World Arts West is proud to present

 Patrick Makuakāne

with the

Malonga Casquelourd
Lifetime Achievement Award
for Excellence in Ethnic Dance

Patrick is a visionary who has enriched the lives of thousands.

The award will be presented at the Palace of Fine Arts on June 10, 2006.

Patrick Makuakāne is the Kumu Hula/Director of the dynamic Hawaiian dance company, Nā Lei Hulu I Ka Wēkiu , which is based in San Francisco and is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. He is a creative force in the hula world, and is well known for his innovative choreography. His artistry brings hula to a new level and creates new dimensions to the dance form. He has created his hula productions to be full theatrical experiences that are visually captivating.

Mr. Makuakāne teaches traditional and contemporary forms of hula, and has also developed a unique style of hula, called “hula mua,” that provides a modern appeal to the dance form. Hula mua blends traditional hula movements with non-Hawaiian music, and creates a greater depth and accessibility to the dance form.

Mr. Makuakāne was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawai'i and began dancing hula at age 13. He danced professionally and was a principal dancer with Na Kamalei, the premier male hula dance troupe in Hawai'i at that time. He and his company Nā Lei Hulu I Ka Wēkiu have performed in locations throughout Hawai'i, and in Las Vegas, Reno, Redwood City, Los Angeles, Long Beach, New Orleans and New York, at the Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors Festival.

Founded in 1985, Nā Lei Hulu I Ka Wēkiu (“the many feathered wreaths at the summit, held in high esteem”) is committed to teaching and preserving the Hawaiian culture through hula. It has a performance group of 40 dancers and offers classes to over 200 students at the beginning and intermediate levels. The organization holds educational workshops throughout the year in Hawaiian language, history and arts and crafts. In 1998, Mr. Makuakāne received a Profiles in Excellence Award from KGO-TV for his outstanding work in the Asian/Pacific Community in San Francisco.

In 1999, Nā Lei Hulu I Ka Wēkiu was awarded a prestigious Isadora Duncan Dance Award—or “Izzie”—for the production of The World According to Hula. The Izzie Awards recognize excellence among Bay Area dance organizations. In 2000, Mr. Makuakāne was awarded a prestigious two-year Irvine Fellowship in Dance, a program funded by the James Irvine Foundation and administered by Dance/USA. With the fellowship, he completed two years of intensive traditional studies with hula master Aunty Mae Kamāmalu Klein in Hawai‘i and achieved the recognized status of kumu hula (hula master). In 2001, he received the “Local Hero of the Year” Award from KQED-TV and Union Bank of California. This award is given annually to five distinguished Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders who are heroes in their communities for their contributions to improving the quality of life in the San Francisco Bay Area.

In 2002, Mr. Makuakāne received his first Individual Artist Commission from the San Francisco Arts Commission for the creation and production of a new epic piece, Bow Down Mister. He also received a Goldie Award from the Bay Guardian, bestowed by writers and critics to outstanding Bay Area artists and groups. Nā Lei Hulu I Ka Wēkiu received its second Izzie Award for its production of The Hula Show 2002. In 2003, Mr. Makuakāne received a Gerbode Fellowship to further his professional development and a “Kulia I Ka Nu‘u” Award from the Hawai‘I Chamber of Commerce of Northern California for his leadership in the Hawaiian Community.

Mr. Makuakane has performed in the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival throughout the years and has served as a Festival panelist, critiquing auditions for over 100 ethnic dance companies from the San Francisco Bay Area and throughout Northern California. He also served on World Arts West’s Advisory Board for the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival from 1998 to 1999.