Every Merrie Monarch Festival has a flavor — actually, a layer of flavors — and, even before photographer Rebecca Breyer and I boarded the airplane today for Hilo, I was sensing the first taste of this 44th festival, which officially opened Sunday, though the hula competition doesn't start until Thursday.

It is a bittersweet flavor, with so many familiar names not participating this year (Chinky Mahoe, Hokulani DeRego, etc.), or participating in a different way (Sonny Ching's Halau Na Mamo O Pu'uanahulu, for example, is performing in the pre-competition ho'ike this year, so you'll not see that award-winning halau on television). Bittersweet, too, to see the "In Memoriam" page of the program where kumu hula George Holokai, Nina Boyd Maxwell, John Ka'imikaua and Jay Jay Akiona are pictured, all of them having passed since last year's Merrie Monarch.

There are a larger-than-usual number of first-time or returning-after-an-absence halau, which adds an air of uncertainty, but also excitement.

NATIONAL SPOTLIGHT

As if preparing for a potentially award-winning performance at Merrie Monarch were not enough, the halau kane Halau I Ka Wekiu will spend this weekend in the spotlight: the spotlight of a CBS News camera team that is preparing a TV special on men's hula that co-kumu hula Karl Veto Baker said is scheduled to air in May, during sweeps week. (This is significant because sweeps week is the twice-annual period when networks front-load their schedules with special presentations they hope will attract large audiences because it's when auditors count viewers; the numbers they gather translate into advertising dollars.)

Baker said the crew will be with Wekiu from Thursday through Sunday and will film them visiting Halema'uma'u crater and in rehearsal and will interview the kumu and individual dancers. In an unusual collegial move, KITV, an ABC affilliate which has an exclusive contract to film Merrie Monarch performances, will share film with the CBS show.

Baker said he and co-kumu Michael Casupang thought long and hard about whether to allow the crew this exceptional level of access at a critical time (although this is one of the most polished, experienced and well-trained halau in the competition).

"I had to interview (the producer) a couple of times before I felt comfortable that they were doing to do the kind of story I could respect. I had to hear from them why they wanted to do this and to be sure it wasn't this hunk, gory reality show about guys with their shirts off. I wanted something that would be tasteful, that would respect our traditions and our culture."

Baker noted that male hula is still little understood within the Islands, let alone elsewhere.

"It's very important (to represent male hula correctly), because prior to Western contact, the males were the ones who did the hula. There's been a century of Hollywood hula, yaka-hiki-doola hula, over 100 years of the kind of advertising that misrepresented hula that needs to be changed," he said. "One feature is not going to reverse all that, but it's a start."

Program note: Among a number of first at Merrie Monarch this year will be this — all the members of Halau I Ka Wekiu will wear shoulder-length hair. The men made the commitment to grow their hair a year ago when Baker and Casupang decided to perform as their kahiko selection a chant about the desired one of Pele, Lohi'au. Baker has always envisioned this important mythological character as having long hair (as, indeed, pre-contact men would have had). The chant explores the piquant irony that Hi'iaka, Pele's sister, was sent to bring Lohi'au back to the fiery goddess, but the one who is sent for has developed a passion for the messenger.

A YOUNGER TRADITIONALIST

Had a long and interesting conversation with kumu hula Manu Boyd, whose Halau o ke 'A'ali'i Ku Makani is making its fourth appearance in Hilo. Boyd, a student of Robert Cazimero who was a student of the late Auntie Maiki Aiu Lake, reflected on his place in the chronological center of the hula world:

"I consider myself in a very contemporary way a younger traditionalist," he said, watching a new generation of still-younger traditionalists begin to make and take their places (Kaleo Trinidad, Snowbird Bento, Carslon Kukona, Kahulu Maluo-Huber and Napua Grieg, Kau'i Kamana'o) — people who have never known a world in which the Hawaiian language was banned or the hula known only as a tourist attraction.

Boyd has been to every Merrie Monarch for the past 30 years, either dancing, singing with the group Ho'okena, acting as kokua with other halau, as a commentator for KITV-4 or as a kumu hula.

He said something that resonates as we prepare for another marathon all-hula-all-the-time experience: He said that, although he works hard to play this down as he prepares his own troupe for performance, so as not to overburden them, he know that, when you are dancing at Merrie Monarch, the eyes of the world are literally upon you. (Besides the 2,000-plus people in the stadium and the thousands of Islanders watching the nightly TV broadcast, with KITV-4 offering streaming video of the performances, people from literally dozens of countries can see the event in real time; thousands of others will buy the videos.)

"You need to know what you're doing, you need to be careful what you do because what you do will be seen and interpreted by the rest of the world. They'll carry it with them and perpetuate it," he said.

And he offered a rare bit of insight into the sometimes puzzling (to viewers) judging process: "There's only so much room in the judging for interpretation, everything else it technical, the timing of the hands and feet. You can be completely well dressed and in perfect unison and score very, very highly based on your precision, more than on your actual hula or interpretation," he said.

"What we try to do is be true to our own values, the things we try to perpetuate and try to incorporate that make it recognizably reflect my kumu and before him, Auntie Maiki. I try to take a step back and make sure that what we are doing will stand the test of time," he said. While respecting this process, he said, he sometimes wishes there was more room for creativity: "This is just me, but I don't think our kupuna were so precision-oriented. There is beauty in unison but hula is still art and art is subjective."

A program note: Boyd's halau this year is performing two songs that — in the coincidental way that Hawaiians would say wasn't coincidental at all — are both about being carried away. The kahiko (traditional) number is "Makani Kona," composed in honor of King Kalakaua and relating, symbolically, to encounters fueled by the wind that blows along the Kona coast. The 'auana (contemporary) number is called "Maunaloa," but is not the mele with which many are familiar ("Auhea wale 'oe Maunaloa la/Kikala nui..."), but another about that famous steamer that tells the story of thwarted love from the point of view of an angry woman who has been jilted. Both turn on the verb "lawe," which means "to take transport, carry, bring, haul, fetch, undertake (as a duty" and so on, but in one case, it's the wind that's carrying love along, and in the other, it's the ship.

Boyd's Miss Aloha Hula candidate, Bianca Ua'imaikalani Meheula (known to her hula sisters as "Ua'i"), 23, will perform a kahiko chant of Kaua'i and a contemporary mele that celebrates the chiefess Ka'ililauokekoa. The latter began with a familiar Sunday Manoa song, but the mele was too short for the dance, so Boyd ended up writing a new song for the centerpiece and using the Sunday Manoa number as ka'i and ho'i (entrance and exit). It's a love story that speaks of the high one's skill at surfing and playing konane (Hawaiian checkers) and so on and of a magic flute that woos her into the arms of a handsome prince.

'ONE OF MY FAVORITE TIMES'

Talked with KITV-4 Merrie Monarch co-host Paula Akana late last week as she was editing her pre-festival special that airs Tuesday night at 7 p.m. I wondered if she looked forward to this annual assignment with the same trepidation and — if you will — happy dread that I do (there are so many moving parts to this event, so many ways to go wrong, so many storylines to pursue, so much to hit or miss).

But for her, it's actually kind of a break, in a demanding sort of way. "I really enjoy doing it every year because it's so different from news. It really allows me a chance to get more in touch with the culture and I don't really get to do that that much. I love it. It's one of my favorite times of the year," she said.

She prepares for the festival by going through the extensive fact sheets that each halau is required to file, detailing all that they know about the 'oli and mele they have chosen, their costuming and adornments. She and co-host Kimo Kahoano meet with kumu hula and color commentator Pua Kanahele, who has added considerably to the depth of KITV's coverage in the past two years. "I learn more from her than anyone that I've ever spoken with and she's so fun, it's really a pleasure to work with her," Akana said. Also offering expert opinion is kumu hula Noenoe Zuttermeister.

With Manu Boyd having returned to competition, KITV's other color commentator is again former Miss Aloha Hula Tehani Ganzado, who has good reason to understand the minds fo the nervous dancers as they prepare for competetition.

I asked Akana if anything about Merrie Monarch was nerve-wracking for her: Assuring proper pronunciation, she said ... and, giggling, bathroom sprints, which have to fit into commercial breaks.