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This interview with Kumu
Sonny Ching was published in the Japanese magazine Hula Le'a, 2001
Spring Ed.,
The respectable kumu hula Sonny Ching Hula has been always around me since when I was born Sonny Ching, kumu hula, was born in 1962 in Honolulu. His mother's side grandmother was a pure Hawai'ian and the kumu hula. His father is a Chinese Hawai'ian. "So my family name is Ching," he smiles. "Hula has been always around me since when I was born. My family is what you Japanese people call 'Iemoto' of hula. It might be like a Japanese kabuki family, there are its own manners, customs and lifestyle. However I thought every family was like my family until I was grown up." When he was four he began practicing hula with his own will. "My great grandmother had a dream before I was born that I (who was unborn yet) would inherit our family tradition. So my grandmother had decided me to be the successor of our family." His grandmother was not only his "grandma" but also his "kumu hula", his "best friend" and his "roommate". "I had private lessons of hula from grandmother every day. My parents built a house next to her when I was five, however I lived with my grandmother until I was twelve." One day his father told him not to learn hula any more. "There was a famous musician in my father's side, but it was not a hula family. My father believed that hula was not a thing men do. Because he was a football coach, he suggested [to] me [to] play football or other sports." So I left my grandmother's house to live with my parents and started to play football and other sports, but I did not like them very much. "So, I started to practice hula from my grandmother again in secret for about two years. Right now my father is my great supporter and helps me a lot. I really appreciated my parents' help all the time." My great kumu Frank Hewett who influenced me a lot When he was fifteen, he started to take lessons from kumu hula Frank Hewett with his cousin. "Because I had taken a private lesson[s] from my grandmother, I thought becoming one of the members of a halau would be [a] very important experience to me. I think Frank is really spiritual, intellectual and enthusiastic about maintaining Hawai'ian tradition. By learning from him, I realized again my suitability for this life and the knowledge I had acquired while I did not realize. I also recognized that I could do something very important for keeping the Hawaiian culture. Without his instruction, I cannot be such a mentally strong kumu hula as I am today. Frank is the second best person who influenced me greatly, next to my grandmother. There is still the relationship between teacher and disciple between he and I. "Although I have not graduated from him, I hope he thinks I am still one of his haumanas, and I believe he still thinks so. Of course I always respect him so much. Now I am a kumu hula and have my own halau, still he is my kumu forever. He was forced to leave from Frank's halau because his family moved, and at the same period he realized his ambition, which was no connection with hula. His future dream was to be a designer "At that time I was a teenager, it was natural to have interest in other things, right? Of course I continued to practice hula, but now I think I should learn from Frank more. Anyway I really wanted to go to New York to be a designer at that time. " I often designed dresses and made suits. Of course I used sewing machines, too. I tried to go to the different way of life, but after all I returned to hula. I think it is my destiny to be a kumu, it was decided before I was born. My teenage dream to be a designer can be achieved by making costumes for hula now." Sonny received a[n] uniki by his grandmother in February in 1984. His grandmother passed away in the next month, as she knew she would die. "Maybe my grandmother perceived that she had not long to live. I myself thought that I was too young to receive uniki, however she wanted to accomplish her mission to give uniki, the family tradition, to me. After getting uniki, I still learned from kumu hula *Lahela Kaihue (I do not know the spelling) as a dancer. Teaching hula is a great responsibility and I still wanted to be a dancer at that time." Sonny danced on the stage of Merrie Monarch from *Lahela's halau. He said that learning from *Lahela made his style today. "A lot of things learning from him are now the basis of my teaching, especially kane 'auana." From a dancer to a kumu Sonny flourished as a dancer under the direction of *Lahela, however *Lahela closed his halau in 1986. At that tide, the first step to be a kumu hula jumped into him. *Moses Crab, who started the training for uniki under Robert Cazimero, asked him to take over the students of his halau. "Honestly speaking, I didn't feel like doing so very much at the first time. But I accepted it with a light heart as it was just one hour once a week. I was entrusted with 20 haumanas, and the fact made me realize that how hard it was to teach. Even though I had received the training to be a kumu hula, teaching was [a] completely different thing. I thought nobody could understand how heavy the responsibility was until he started to teach. There are some haumanas who have been in my halau since then." In 1986, Sonny established his halau, "Halau Na Mamo 'O Pu'uanahulu. "I was an elementary school teacher when I started halau. Because it was really difficult to manage both of the jobs at the same time, I decided to quit elementary school and concentrate on my halau. At the moment, there were only 40 haumanas. Everybody around me was so surprised at my resign[ation] from the school because it was difficult to make my living only as a kumu hula with such a small number of haumanas. Especially my parents got angry so much. But I concentrated on halau because I really wanted to participate Merrie Monarch. And I won a prize in the very first Merrie monarch competition my halau participated. A few months later, I put classified ad in the newspaper for recruiting new members. Surprisingly, the first day 250 people came, and the next day more than that came. Only in a few days, my halau became a huge one. I felt that Merrie monarch gave people a lot of power. From the day I started to teach hula for 6 days a week, and that made my parents very happy. Because my income was more than that of an elementary school teacher." Training the successor There was one thing that is very important to him. It was to raise a successor. As his grandmother had done to him he had to train the person who would take over the family tradition. "I have three sisters but they could not receive a training from our grandmother. When my grandmother passed away the smallest sister was still very small, so I planned to train her to be the next kumu. But what she really wanted to do was not hula. Of course she continues hula lesson and wants to support my family and me. So now I am training my niece who is 13 years old. I know she understands well that she has the big responsibility to be a kumu, so I try not to give her too much burden." Will he make another kumu from his halau? "I want to raise a few kumu from my halau. However the first thing for me is to train a new successor from my family." The picture of the niece who receives training to be a successor is on the Sonny Ching's CD jacket released last year. Hula does not exist without language The next day of this interview we observed his workshop. He said he wanted the workshop like the same level as in Hawaii, because he could feel the spirit of the Japanese dancers who wanted to understand hula more deeply. The workshop started with praying. He chanted and prayed that they would receive mana from gods. Then the participants did warm-up exercises with the sound of ipu that Sonny played. Watching his teaching, we wondered that he uses the same way to complete the wonderful hula of his halau. Was this the point that was different from other halau? "If there is a different point from other halau, it is that we inspire our souls into hula, maybe. As Merrie Monarch is the really high level competition, there is not much difference in technical part of dancing. Every halau is wonderful and there may be some halau which has more higher skills than ours concerning only points of technique. Still, expression is different, I think. For example, when we speak, some people do with facial and body movements and others do with nothing. Speaking with expression communicates more what they want to speak, I think. Hula is the same. And of course I adopt new ways of hula, but try not to do too much. I take it very important to utilize the way of dancing of the era which is suitable to the mele." He explained the movements of hands and the expressions as well as the meaning of the mele. He said visiting the place sung in the song is very important. "I will go and watch the Merrie Monarch with my haumana this year instead of participating. We will stay at Kilauea and visit the lands of mystery nearby, because I want my haumana see them. There are many places around there that are told in the Hawaiian mythologies. Visiting those places will be very good experience for my students because the names of those places are told in many chants and mythologies. Everybody can do the steps and the movements of hula if he or she practices. However if someone wants to dance hula that give spirit to others, the person must understand the meaning of the mele. To do so visiting those places is very important. Feeling the spirit means that a dancer images to oneself then it is spread to others by means of dancing. Hula is not hula without chants and oli, and "language" is indispensable to all of three. Hula does not exist without language. So understanding Hawaiian language is very important." Inspiring soul into hula At the last of the workshop the participants sang a song together that was taught during the class. I think this was also for "understanding language". According to his words, trying to understanding language makes inspire soul into hula and "mana" would be arisen. "By dancing a certain mele more, the stronger the mana will be. By dancing more, the mana of each dancer will be stronger. That makes the mana of the group will be stronger, too. Talking about the choreography itself, if one practices enough the body can learn the movement. So you can dance feeling with the words to the mele. That's inspiring soul into the hula. So dancer can feel the scenery and the people's feeling in the era of the songs naturally, and that would be transmitted to the audience.". |