At 4 years old, many children attend preschool to learn the alphabet song.
Sophomore Kiana Isono set her mind to become a hula dancer.
“My mom lived in Hawaii so I was aways surrounded by hula dancers and I always thought they were really pretty so I wanted to be pretty too,” said Isono.
That was the year she began her long journey in hula which she still continues today.
Isono started competing in the hula school Keolalaulani Halau ‘Olapa O Laka.
“It has been about 11 years since I have been doing hula,” said Isono.
Eleven years of hula is a lot of commitment; Isono puts all her efforts to be the best at hula, but this sometimes stops her from participating in other sports.
“ Last year, [in 9th grade] I had to quit track because it was during the same season as our competition, and we are not allowed to do another sport while it’s competition season. We have to focus on perfecting our moves to win an award. We won third place out of third last year,” said Isono.
Isono is not the only one who commits her time to hula.
“I have been doing hula for about 12 years now and I plan to continue doing hula for the rest of my life,” said junior Kiana Edwards.
Because they have been doing hula for so long, they call each other family not colleagues.
“We don’t call each other teammates, we call each other hula sisters. Me and my hula sisters have been dancing together for about a decade now,” said Edwards.
Although hula takes up much of their time, it is an outlet of relaxation for them.
“This is a stress reliever for me, whenever I go practice with my hula sisters, I always have fun,” said sophomore Mikayla Fong.
Even with the heavy burden of school work, these girls always have a way to come together as one.
