♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Woolley: The Hawaiians.

They're connected to the 'aina, the land, the elements.

♪♪ Hula is the movement.

Hula's in the trees.

Hula's in the birds.

Hula's in the ocean.

♪♪ Hula's the language and the heartbeat of the people.

♪♪ Evalu: You know, the energy comes from the ground, from the breeze and from the ocean, and it literally surrounds us.

♪♪ You're fighting yourself to betray the warrior that we once were or we still are.

And you're also -- you're fighting for the culture, you know, you're fighting to bring the culture into live action and to carry on with the same spirit that it was in the past.

♪♪ Yuen: Every single reason that we still travel and explore today -- people use them, and there are chants and songs about it.

So all of the people that preserve these chants and songs are preserving that body of knowledge that was so hard won for so many generations.

♪♪ Kanahele: Hula is also a foundation.

It's a foundation for most of us kanaka, most of us Hawaiian people.

Because that is where our stories lie.

And that is where we find where we come from as people.

♪♪ The land itself, we're perpetuating with that.

It works two and two.

If this goes sour, this goes sour.

If we go sour, this goes sour, that goes sour.

So we're all connected.

All these stories that we have connect us.

♪♪ [ Waves crashing ] [ Birds chirping ] Woolley: [ Speaking Hawaiian ] [ Speaking Hawaiian ] [ Speaking continues ] ♪♪ Woolley: Hula is more than dance.

Hula is a preparation.

To enter the realm of the spirits of our gods.

♪♪ Hula is the breath.

Hula is the movement, the movement and the emanation of movement of our elements.

So it's a reflection.

And as we share our hula, it brings generations and generations and generation together.

Where we are a composite of our ancestors.

So when we dance, we have a whole community and a whole family lineage behind us.

So when we're dancing, we're dancing for them.

We're dancing for future generations.

Hula emanates nature and brings life.

To the mele in the stories, the mo'olelo -- the myths, the legends.

And it honors our duties.

It honors our gods.

And that's when we offer ho'okupu, and we offer makana, or gifts, on a ceremony we share at Halema'uma'u in Kilauea.

I offered ho'okupu to Pelehonuamea for us to be able to be there.

[ Speaking Hawaiian ] We offer our intention, a gift to this land to Pelehonuamea.

She found her home here, at Kilauea.

This is where she lives, dwells, creates.

♪♪ ♪♪ [ Speaking Hawaiian ] [ Speaking Hawaiian ] [ Speaking Hawaiian ] Hula noho -- noho means to seat, a sitting noho.

A hula noho with my knees and my feet digging into the pohaku.

And I was feeling that dance 'cause that was raw.

[ Speaking Hawaiian ] The 'ili'ili stones are expressions and an extension of Pele.

So Pele, these are, like, made of basalt rock or lava.

Making... [ Stones clacking ] ...making a noise to wake up the spirits.

"Hear me.

Look at me.

Don't ruin my forest.

Don't kill my friend.

[ Speaks Hawaiian ] Listen to me."

[ Speaking Hawaiian ] [ Speaking continues ] ♪♪ What do I feel?

Fire.

I feel alive.

I feel vibrant.

I feel like I'm connected to my environment.

I'm connected to my people.

I'm connected to the community.

I'm connected to my culture.

I'm connected to my family.

It's a feeling of connectedness.

People have wondered why hula makes them feel.

It makes them feel like they're part of something bigger than themselves.

♪♪ It gives me lots of lessons.

There's lots of hula lessons, and you hula people know what I'm talking about.

♪♪ With hula, there's a kumu, kumu is a teacher.

And then there's haumana, and the haumana and the 'olapa are the students.

They're the seeds that fall off the tree.

So by bringing life into the mele, we tell the story, and we honor our kumu and their kumu's kumu.

So that's the hula lineage.

♪♪ ♪♪ Kanahele-Mossman: We are Hawai'i people.

Our element is the volcano.

We can trace our mele, or our songs, and the songs we've learned since childhood back to this very element, hence the parallel to our family line.

♪♪ My great-grandmother's cousin's mother learned from a hula tradition that is birthed from this island.

And so we have approximately six to seven generations of the dance that we can count today.

♪♪ I've been dancing since I was in my mother's womb [Laughs] as well, so I've been in it since I was born.

When I was a small kid, I wasn't really a fan of dancing hula all the time.

You know, as kids, we don't really understand why we have to do hula, why we have to keep coming to practice every single day.

You know, growing up with it for about 20 years teaches you how to be humble and how to actually understand what hula is and actually find out what the olis and what hula can translate in the environment.

♪♪ We danced to a kuahu -- a shrine, I guess that's the best way to explain it in English.

And here, this is our shrine.

Kilauea is our shrine.

In order to dance to that shrine, we have to be part of them.

We put these things on in order to do that.

So we put on the various body forms of what we see around us.

We can only use greenery.

That is part of our list of kino lau -- our body form greeneries.

♪♪ A lot of these a'ahu, or these costumes, have been kind of, like, passed down generationally and then also innovated over the years, too.

And so these are kupe'e, but kupe'e are a specific type of shell that you can find on the shoreline.

And they only come out during dark moons.

You know, there's a lot of representation behind it, too.

They only come out at nighttime.

So that concept of going to sleep and unearthing the subconscious and possibly that same intelligence or that ancient wisdom that sits there in your DNA.

Kanahele-Mossman: There's an inclusion of ceremony in everything that we do.

Getting ready for performance is a certain type of ceremony for us.

In fact, it puts us in a meditative state prior to going on and becoming the dance.

And in order to become the dance and to become the 'ohi'a tree, or to become these lava rocks or the ferns, we have to go into that state.

[ Drumming ] All: [ Speaking Hawaiian ] And a hulihia dance is a dance in a song that describes a huge change in the Earth.

The huge change in the Earth was an eruption.

And there were a lot of descriptors in there having to do with exactly what we see here, this covering of the earth with black matter, not necessarily lava.

And the fact that from that eruption came this steam and these huge clouds of smoke and these huge clouds of smoke and steam traveling over the Earth.

Women: [ Speaking Hawaiian ] [ Speaking continues ] Kanahele-Mossman: Basic steps.

The very, very first thing when they come on the first day is how to hold their bodies.

Strangely enough, to me, people don't know how to hold themselves.

Shoulders square with your feet so that you have a good base.

Women: [ Speaking continues ] Make sure that this line is straight.

Women: [ Speaking continues ] Kanahele-Mossman: The words in the dance and the rhythm itself will dictate what kind of foot movements you put in there.

Women: [ Speaking continues ] We're showing the expansion of what's going on, that eruption that has been happening, how it spread, and how the process is throughout that eruption.

Our emotions reflect the environment.

And that's how Hi'iaka learned how to dance, too, is seeing the movement through the rocks as it's rolling in the ocean, seeing the wind as it blows through the sea.

That's the kind of motions that she saw.

So she embedded those emotions into her dances, and that's how she first learned how to dance.

So that's exactly what Halau o Kekuhi does.

We embody the environment.

♪♪ Kanahele-Mossman: It's because of the euphoria that you feel when your whole body's doing it, when your whole body is in the dance, when your whole body is becoming that part of the myth.

It's a transformation.

It's a transcendence of what you learned and, you know, taking the dance apart and being very technical about it, to actually being the cloud.

And that's what you feel when you dance.

♪♪ Villanueva: I am transformed into that place, or I'm transformed into the hula.

I turn into a different -- I go into a different realm of hula.

Technically I'm not in the place that I started.

I'm dancing with emotions.

I'm feeling the emotions.

I'm feeling the environment around me and taking it all in.

I don't technically feel like I'm in my own body at the time.

I feel more grounded to the hula than I am to myself.

♪♪ I think that there's a lot of additional applied arts that you learn alongside the choreography.

I think it gives you a sense of understanding and a sense of familiarity with this 'aina and understanding the cycles of it, no matter if it's the birthing cycles of the land or if it's the water cycles and the plants that are important to that.

[ Drumming ] [ Speaking Hawaiian ] Kanahele-Mossman: We call it an ipu.

It's made out of a gourd.

And for the most part, we grow it separately, and we tack it together with string and glue.

And that's called our ipu -- an ipu heke.

In other dances, we use a drum.

We call it a pahu.

[ Speaking Hawaiian ] Kanahele-Mossman: At the musician level, or the ho'opa'a level, you are the connection between the words and the dancer and the land that the words is talking about.

And so in order to be that connection, it's it takes a lot of work start to draw in those different energies.

♪♪ Kapo is actually the goddess of hula.

It's pretty much like adrenaline running through your veins.

And no matter how much pain you're in, no matter how slippery the ground is, no matter what kind of things are going around you, you're just focused on the dance and nothing else, nothing around you matters.

And so you're not even in that space anymore.

Now, Kapo has taken over, and she will continue to dance and continue and continue and continue because that's her job.

♪♪ We have to continue this practice because it has been lost, and it's our responsibility to keep it going.

[ Speaking Hawaiian ] Yuen: One of the first things a culture that is trying to subsume another culture does is destroy the language.

You can't think about what you can't talk about.

So when you take a people's language, they can no longer articulate their culture, and their culture dies.

You know, once we became a territory, Hawaiian could not -- you know, it was no longer taught in the schools.

Children could actually be punished for speaking Hawaiian in the schools.

That was really up until a very recent time when my mother was in school.

They would get punished severely if they spoke Hawaiian to each other.

Kanahele-Mossman: It was forbidden in the schools.

It was forbidden outside on the sidewalks.

It was forbidden in public.

It was only spoken at home behind closed doors.

You know, of course, after 10 years or 15 years of that, it's gonna die out.

[ Birds chirping ] A huge amount of gratitude goes out to those kupuna, or those ancestors, who kept that fortitude, who had the fortitude to say, "We're not gonna let our language go because our language comes from this land."

♪♪ It was people like Uncle Henry Pa and Auntie Lokalia Montgomery -- I have to salute them for holding on to it.

Auntie 'Iolani and my grandmother for insisting that I will keep the language, and I'm going to keep on doing my practice.

[ Speaking Hawaiian ] Kanahele-Mossman: I would say around the late 1970s, maybe '80s, we've seen a revival of this kind of hula that we're doing.

We see a revival of hula that is really grounded in land and really grounded in that kind of phenomenon.

You know, come up to light again, we see people chanting, which we haven't seen before in the past 20 years, and they're not afraid to do it.

And now it's being normalized and therefore a stronger hold on on what belongs to us and what belongs to us is this kind of stuff -- it's the lava and the hapu'u, or the ferns, and the kai, or the ocean.

But we can only connect that way if number one, we have a practice.

And number two, we have our language.

[ Speaking Hawaiian ] A lot of native languages are dying.

Indigenous languages are dying all over the world.

We're on the verge of breaking through all of the suppression that was caused by Western contact.

♪♪ Kanahele: Hula isn't entertainment, hula is a practice.

Hula is a belief.

It's a value of the Hawaiian people.

If we continue hula, though, the 'aina will continue to grow, as well.

As kids, we learned that our 'aina is, or our land, is our kupuna, or our elders and our ancestors.

And so as kids, we would always say good morning to the mountains -- "Good morning, Papa Kea.

Good morning, Mama Loa."

As if they were our grandmothers and grandfather.

We didn't really realize it until as we got older that our blood and our sweat comes from this land.

And we have to continue that blood and sweat in order to reciprocate that relationship that we have with the environment.

♪♪ Villanueva: Like, nowadays I'm realizing now the purpose of hula, and why I'm doing it.

Villanueva: When I started, and I kind of liked it, but then my dad, it kind of conflicted with his, like, Christian beliefs.

So he, like, wasn't in support of me dancing, but I kept going.

It made me feel more Hawaiian.

Other than going to immersion school, speaking Hawaiian and whatnot, it also made me feel like I was a part of my own culture.

[ Speaking Hawaiian ] Kanahele-Mossman: To know that this practice will be okay, even when I'm not in it anymore.

We worked damn hard for that.

[ Laughs ] [ Speaking Hawaiian ] ♪♪ ♪♪ Who are the Hawaiian people?

The Hawaiian people -- kanaka maoli -- are the descendants of those people who set sail going from island to island to island, spreading out across the Pacific.

In our legends, we talk about people who fled, chiefs who were abusing their power.

We talk about people who were curious to see where the sun rose.

We talk about people whose homes were running out of food and so they went in search of new islands.

The people came across the Pacific for many reasons.

♪♪ When I was in school, we were taught that it was pretty much successive waves of migration working their way, stepping stone by stepping stone and finally coming by drift voyage to these islands.

♪♪ ♪♪ But now more and more of the DNA and archeological evidence is showing that it was more like... ...people kind of going out for different reasons and that they were intentional voyages rather than drift voyages.

So they had women with them, they had supplies with them, they had resources with them.

They kept extending their reach from one island group to the next island group and making ever longer voyages as they kept crossing the Pacific.

And by practicing with the short voyages, they learned that the clouds over an island are different than the clouds over the flat ocean or the clouds over a continent.

They learned that certain birds can only go so far away from an island at a time, you know, in one flight.

And then they have to get home before dark.

So if you see those birds, there's an island somewhere nearby.

They learned to read the ocean currents.

So they had this huge knowledge base.

They had these skills they developed.

♪♪ Our chants and legends talk about these voyages.

People still count their genealogies back to these great voyagers.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ There are actually many types of hula.

Today we just divide them into hula kahiko, ancient hula, and hula 'auana, modern hula.

But there was hula ha'a, which was the hula of the men.

The men danced in the temple.

There was also a type of hula that the warriors used to train themselves for battle.

There was the very simple hula of the common people, which was extemporaneous and just done.

You know, if you're coming in with your fish and you land and people on the shore say, "Oi, how many fish did you catch?"

And you go, [ Speaking Hawaiian ] You know, you can go on, extemporizing, you know.

And a person who speaks the language fluently and does this all of the time, of course, would just be able to whip it right out.

♪♪ Then as time went on and we come into the modern era and during the monarchy, as you have all these new people coming in and not every influence was bad -- Portuguese came to our islands and they brought with them the braguinha, the machete, and we turned that into the ukulele.

So we created a style of dance that was based in the rhythms and the metaphors of our ancient dance forms, but used these new instruments and melodies.

And that became known as 'auana.

♪♪ 'Auana means to wander.

And so you could wander through the dance.

You didn't have protocols.

You didn't have to put yourself under kapu.

You could just dance.

♪♪ ♪♪ At first it looked more like kahiko, but as time went on, it became more and more -- utilized more and more of the Western-style music.

Church hymns can be heard within the melodies of the 'auana.

There's been a lot of exchange between the Americas and Hawai'i.

A lot of musical innovations happened in our islands.

It spread throughout the world eventually.

♪♪ Fo: "Blue Hawaii" -- Elvis Presley loved Hawai'i, and there was a song that we all had heard all our life, but, to him, he hadn't, and he fell in love with this, and it's "Blue Hawaii."

♪♪ He did a movie, and he called it "Blue Hawaii."

Then a couple of years went by and he decided to do a TV special, "Blue Hawaii" special.

And this time he wanted a hula dancer.

So he sent some people out and says, "Give me the best hula dancer.

Bring her in here.

I want her to be dancing while I'm singing," and that was me.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ This is me, the hula dancer that they chose.

And I'm standing on top of a oil drum.

[ Laughs ] But of course, they didn't show that part.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Waikiki was the best thing that ever happened.

You just can't imagine how Waikiki was.

That's where all the performers went and all the big shows and everybody.

That was the place.

Now it's not there, 'cause the people from the mainland decided they wanted to do something else.

So they just went in and went.

Gone.

♪♪ But at that time, that was really terrific.

It was beautiful.

And one of the secrets, I think, was there was a guy come in.

His name was Don Ho.

And what Don did was he made it from the backyard songs, instead of all the fancy stuff and like that.

And the Hawaiians came in and just filled the place.

It was a very large place just to sing the backyard songs.

And there was nothing like it.

Nothing like it.

It was wonderful.

♪♪ ♪♪ Yuen: I like to call hula a kinetic language in that you use your whole body.

Every gesture is used to describe things in the song, to tell the story of the song.

And so that all is a direct descendant of the very ancient.

But then those melodies are -- you know, they're very modern.

So we tie it together to create just like the modern Hawai'i, you know?

♪♪ Whether it's ancient, whether it's modern, whether it's Hawaiian, whether it's hapa... ♪♪ ...it's about sharing the culture and the story.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Delacruz: Hawai'i -- Hawai'i is a beautiful place.

You just see people who look like people here.

We don't really differentiate between our races.

We're just a big pot of mixed cultures.

♪♪ All of us are connected because we came from one entity, Polynesia.

We have Tahitians out in Puna side, Samoans and Tongans all over town.

We're all islanders.

[ Laughs ] We're all connected through story lines.

Land mass is supposed to be one entity that is just separated by the ocean.

So wherever the ocean touches, I connect with you.

♪♪ ♪♪ Delacruz: We're at Pohoiki.

This is Isaac Hale Beach Park.

My husband's family was born and raised here.

That's their house there.

Yeah, it was almost taken.

The lava is about 100 yards away from the house.

And we almost lost the house, and we were spared.

And we're so thankful that it's still here.

♪♪ Pretty much Kilauea -- it unexpectedly erupted, and the lava spread all the way over here.

A lot of homes were taken.

A lot of people had to move.

And when I heard about it, I was, like -- I was devastated 'cause I thought it would take the house.

But it was almost as like if Pele didn't want to take it 'cause she knew.

So I was like, "Oh, wow.

That's really special."

♪♪ Delacruz: Hawaiians and Tahitians are Polynesian cousins.

And if you look at our legends, our god, Pele, came from Kahiki.

So because Pele was born in Tahiti and traveled here to Hawai'i, a lot of our stories are about her.

♪♪ Tahitian dance, the core of it, to me, is the drumbeats that you heard, the fast hip motions, the hau skirts, and just telling a story in with a combination of those things -- drum beats, hips, more, theme.

♪♪ Kekuawela: 'Ori Tahiti is pretty much -- it tells every single story of how Tahiti -- of what Tahiti is, how it came to be, the people of Haiti.

♪♪ ♪♪ Delacruz: Yeah, so my favorite part of Tahitian is the 'ote'a which is the fastest of the dances where you see the fast hip motions.

So you're gonna see a lot of the fa'arapu, which is the most famous move for Tahitian.

I would say it's like a fast circular motion with the hips.

We have our ta'ere tamau, our bumps from side to side.

We have our smaller, faster circles, which we call a ueue.

Yeah.

It's just a lot of hip motions and putting that together with hand motions to tell a story.

♪♪ A lot of the moves, they have different meanings.

For example, I could go like how the tree sways.

You could go like this.

If I wanted to talk about the wind, you could do hand movements like this.

Or like the ocean, you know.

You can pretty much do whatever you want with your hips.

It's the hand movements that tell the story.

♪♪ At first, I'll get nervous, but then once I'm on stage and the drumbeats start, everything kind of just fades away.

And I just zone out, and I just, like -- I feel free.

I dance my heart out, and I do my best.

And it makes me feel free.

♪♪ I've pretty much been raised into Tahitian dancing since I was like 3 years old.

So ever since I could walk, I've been, you know [Laughs] I've been moving my hips.

And I think my mom used to take me to practice.

And I remember listening to the drums, they were really loud, but I loved it.

I loved every second of it.

♪♪ Delacruz: I have two uncles who are kumu hula, and they had a hula halau, and they would do shows.

And I was just a little girl watching.

They would do everything -- They would do hula, Maori, Samoan, and my favorite was the Tahitian.

And I would just perk up and all eyes on Tahitian.

And I knew that that was just what I wanted to do.

And so as soon as I was big enough to do it, I put myself into it.

♪♪ [ Singing "Tamari'i no Tahiti" ] A lot of the dancers in Hawai'i, they start as hula dancers.

So they kind of have a basic, you know, of the hip motions, of the poise that's needed, of the discipline that's required.

So when they come in like that, it's a little easier.

They move up a little faster.

[ Singing continues ] I started because I liked the way that I could express myself through body language, facial expression...

Band member: [ Vocalizes ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ...and also competing, seeing many different costumes in a variety of color and styles and improving each year.

♪♪ Yeah, like, sometimes we perform for our schools.

Aoki: Yeah.

They're always like, "Oh, wow, that's so amazing how you can move like that."

♪♪ Our children, their story was thought of during the Mauna a Wakea movement.

We're protecting our mauna the Mauna Kea movement, and so their theme was on malama 'aina and just protecting and preserving our native lands, which is why their costume was mostly of natural, natural fibers to represent their love and respect for the land and perpetuating that as the next generation.

♪♪ Sibayan: Me and my mom, we had a conversation.

I asked her, like, "What do you think the main difference between hula and Tahitian is?"

She said, "Tahitian is more vigorous, more action, plenty.

Hula is precise."

♪♪ When the drums are going, you feel it.

It's like it excites you.

I don't know what it is about it.

It calls -- for us, it's like, "Let's go."

Back in the day, it was announcement of a king arriving or we have visitors coming.

When Captain Cook came to all the islands, we all announce that he was coming.

Because, you know, those lookers out on the hills, they were like, "Hey."

[ Imitates drumming ] You know?

Start playing the drums and, "Oh, somebody coming."

♪♪ This one in particular that I'm sitting in front of is called a to'ere.

This is from Tahiti.

[ Taps drum ] Just for resonation.

So you dig the inside.

Back in the day, they used to carve a little bit.

Dig out the hole, burn it so it all turns to ash and then dig it all out so you get your... [ Drumming ] There's a big drum that is called the tariparau or we call it pahu.

It's the main tempo.

The smaller drum looks like a snare.

It's called a fa'atete.

That one is to enhance.

♪♪ Heartbeat of everything is drums.

♪♪ The drumming for Tahitian is specifically made for the dancers.

What you see is called an 'ote'a or a group dance.

♪♪ Basically the beats go to what the dancers are dancing to, specifically what they're portraying in a story.

♪♪ ♪♪ Delacruz: So we did a lot of impromptu, and you'll see that with Tahitian competitions, in solo competitions mostly, where the dancers will go into a competition.

They won't know what drum beats are coming.

And so part of the skill that they're graded on is being able to impromptu the dance based on what they're hearing with the drums without even knowing what's coming.

So being able to recognize the drum beat and match their dance to that drum beat.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ It takes a veteran dancer to do that well.

♪♪ A dancer that is good, you see it on their face.

You see it through their hands, their eyes, their mouths.

You know, sometimes it's their hips and their legs.

Some make you cry, some get you goose bumps, chicken skin, you know, some get you upset.

It's like watching a movie action.

All these emotions in one scene, you know?

♪♪ ♪♪ Kekuawela: I really think our generation could better from this culture, like, learning who they are and where they come from and how their home, like, came to be.

♪♪ Hawai'i is truly a place, like -- there's nowhere else like Hawai'i.

It's one of a kind.

[ Band sings in native language ] Fuels me to keep going because I'm getting old, you know, I'm getting older and, you know, I want to retire.

But when I see the new generation come out, the little 4 year old and, you know, it fuels me.

So when I see the next generation with that passion, it refuels my passion.

[ Singing in native language ] ♪♪ ♪♪ Dancing with all eternity, it, like, it just all comes together.

It makes sense.

This is my culture, and I really want to embrace as much as I can.

♪♪ Hey!

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Tualaulelei: I've been dancing ever since I was 4.

So I used to go to the luau show and then I would watch my father from the Samoan men wherever he was at, I'd watch him do it when -- as a young kid.

♪♪ Came born and raised here in Hawai'i.

I wasn't really brought up in the culture.

My mom's Hawaiian, and my dad's Samoan, and I was kind of, you know, always looked down on because I didn't live in Samoa.

I don't speak the language fully.

I understand it, but to have a conversation, that was a hard thing growing up.

I had to learn and learn and learn.

Fireknife dancing is what I was good at.

And that's the whole reason why I'm still trying to learn who I am as a Samoan, because I control how I fireknife, and fireknife, like, validates me as a Samoan.

[ Waves crash ] ♪♪ I decided in 2015 -- I was working a security job.

I wasn't really doing a lot, so I was sitting down thinking a lot.

I was like, "You know what?

I want to live a life, a legacy, teaching, you know, next generation, what I know."

And I kind of just foreseen it all in my head that, you know, be a big thing 'cause I know how I felt when I did it.

So if I could just help other kids feel the same way, I knew that it would be big or be a big impact on other kids.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Indistinct chatter ] We are Siva Tau, and that's the club here on Maui.

And we represent the same goal that everybody's trying to get to as far as fireknife dancing.

So it's learning the basics, learning the art, the history, and the origins of it.

And then from there, if you get all those structures below you, you can literally become anything else in the world that you put your mind to.

Oh, my name is Vincent Evalu.

I'm from Western Samoa, born and raised.

And been on this beautiful island of Maui for about 19, 20 years now.

[ Laughter ] ♪♪ It's definitely not just the fancy moves and whatnot, you know, it's knowing the basics and knowing how to portray the warrior spirit, like, you know.

That's something that I've always learned from when I was young, you know?

It's not about just dancing a fire, you know, it's putting your heart, your passion and showing the world how much passion that you can have while performing this art.

♪♪ [ Indistinct chatter ] [ Hands clap ] During the war time, there was a dance called the siva tau, and it was actually performed to intimidate the opponents.

It portrayed dancing, showing the skills or their mana.

You know, showing them the mana that they do bring on the table, you know, just to intimidate them before the battle.

And then afterwards, the battle was done, and the celebration would've come in, as far as the ailao or the nifo'oti.

And by doing so, they used to attach the enemy's head to the hook and then were able to carry it around just for a victory dance.

♪♪ [ Men vocalizing ] [ Cheering ] [ Hands clap ] They would have it as far as you can see over here.

It would look like a club.

It would be a lot bigger than this.

And then you have the hook at the end.

And that hook, we call it the nifo'oti which is the tooth of death, you know.

So through time, you know, we was able to pick up a metal, you know, from the Europeans, and we was able to made it into a blade.

♪♪ The fireknife dance in Samoa was the war dance that they would do to celebrate, when they came back, their victory.

So they would emulate the moves that they did in battle, spinning the stick that had the knife at the end.

♪♪ Freddie Olo Letuli, he was a chief back from Samoa.

He came up to Las Vegas and started up the fireknife dance.

He added fire on both sides and lit it up.

And the rest was history after that.

♪♪ Evalu: Every motion, every step, there's a way of saying it, there's a name for the move or the motion.

It's very important that you learn the culture and the language at the same time.

♪♪ ♪♪ So the first motion that we actually do learn, which with the two hands, we call it the vili.

Vili also translated to like a propeller, or propel, you know, like a like a spinning or spinning, yeah.

So from here.

♪♪ We call this the vili, right?

And that's your first motion ever.

And that's two hands.

And then we call it vili tasi which is the next step.

And that's the next one that you learn, which is the one-hand.

And that's the two basic moves that you start off with when you're getting into fireknife dancing.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Pi: It's actually really good to learn fireknife because you can -- like, it's your job to control the fire that you're spinning.

But it's kind of difficult at the same time to not burn yourself.

♪♪ ♪♪ I've gotten burned a lot.

[ Chuckles ] ♪♪ Every time at school, I feel like I try to always fireknife so new people in my school get to see it, because, like, this is a privilege that you get.

Like, it's just something that's very cool.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Tualaulelei: It's a maturity thing, you know.

I've taught students now that are out of high school, and they thank me a lot more.

And I know that they see more appreciation just from the level of respect it gets.

♪♪ Just the older they get, they start to appreciate it more.

And I feel like that's just everybody with their culture.

You find a time in your life where you you start kind of looking back at who you are and where you came from, and then you start appreciating those stories.

You start asking a little bit more, you know, maybe your family, or you start asking yourself, like, "Do I want to go and learn a little bit more?"

And a lot of these kids are coming back, and they're just appreciative or they even do their own study, and they come back and tell me, like, "Oh, this guy did this and that."

♪♪ ♪♪ So your stage presence, whatever you wear, your tea leaves, your war paint on your face, everything should signify an old Samoan warrior going into battle.

♪♪ The leaves is our every day.

In Samoa, that's what they would wear.

Obviously, we don't have pants.

So if you're going through the forest and the bushes, then this is gonna be a good cover for you.

It's like long pants from your lavalava all the way down to your chaps.

[ Laughs ] ♪♪ ♪♪ It's kind of like you're in a fight.

Like, that's what it feels like.

You hear the drums, the fire's on you, and people are looking at you.

You just get that, like, kind of anxiety and, like, everything shuts off.

The fire doesn't burn.

I mean, you could feel the heat, but then you just feel like you have to perform for some reason, it's like a fight, like.

It's like you perform or you die.

So it's kind of like you have to be in control, but you kind of have to fight it, you know, to be in control.

You got to fight your emotions.

You got to fight that -- you know, being scared that you might not, you know, catch it or you might cut yourself, you might burn yourself.

So there's a lot of things going through your mind, and it's going at a really fast pace.

♪♪ [ Cheering ] ♪♪ Evalu: The word mana means a lot than just the word.

It's a feeling.

It's the trust that you have in yourself that you can become something.

And it also leads you to unleashing your passion.

Man: Whoo!

♪♪ Evalu: It literally brings out the better in you.

It brings out pretty much the power within you.

And that power is to perform with your passion.

And I'll be honest with you right now, it's the best feeling.

Your energy attracts people.

♪♪ [ Shouts indistinctly ] ♪♪ [ Grunts ] [ Vocalizes ] ♪♪ Evalu: You still feel that presence of your ancestors, you know, for whoever is performing, you know, you always feel the presence of the ancestors that are literally behind you in every emotion that you go through or in every aspect of the journey that you take.

♪♪ Because you're not just portraying just the art, but you're portraying people from the past, and you have to have that mana spirit.

You know, you have to have that spirit of a warrior in you while performing, because it's not just a dance, you know.

I would say it's a lifestyle.

It's a life.

[ Vocalizing ] Tualaulelei: For me, like, I'm proud of both cultures.

I'm proud of being Hawaiian.

I'm proud of being Samoan, and just a Polynesian in general because we have so much to offer here.

You know, with Hawaiians, it's always that aloha spirit.

The Samoan people are known as the happy people of the South Pacific.

So when you're happy, and you're giving aloha all the time, you know, what's better than that in life?

You know, helping people.

sharing the aloha.

♪♪ Yeah.

I definitely think a lot of people are taking -- not only taking pride more, but just realizing that we're the next generation coming up, and if we don't do anything about our cultural places or keeping our culture alive, then we'll end up losing it.

♪♪ ♪♪ Delacruz: I just feel love, that's all I feel when I dance.

I feel love.

I feel passion.

I feel my ancestors.

I feel my family who came before me who introduced me to it.

I feel all of my leaders from before who taught it to me.

♪♪ Yuen: I like to call the Hawaiian body of chant and dance -- I like to call it the Hawaiian Library of Congress, that it's a resource that belongs to the lahui, to the people as a whole.

Every thought the human mind can think, every emotion the human heart can feel is encoded in a chant or hula somewhere.

♪♪ Kanahele: You know, hula is a tool.

It's a protocol, and it's a function.

♪♪ And we all have that responsibility to continue that function of what hula actually does, which is to embody the environment and to hope to continue that thriving of a forest or that continuous healthiness of the ocean and of the coral reef.

♪♪ Each indigenous people all over the world has their heartbeat.

They have their native dance, they have their expression.

That shows what kind of people they are, and it brings them alive, and it makes them alive.

It keeps their cultural practices, and it connects each indigenous community around the world.

And that's what we all have in common.

We have in common all of our dances and our expressions of our culture.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Woman: [ Speaking Hawaiian ] [ Speaking continues ] [ Speaking continues ]