Dancing for Ka Pa Hula O Kamehameha and kumu hula Holoua Stender in 2001, Bento lost the Miss Aloha Hula competition by a single point. Her performance is memorable for a number of reasons: Her unusual name. (Yes, Snowbird is from the 1970s song; and no, Bento isn't Japanese, it's Portuguese, meaning "sacred"). Her powerful kahiko number, a hula noho — seated hula — that showed off her strength and flexibility. Her Hawaiian language award. And her size.

As Bento acknowledges, "big girls" have little hope of being Miss Aloha Hula candidates. In fact, they rarely make it into the front line. "When I was younger, I was back row center — the smaller girls, the willowy girls were always toward the front," she said.

But then Kamehameha Schools sent her to the South Pacific as a solo dancer, and her vision of herself began to change. "The greatest gift I found in hula was my self-confidence," she said.

Now 29, a formally uniki'd (graduated) kumu hula and preparing her own first Miss Aloha Hula candidate, Bento looks back on her hula life with humor, gratitude and not a little pride (though she gives the credit to her mentors, including her parents and Stender, whose halau has since disbanded).

She remembers the audition for a hula troupe making a trip to Japan. The interviewer didn't even want to see her dance. The woman asked, "Have you ever thought about doing comic hula?" That hurt, but Bento looked around her and noted the number of larger women who were respected hula dancers and kumu hula.

She recalls a minor nervous breakdown the week of Merrie Monarch: a flood of tears brought on by her responsibility, appearing first on stage from Ka Pa Hula O Kamehameha in its inaugural year at Merrie Monarch.

As it turned out, she wasn't just dancing for her halau: She was dancing for all the "big girls." She continues to be stopped in the street by people who tell her that she was an inspiration to them.

Some have said it was a pity she chose a hula noho — that it would have been better for her to show that she could move around the stage. But hula experts know that hula noho is an extremely challenging form, requiring dancers to sit on their heels for long periods, balance on their knees and work from a strong center, leaning perilously forward and back and then rising gracefully without aid of the hands. "You have to be adept to attempt it. The level of respect and dignity and difficulty is much greater," said Bento.

For her, that long-ago performance was a chance to say, "don't judge me by my size, judge me by my hula."

Now, after serving as co-kumu with Stender in 2003, and helping out hula brother Kaleo Trinidad in 2004, she is bringing her own halau, Ka Pa Hula O Ka La Lei Leihua, composed primarily of former Stender students, to the Merrie Monarch. She'd filed a letter of interest last year thinking that perhaps in three or four years, she might earn an invitation. When the call came, she was humbled.