After studying Polynesian languages at Harvard, I received an East-West Center grant and moved to Honolulu to continue my work toward a Master's Degree in Polynesian linguistics. Once I got there, love of the land and the culture came ahead of school work, and I began to learn hula.
A Hawaiian Airlines flight attendant I knew gave me the names of two hula teachers to call, and I will always consider myself lucky that the first one who answered the phone was Rose Kapulani Joshua.
Mrs. Joshua (I always called her that) had been traditionally dedicated for hula near the turn of the 20th century. She taught a very old style without a lot of the flashy, Westernized innovations you see today. But, perhaps in reaction to the kapu system, she taught a completely secular hula class, with no hulas named to gods and goddesses. And she had no problem with tourist and hapa-haole hula!
I studied with Mrs. Joshua for about six years and continued later with her daughter, Lorraine Joshua Daniel. Although I've studied with several other hula teachers, including other real masters, I consider the tradition I pass on to my students to be strongly rooted in Mrs. Joshua's training at her Magic Hula Studio in Honolulu.
