Dance Scene
Halau shows add tributes to Keawe, Cockett

By Vicki Viotti
Advertiser Staff Writer

Kawaikapuokalani Hewett receives a bear hug from fellow entertainer Tootsie Cazimero, who was in the audience Aug. 10 when Hewett performed with Olomana at the Sheraton Moana Surfrider. The appearance was planned to promote his annual Høëike on Saturday. Kyle Sackowski • The Honolulu Advertiser 'Ho'ike 2001: E Malama Na Kapuna 2 p.m. (Kawai Cockett tribute) and 7 p.m. (Genoa Keawe tribute), Saturday Ronald E. Bright Theatre, Castle High School Featuring the students of kumu hula Kawaikapuokalani Hewett Guests include: The Lim Family, Olomana, Ellsworth Simeona, kumu hula Ina Kanei and Kapi'olani Hao (matinee); Sean Naëauao, Nª Palapalai and kumu hula Aloha Dalire and Blaine Kia (evening) $15 235-3603, 234-1155

"Oh, Aunty Genoa!" he said. "It's me. You're calling on my cell phone."

Communications have made great strides in the last decade or so, but kumu hula Hewett thinks that saying "We love you" still requires the old-fashioned approach.

And at Saturday's "Ho'ike 2001," Genoa Keawe, along with another Hawaiian music great, Kawai Cockett, will be on the receiving end of a special low-tech, high-touch communique from Hewett.

"Ho'ike" means "show," and on the Windward side, it has almost come to mean in particular the annual show that musicians and Hewett's hula students put on each year.

This year, though, the kumu hula has decided it's time to subtitle the event "E Malama Na Kupuna (Honor the Elders)." For all the talk about the renaissance of Hawaiian traditions, Hewett said, respecting kupuna, the most simple, basic tradition of all, is often forgotten.

Musicians, especially those from the old school, frequently are overlooked, he said.

"A lot of entertainers give 90 percent of the time. They maybe get paid for 10 percent. But they're always giving of themselves," Hewett said. "They give, and people tend to forget they have bills to pay and mouths to feed.

"It's kind of funny, yeah? If your plumbing goes out, you call the plumber. And when they fix it, we don't just hug them and kiss them and say 'Thank you.' "

Hewett felt moved to choose these two mainstays of Hawaiian music to honor — Cockett in the matinee program, Keawe in the evening — because they fit the mold of the giving professional who's played a big part in the hula and musical worlds.

He's performed on the same stage with Cockett but his allegiance is mainly as a fan of his music.

"You listen to it, and it makes you happy," he said. "I don't like to call it 'chalang-a-lang,' although some people might call it that. I would like to say it's the music of aloha ... when I hear it, I want to get up and dance."

Hewett has spent more time with Keawe, who took his halau touring in Japan. About 10 years ago, Hewett and his students joined Keawe on a trip to perform at a music festival in Siberia.

The Ho'ike cohort includes a half-dozen halau established by his students (Hewett jokingly calls them "Mini Me's," a reference to the midget me-too character in the "Austin Powers" movies). There are also names familiar in entertainment with kinship to Hewett (kumu hula Aloha Dalire and the Lim Family, for example).

The program will begin with a segment of hula kahiko — Hewett's style of the traditional dance — but will include tributes to Cockett and Keawe. Hewett won't discuss the details publicly, not wanting to spoil the surprise.

The honorees are expected to remain on the entertainment scene for a good while longer (no, there are no health reasons behind the decision to pay tribute now, Hewett said).

"They've put in many, many years, and they've given an awful lot," he said. "Because they've been so supportive, we are going to give back."