By 6:30 p.m. last Thursday, the Grand Hyatt Kauai’s lu‘au moved like a well-oiled machine. Servers hustled between the long tables lined in front of the stage, dispensing mai tais to tourists in aloha shirts. John Rivera bopped his head
By 6:30 p.m. last Thursday, the Grand Hyatt Kauai’s lu‘au moved like a well-oiled machine.
Servers hustled between the long tables lined in front of the stage, dispensing mai tais to tourists in aloha shirts. John Rivera bopped his head above an electric ‘ukulele. Backstage, a dancer with Kaleo Club International bit into the centers of ti leaves, then peeled out the severed stems.
Doric Yaris, kumu at Kalau Hula O Hali‘ileo, stood along the side of the banquet tables as the hula performance started. A voice over the loudspeaker promised a memorized form of storytelling, passed from generation to generation.
But the performance, Yaris said, would be his dancers’ last at the hotel. The Hyatt will bring in O‘ahu-based Tihati Productions, ending the Kaleo Club’s four-year stint.
“We’re trying to reinvent ourselves,” said Katy Britzmann, director of sales and marketing at the Hyatt. The hotel, once a Hyatt Regency, recently re-branded itself as a Grand Hyatt, a change that involves an expansion of the spa to 20,000 feet, Britzmann said.
She said Tihati Productions would hire Kauaian dancers to perform at the hotel’s lua‘us.
Though he wouldn’t divulge the amount the hotel paid to contract his performance group, Yaris said the loss of business is significant.
“We have 32 people out of work,” he said, adding that the loss could also hurt the Port Allen-based hulau he has run for the past 15 years.
“The money that I make here supports the money I make for my hulau,” he said. “It’s essential. I’m hoping I get something new really quick.”
More than 100 students come to the hulau to study traditional Hawaiian dance, music and culture, Yaris said. He also has a hulau in Japan.
Talented students move on to become members of the Kaleo Club, which performs at venues such as the Hyatt and the Sheraton Kauai Resort. The biggest show is the lu‘au at the Hyatt.
Yaris had said he would stop the dance if it rained Thursday night, but he let the show continue as the dancers’ feathered costumes became soaked. He dedicated the show to his late wife, Momi, who passed away in 2003, a year after helping secure the Hyatt contract.
Dancers and family members gathered under a shelter behind the stage and out of the rain.
Gail Lorenzo watched her grandson and other children bang on a toy drum while her son sat onstage behind a drum kit.
“We kept promising that they would get to see the show, so we brought them tonight,” she said.
Kiana Tanaka, a 12-year-old student at Waimea Canyon School, did traditional dances in the pre-show Thursday night. She started dancing because she wanted to learn about Hawaiian culture, she said.
“Since I come from Hawai‘i, I should dance hula.”
She said she was sad that the show had ended, but added: “I know in the future we’ll have more shows.”
Kalaheo-resident Emily Manuel, who danced at the Hyatt lu‘au for four years, agreed.
“Every ending is a new beginning,” she said.
