Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 27, Number 5, 1 May 2010 — RAE FONSECA 1953-2010 Fonseca had a passion for culture [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

RAE FONSECA 1953-2010 Fonseca had a passion for culture

By Liza Simon KaWai Ola Kona kumu hula Etua Lopes admits to feeling a pang of grief these days when his eell phone rings in the morning. That was the eustomary time for Rae Fonseea to eall. "We had daily hula diseussions going baek more than 43 years," said Lopes. "It's hard to aeeept that this won't happen anymore." Lopes said that Fonseea was deeply saddened by the loss of Aunty Dottie, who diedMareh 19, a day before Fonseea's passing. Fonseea had finished preparations for the Merrie Monareh in the weeks leading up to the April event, ineluding the making of pahu (drums) for his kāne daneers. "He had dotted all his i's and erossed his t's, as if he were preparing to "go in peaee," said Lopes. Lopes joins the hula community in grieving the sudden death - whieh happened offstage after a hula performance on O'ahu - of an eminent hula brother who injected so mueh vigor into building and nurturing his Hālau Hula o Kahikilaulani. "He loved to stick with tradition. Like in the wahine 'auana, one of his trademark moves was to have the girls milimili, or roll, their hands. It was a soft touch from years and years ago," Lopes said. Before hula, Fonseca took up Tahitian drumming while still in elementary school on O'ahu, where he and Lopes first heeame friends. Fonseca taught Lopes Tahitian drumming and convinced him to play along with him aboard the Kamehameha Day float. Thus began a musical collaboration between the two that would span so many decades. Barely in middle

school, the two were schooled by a Tahitian percussion master, who would take the boys into the forest of Ha'ikū Valley, where they learned the correct style of fagete, Tahitian stick drumming. They heeame the in-demand percussionists for Lokelani's hula studio in Kāne'ohe. "One day the studio door opened and in walked a stern but intriguing hula master dressed from head-to-toe in flamboyant pink from hat to shoes." Unele George Nā'ope, a co-founder of the Merrie Monarch Festival, had arrived in their lives. For the next several decades, they were Nā'ope's hāumana in all aspects of hula. The two were uniki'd by Unele George together in 1978. "Rae's mother was Euro-pean-born and she gave him an appreciation for many special things like well-prepared sit-down dinner parties, but the thing he was most passionate about fitting all aspects of Hawaiian culture into hula. He knew that everything we do in hula is about our history," said Lopes. Fonseca heeame a well-known ambassador of hula in Mexico,

where he established a hālau. Hi Mexican hālau members were present at last month's Merrie Monarch Festival.

For Fonseca's memorial ser- W ' vices in Hilo, Lopes said he was I asked to share stories about his

friend but found it difficult to encapsulate so mueh mana'o about his hula brother into words. "I could still see (Rae) in

his dancers who performed at the service. They had so mueh strength from him. They were amazing." ■

Rae Fonseca. - Courtesy photo