: Esme M. Infante is a student of Halau Na Mamo o Pu‘uanahulu, one of the halau competing at the Merrie Monarch Festival.
