By Lee Cataluna
Advertiser Columnist

Though the sentiment has certainly been expressed in many ways in different quarters, it was still surprising to hear it spoken so plainly:

"Why aren't kids in Hawai'i more interested in the arts?"

Wait, what?

Even more troubling was that the question came after a discussion of the lively and diverse arts scene in our islands.

We had been talking about the wealth of contemporary local literature, the number of gifted local musicians, the availability of dance classes in everything from salsa to hula to combinations of the two, the gutsy work of a number of Hawai'i-based independent film makers. This is a good time to be a creative person in Hawai'i. There are so many places to practice and study and share your art.

But still the question was asked.

I guess to some, if it isn't Shakespeare or Renoir or Beethoven, it doesn't count.

Not that there isn't Shakespeare, Renoir or Beethoven in the Islands. It's just that an island music summer jam in the park has a greater draw.

And what's wrong with that?

I think of the kid with the ukulele in his hands. Not any kid in particular, but one of those kids who walk around town carrying an ukulele everywhere. On the bus, at the mall, in class. Like the HPU commercial. Maybe they have a special case for their instrument. Maybe it's covered with nothing more than a Hawaiian-print pillow case with a draw string. Maybe the kid just carries it under one arm and lets the dings appear as they may.

You see this kid everywhere, practicing some riff he heard on a Kapena CD or trying to pluck the strings like Jake Shimabukuro. Inside his notebook, he has lyrics he wrote about his favorite surf spot or the girl who broke his heart. Perhaps he's been busted for strumming too loudly when the teacher was talking.

Why aren't kids in Hawai'i interested in the arts? How could a kid be more interested than that?

Another example: Marcelo Pacleb's 24-VII Danceforce put on a show this weekend that could only be described as breathtaking. There were so many kids on stage — from tiny kids in jazz boots to early twenty-somethings in costumes more elaborate than anything Christina Aguilera's dressmaker could ever dream up — that in the finale, the cast of the show spilled out to the audience.

The performance was mostly jazz and hip hop, and it was every bit as stunning as a professional company's rendition of "Giselle" or "Swan Lake." Maybe more so, because the audience was unable to sit still or keep quiet because the excellence on stage inspired screams of delight and shouts of approval.

Kids in Hawai'i are very interested in the arts.

The question should be why that kind of interest isn't always recognized or validated by a, perhaps, Euro-centric point of view.

Lee Cataluna's column runs Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at 535-8172 or lcataluna@honoluluadvertiser.com.