Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 30, Number 4, 1 April 2013 — Techie dancers create hula app [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Techie dancers create hula app

By Kekoa Enomoto

Just keep your eyes on the app, the nifty hula app. A pair of O'ahu entrepreneurs eum hula practitioners has created a hula mohile app as an innovative platform to experience all things hula, from the Merrie Monarch Festival, hula history and beyond. In March, Gabriel Spencer

and Kim Shibata launched the app Ke Ao Hula, whieh translates to "hula enlightenment" or "the hula realm." If hula has communicated and carried cultural tradition fromancient Hawai'i, then the Ke Ao Hula app is a medium rellecting hula in the 21 st century. Hula is for "telling the stories of our kūpuna and our ancestors. That's the most important thing," said Spencer, a Kamehameha Schools-Kapālama graduate studying Hawaiian language at the University of Hawai'i-Mānoa. "Through technology, we try to use this venue to share information." Released in time for the Merrie Monarch, whieh runs from March 3 1 to April 6, Spencer says the app "adds another element not only to people who are watching Merrie Monarch, but also to us dancers within the Hawaiian culture. We're using this as an educational tool, to make it interactive."

Kaimuki residents, Spencer and Shibata both have competed at

Merrie Monarch with Ka Leo O Laka I Ka Hikina O Ka Lā,

under the direction of Kumu Hula Kaleo Trinidad. The Ke Ao Hula app showcases nā kumu hula, ranging fromMark Ho'omalu, Manu Boyd, Robert Cazimero and Beverly Muraoka, to Maui's Hōkūlani Holt, 'Iliahi and Haunani Paredes, and sisters Nāpua Greig and Kahulu Maluo. It also features information about dancers and musicians, as well as the Merrie Monarch Festi-

val, hula history and various hula events happening throughout 2013. Spencer said app users may comment via live Twitter feed on Merrie Monarch performances, upload photos and vote for people's ehoiee awards. "Join and follow," Shibata said, adding that the app allows users to leam about festival participants, follow the Merrie Monarch conversation and shop loeal Hawai'i designers. "We have visions," said Shibata, a Punahou grad. "We really want to grow this (into an) all-encompassing network. We want to share hula entertainment, history and archives of kumu hula who have passed away. We are documenting current kumu hula and thus perpetuating their legacy." ■ Kekoa Enomolo is a retired copy editor and staffwriter with The Maui News and former Honolulu Star-Bulletin.

Hula app >WHAT: Ke Ao Hula app for iPhone, iPael anel iPod touch, available at appstore.com/ keaohula > C0ST: $2.99 > INF0: keaohula.com, Facebook, lnstagram and Twitter, or email info@keaohula.com

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Gabriel Spencer and Kim Shibata display Ke Ao Hula, a mohile app that they created to share hula in the 21 st century. - Photo: OHA Communications