Ma'iki Aiu Lake was one of the most widely respected hula masters of the 20th century and a passionate student of Hawaiian traditions and culture.
She sparked a revival of ancient Hawaiian dance during her 38 years as a hula teacher, training two generations of master teachers, or kumu hula.
As a young woman, she sought out the most respected hula teachers of her time. To earn money as a teenager, she donned a cellophane skirt and joined the hula line at the old Club Pago Pago. She lived at the St. Francis Convent School while in high school and gave $5 hula lessons.
When she started teaching in 1948 at a studio at Ke'eaumoku and King streets, Lake was viewed as an upstart. Hula was all glamour, glitter and silk back then, but Lake researched the history of the dance, and its chants and steps, in order to create a fluid, graceful style based on ancient traditions.
In 1952, her teachers allowed her to call her school a halau, a term that had not been used in many years.
Despite her love of ancient hula, Lake embraced all styles, including the so-called "nightclub hula," a show-business variety criticized by some.
She also gave free lessons to tourists at the Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center, where she told them: "Hula is life."
Lake also was instrumental in bringing male dancers back into hula, often stressing to her students that men were the first dancers.
Lake started her first master classes for kumu hula in 1972, and by all accounts, it was a rigorous education. Only one student was promoted that first year.
In June 1984, Lake and her halau were preparing for a show they gave once every four years. She told everyone it would be her last performance, but she didn't get to dance. She suffered a massive heart attack while making mango bread for her dancers. Lake was 59.
Her funeral at Kawaiaha'o Church drew 3,000 people, including many current and former students. When Lake's son sang "For You," a song written for his mother, Lake's students filled the aisles and the galleries or simply stood in their pews and danced in a spontaneous show of affection.
