I started dancing when I was 3- I took ballet and tap dance until we moved to Hawaii when I was 4. My family moved to an area that didn’t have a lot of options for those dance styles but I did find a lot of hula. I started dancing with a hula halau (hula school) in 1st grade with my friends. We grew up and danced through high school together. In sixth grade, we competed in a small group Keiki competition (kids 12 and younger) and I had dreams of going to the big one called Merrie Monarch someday.
I was selected as the May Day queen of my high school senior year- which meant I did a hula solo for the yearly cultural festival. I was honored and terrified- I’m not actually Hawaiian but I do love an appreciate their culture and dance and wanted to share that in my performance. Dance from other cultures continued to stay with me through college, where I minored in Folk Dance. Since then I’ve been married, had 4 boys and working for the family construction business. This when I decided I needed to do something for me again, and dance is my happy place. It’s also my favorite way to exercise. This is when I decided to make some videos and share the basics so others can learn and dance with me!
