Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 30, Number 12, 1 December 2013 — Still dancing at 85, Joan Lindsey wins hula award [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Still dancing at 85, Joan Lindsey wins hula award

By Lynn Cook II I I umility is the \ I most important thing, and to I I love what you I I learn and know when you dance that you have honored your teachers." So said Kumu Hula Joan Na'u'oeemilika'aokalikookalanialoha Sniffen Lindsey as she accepted the prestigious I Ola Mau Ka Hula annual award from the Hula Grill restaurant at the Outrigger Waiklkl on the Beach. The Nov. 2 award presentation was an afternoon packed with hula, mueh of it danced by the 85-year-old honoree, joined by her vintage students who began dancing for her when they were 4 years old, her children, grandchildren and more recent haumāna, students, from many generations. They laughingly told hula training stories of "duck walking" for miles, knees bent in the way they would no longer bend. She was lovingly described as a kumu who was "tough on us, making us into real dancers." Aunhe Joanie, as she is called

by family, friends and students, still teaches hula and serves as a judge for the Merrie Monarch Festival in Hilo. Since it began in 1976, she has taken her keiki dancers to the annual O'ahu Queen Lili'uokalani Keiki Hula

Competition, as well as the Hula o Nā Keiki competition on Maui. Lindsey's life has been chronicled by the Hula Preservation Society, the organization working with Hula Grill eaeh year to select an honoree. Past recipients include Unele George Naope, Kent Ghirard, sisters Leilani and Puanani Alama and Auntie Queenie Ventura Dowsett, renowned solo dancer and student of 'Iolani Luahine. Chris Pasqil, who is earning

a master's degree, teaching at Moanalua High School and working a few days a month at Hula Grill, continues to assist in the selection of the recipient. Pasqil dances for Kumu Hula Robert Cazimero's Hālau Nā Kamalei. Cazimero was there to sing for Auntie Joanie. Maile Loo, executive director of Hula Preservation Society, says Lindsey's hula life began with her grandparents in Kohala, on the island of Hawai'i, learning of things

Hawaiian. They were the first to nurture her desire to learn hula. Returning to O'ahu, she was raised by her Korean grandparents, beginning her formal hula training as a teenager with an aunt, Caroline Peters Tuck. In the 1940s, she tried out for Lena Guerrero's dance troupe. Mueh to her surprise, she was chosen, and says: "With Auntie Lena Guerrero, because it was sort of like a USO group, you know, we learned to twist and twirl, around the island and all of that. ... It was showtime!" They danced at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. Soon after, Lena Machado was auditioning dancers as well, and as Auntie Joanie recalls: "She was looking and I went to try. She picked me, but it was a different style."

Lindsey explains that because Machado composed songs, "when you danced it you had to dance it to the tee because of what she was trying to say." Auntie's solo number with Lena Machado was Ei Nei. In the early 1950s Lindsey moved to take hula from Lōkālia

Montgomery, saying it was hard work. "You look at her, and you're not gonna fool around. Everything had to be memory." Auntie Joanie has taught in the Pearl City area for decades. She worked in the Department of Education's Kūpuna Program at Mānana Elementary School for more than 20 years, inspiring new generations to love hula and Hawaiian culture. She says one joy of teaching is meeting her students' great-grandparents. They say: "Remember me? I used to be one of your students." "When I think back, if I weren't in hula," Lindsey says: "I can't imagine what my life would be. Can't, really can't imagine, 'cause you know, through hula you learn how to handle things, just go ahead and rise above the problem. You know, you have hard choices to make, and you make them. "One of the greatest things is when you ask the kids, who taught you hula? They say, my grandma, or my auntie or my unele, or my mommy. So I always tell the family when they want to bring the ehildren, I say, you know what, teach themthe basic. Let themknow that they're learning the basic from you. It stays with the child. That's what they're gonna remember, and that makes a difference." ■ Lynn Cook i.s a loeal freelance journalist sharing the arts and culture ofHawai'i with a glohal auāienee.

When I think back, if I weren't in hula. I can't imagine what my life would be. Can't, really can't imagine, cause you know, through hula you learn how to handle things , just go ahead and rise above the problem. You know, you have hard choices to make, and you make them. — /oan Na u 'oeemilika 'aokalikookalanialoha Sniffen Lindsey, Kumu Hula

HkLLllK .IT m. At the ceremony, Robert Cazimero, right, sung for honoree Joan Lindsey. Chris Pasqil, of Hula Grill, whieh presents the annual hula award, is at left. - Photo: tynn Cook

Kumu Hula Joan Lindsey, affectionately known as "Auntie Joanie," poses for a photo at her home in Pearl City in 1 981 . - Courtesy: Shuzo Uemoto