Wahi a kūpuna, : ʻIke ʻia nō ka loea i ke kuahu"

When the cultural world bestows upon youthe title "loea" in your craft, you have reached a point of excellence that is unparalleled . In hula, dressing a beautiful kuahu takes years of practitioning and pilina.

For our hālau, we start with understanding of prescriptions; the appropriate kino lau for the kuahu, an important task for our haumāna. Each prescription layed upon the kuahu is of paramount importance to the hālau space and each dancer. No one perscription is alike as each stucent brings to the hālau what the collective group needs for that wā or time.

There are a quantity of feats that happen when a student creates pilina with the kuahu. They begin to understand the ecology of their surrounding environment. They gain knowledge of when and how to maintain balance in collecting greenery in the forest to the shoreline and how not to, as we say in Hawaiʻi "bolohead" the kino lau or kino kai. They hone in to their lei making skillset and refine it to a maiau standard required on the kuahu.