Kau’i Tuia was Honored with the Kumu Hula Designation After Extensive Training and a Lifetime of Dancing and Teaching
Kau’i Tuia, who has been a professor in the BYU Department of Dance for the past 25 years, has recently been named Kumu Hula — a master teacher in the art of hula. The process to become Kumu Hula is much like any Master’s program, with strenuous training and exams, culminating with a final ceremony. The achievement is a great honor within Hawaiian culture and Tuia noted how the experience has given her a deeper understanding of her culture, which she strives to share with students.
“Kumu means ‘the source’ that you can go to for information,” Tuia said. “Even becoming a Kumu Hula only scratches the surface of what needs to happen. I still don’t feel like I have enough knowledge.”
Tuia began dancing hula when she was only three years old. Her father taught her and her six siblings how to dance. Tuia’s father passed away in 2005 but he continues to inspire her. She was hesitant to pursue Kumu Hula but with encouragement from her master teacher, her husband and her father from the other side, she decided to go for it.
Becoming a Kumu Hula takes a lot more than a few years of schooling, Tuia explained. One needs to have been dancing for 10-15 years before even starting the process so that they have the basic knowledge and steps down. “Being a Kumu Hula means you know a lot of other things, not just dancing,” Tuia said. “You have to know how to beat the drum and know how to make choreography which means you also need to make sure you know the meanings behind all of the songs — not just the English translations of them.” The Hawaiian language has many different ways of explaining something; for example, there are 150 different words to name ‘clouds.’
“Now that I’ve become Kumu Hula, I’ve gained a greater understanding and better insight into my own culture and I’m able to share it in a different way,” she said.
Tuia said that students often come to her class with only a basic understanding of Hawaiian culture that they don’t realize is convoluted with Hawaiian stereotypes. She gave the example of the difference between Hawaiian and Tahitian customs, including the coconut bra (a Tahitian tradition often misconstrued as Hawaiian). “Being able to teach completely different cultures to students who had no idea that they were different and helping them realize that the cultures are separate brings me a lot of joy,” she said. “I am happy to give them information that is more correct than they may see elsewhere.”
Tuia primarily teaches Dance 175 and 275, which are Polynesian Dance Technique classes. Her focus in those classes is to share her culture and the joy of dance. “I don’t teach dance just so my students can perform,” Tuia said. “I teach so that the students can learn to have fun. I’ve found here at BYU a lot of students take their job as students so seriously that they forget to have fun. I hope that when they come to my class that they are reminded that even though school is important, we have to make sure that we don’t forget why we’re here, which, in my opinion, is to associate with and learn from other people. We’re here to learn about other people and embrace new and exciting things.”
Tuia said the thing she loves most about her job is the students. “Many teachers say that but it is true. When my students tell me, ‘Auntie, you’re the best,’ I say, ‘I want to be here because of you — you are the best!’ Seeing students so willing to learn of my culture makes me cry,” Tuia said. “All I know is that I love what I do. Hopefully what I do shares the love of these cultures. I want them to go out and reciprocate that and share the love of my culture to people they come in contact with.”