Huapala's Hulas

Huapala is the Hawaiian word for a favorite orange blossom. It is what Hawaiians call their sweethearts. It is also what they call Vivienne Mader, a young lady from Brooklyn who can perform the graceful native dances with strict accuracy. Vivienne Mader first visited Hawaii in 1929. Elderly Helen Desha Beamer, famed native dancer, taught her hula along with her own grandchildren. All over Hawaii Miss Mader has been a sensation. The late Princess Elizabeth Kalanianaole acclaimed her. She has danced throughout the U. S. and last week in Manhattan's Town Hall. Brooklyn's Huapala gave her most ambitious recital under the sponsorship of the Hawaiian Society.

Hulas call for words as well as music. The dancer sings them, is free to improvise or repeat. She gives the accompanying musicians their cues, establishes the time with her swaying hips. Different dances require different costumes. Huapala wore grass skirts, tapa gowns, the Mother Hubbard cloak introduced by missionaries. She described in words and gestures the districts of Hawaii, the torments of despised loves, the varieties of Hawaiian fish. Connoisseurs were interested in her seated dances wherein she swayed from the waist, wriggled sinuous arms, clicked a pair of pebbles called ili ili. Mikel Hanapi, dressed in a cape of red and yellow feathers which Huapala had made, and his Ilima Islanders supplied the music. Though they are now employed by a radio station in Hartford, they are natives who know well how to use gourds, coconut shells and rattles, as well as the steel guitar.

At the end of each dance Miss Mader performed the conventional pan (bow), lifting her arms shoulder high, thrusting her right foot forward and putting the weight on her left. A large sprinkling of Hawaiians shouted interminable hikis, the equivalent of "bravo." People who do not understand Hawaiian were most amused by Miss Mader's Roosevelt Dance which she sang in English. When the President visited Hawaii three years ago.

Mrs. E. A. Nawahi wrote a song of welcome, upon which Miss Mader based a dance. Words: "O Roosevelt, universally known, President of the nation, the foremost of America. You are the only President who has come to Hawaii. You have braved the stormy weather and traveled the long seas, stepping over the waves to our calm shores to find Hawaii situated in the midst of the Pacific. Welcome! Here we stand ready before you, the President of the people. Tell us, what would you like us to do, Roosevelt?"

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