Spring Revue
It's been a big year for Mid-Pacific Institute dance students, and it's a big weekend, too, as they put their talents on display in two separate events:
# The Young Choreographers Concert, tonight and tomorrow night at the Paliku Theatre, features members of the contemporary dance classes.
# The hula students present their annual concert Sunday afternoon at the Hawai'i Theatre.
Both groups have reason to celebrate.
In March, 14 students of modern dance attended the eighth National High School Dance Festival in Miami. Of the 100 schools attending, only 25 were invited to perform in the Gala Concert. Not only was Mid-Pacific selected, but all eight students who were eligible to audition for summer scholarships were awarded offers to attend institutes such as Michigan's Interlochen Center for the Arts, the Boston Conservatory and the American Dance Festival in North Carolina. Several of these students will present their own choreography.
For the hula dancers, this year's concert also offers a special treat. In November, 10 of these students were invited to participate in the first Conference on Dance in Oceania in New Zealand, co-sponsored by the University of Hawai'i Center for Pacific Island Studies.
There they developed friendships with students from the University of Victoria in Wellington and a hip-hop artist from Auckland. In exchange for their visit to New Zealand, the Mid-Pacific dance students have invited these friends to appear on their program.
Yukie Shiroma, outgoing director of the dance program at Mid-Pacific, offered a little history during a recent interview.