Hula is never just about dance. It's about language and history and mythology and spiritual beliefs and storytelling and craft and costume and music. It's about something different to everyone who engages in it.

As she prepares for this year's Prince Lot Hula Festival at Moanalua Gardens, kumu hula Vicky Holt Takamine has 'ohana on her mind. "It's a family day, a wonderful day of hula that is not competitive," she said.

Because it's not about winning, Takamine is able to bring all of her students in Pua Ali'i 'Ilima halau. This includes keiki — who do not compete until they're older, so don't get much stage time — to the group she calls, in the words of her kumu hula, Auntie Maiki Aiu Lake, "gracious ladies." There's no need to "cut the line," winnowing out less-skilled dancers, as in the harsher world of hula contests.

Takamine is thinking about 'ohana, too, because students become extended family, and some of the people she has trained will be bringing their own students to the festival, including Kamaka'eu Williams and his wife, Ka'ula Williams. The two are are bringing members of Ka Pa Hula O Ke Kula Kaiapuni O Maui, the halau of the Hawaiian-language immersion program on the Valley Isle. Both the Williamses are enrolled in Takamine's Papa Maile course, training to 'uniki (graduate) as kumu hula; they fly into O'ahu once a month for a full Sunday of hula.

And 'ohana is on Takamine's mind because her ancestors were close to the festival's namesake, Lot Kapuaiwa Kamehameha, who reigned as Kamehameha V from 1863 to 1872.

"Kamehameha and his family frequently visited my family's property down in Makaha," she said. "Also, he started the Kamehameha Day Parade in which my great-great-grandfather participated — he barged his horses all the way to Kapi'olani Park and built stables there, and the men raced around the park and the women of my family were among the first pa'u riders."

Though Lot is described as a strong-minded king and a no-nonsense sort of person who didn't make much of the trappings of royalty, he was a patron of hula and he was a man who enjoyed his leisure time, employing a small steamboat to travel out to the country to visit friends.

In his "Monarchy in Hawai'i" (Topgallant, 1971), John Dominis Holt tells how the then-prince was severely criticized in this newspaper and elsewhere for entertaining guests with hula at his Moanalua home — in missionary-dominated Hawai'i, hula was considered lascivious and a waste of time.

A shadow has been cast over Moanalua, a valley once so enjoyed by the king. The Damon Estate, which owns the land, is being liquidated, and the Probate Court has appointed an official to seek input from stakeholders and map out a plan for the land. Says Takamine, "My hope is that it will continue to be a place where people can gather. I would hate to see it privatized and commercialized. I'm hoping there is still time for discussion, and we can be part of that discussion."

Meanwhile, the Williams 'ohana on Maui is preparing third- through 10th-graders for their first appearance at the Prince Lot festival. Kamaka'eu Williams began taking hula from Takamine in 1991, while a student of Hawaiian studies at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa. For him, it was a way to learn more about the culture and something he found that he enjoyed; he never thought he'd teach hula.

Kumu hula is a title he is very careful not to assume until it has been formally conferred. When will that be? "When Kumu thinks we're ready," he says.

The title Williams does hold is hula director of Ka Pa Hula O Ke Kula Kaiapuni O Maui, which began in 2000. His wife, Ka'ula, helps with the halau and has been particularly busy with the lole ("low-lay") — the costumes.

"We don't go out and have things made. We have someone come in to show us how to do it and we all work together to get it done," Williams said. The couple also choreographed a Maui song written by a halau parent, "E A'a Mua Pehe Pueo," about a supernatural owl, a demigod, who lives where the halau practices.

He is enthusiastic about the benefits of hula and travel for his students. One big plus: "These are all immersion students who take all their classes, including hula, in Hawaiian. But a lot of these kids, after they leave school, they don't have any other place to speak Hawaiian ... This class gives them an environment where they can speak Hawaiian, hear Hawaiian, use Hawaiian."

On this trip he will teach them about O'ahu history and important sites, such as Kukaniloko, a royal birth site in Wahiawa, where they will perform a hula for their ancestors. At the festival, they will honor Lot with "Ali'iolani," a mele named for him.

"He really enjoyed the hula. At a time when it was banished, it was not allowed to be done in public, he invited people to come and visit him and dance hula," said Williams.