Coming off a groundbreaking performance in Washington, D.C., dancers at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo are bringing that national momentum home.
Inside the campus dance studio, they’re training with nationally renowned choreographer Mike Esperanza to prepare an original work for the stage.
The connection began last May, when instructor Kea Kapahua led 16 UH Hilo dancers to the American College Dance Association conference in Wyoming. Their performance of Haliʻa Aloha no Kaimū, honoring Kapahua’s Kalapana heritage, helped earn UH Hilo a spot among just 30 schools nationwide selected for the festival in Washington, D.C.
Esperanza, who served as an adjudicator, was moved by what he saw.
“There was something really spiritual about what we saw,” he recalled.
That encounter eventually brought Esperanza to UH Hilo as an artist-in-residence. The week-long residency gave students a taste of professional company life, with fast-paced rehearsals and demanding physical training.
“For UH Hilo students to have this opportunity is really special; a lot of larger schools don’t even get to experience a residency to this capacity,” Esperanza said.
The dancers will premiere the finished work on December 12 at the UH Hilo Performing Arts Center.
