Kalani Honua Blog - Volunteer Reflections

"Supernature" a site specific work at "The Point" by Wai Company Dance Theater

Interview with Artistic Director Wailana Simcock

Many people at Kalani Retreat Center love "The Point."

The Point is known as a powerful site where you have an 180 degree view of the ocean and also of the lava flow in the distance.

Most people here at Kalani have stories about The Point being a symbolic place for them--sometimes they've invited all their friends there for a party, sometimes they've used it for an individual ritual like prayer or meditation. The Point is definitely a special place, and on Saturday March 19th, 5:30pm there will be a performance out at The Point with dancers and actors from both the Puna community and Kalani. This performance called "Supernature," is inspired by the Point itself and the epic story of Hi'iakaikapoliopele.  It will be performed by the grass roots troupe, Wai Company with founder and Artistic Director Wailana Simcock, who is also part of the Kalani staff.

Here is an interview with Wailana about performing at The Point.

NR: People that visit Kalani love "The Point." So you're doing a performance at The Point called "site-specific." Sounds like fun, can you explain "site-specific" for us?

Wailana: Site-specific simply implies that the actual site of the work being performed is pertinent to the piece/art.  I have worked with choreographers who have taken this idea to the hilt.  Like when I danced with Pearl Ubungen in San Francisco 1993, we danced at a pit where once stood a building, The I-Hotel, which housed the first wave of Filipino Immigrants to the US and where in 1973 they were cruelly displaced.  A human barricade that was 5 man deep awaited the cops at 5 am in the morning of their wrongful eviction.  The site sat empty for 20 years.  On the 20th anniversary of the eviction, Pearl decided to perform right there, so we had the corner of Kearny and Jackson street shut down for our 3 night performances.  It was amazing!

Also, Anna Halprin was a great inspiration for not only Pearl and I, but for the whole of Modern Dance.  She is a well known Choreographer and Activist.  She had a performance on a Mt. Tamalpais in Marin County, California where the community re-enacted these rapes that had ravaged her community. The re-enactment was a way to "reclaim" the mountain that was seen as spiritual symbol for them.  It was a way to "take the mountain back," also expressing grief, uniting the community around the tragedies.

Coincidentally, a week after this performance, a tip came in and the perpetrator was caught. Whether it was due to the performance or not does not really matter.  The fact that the community was able to heal and take back the mountain was powerful and meaningful enough.  Him being captured was just extra!

NR: Many people at Kalani love The Point, a magical place where you can see 180 degree views of the ocean, hear it roar, and do rituals or celebrations. Many visitors to Kalani have stories about special occasions or soulful moments. I know someone that had a birthday party on The Point, someone else that reclaimed her body after 5 years of being in pain due to an accident by doing Qi Gong on The Point.

Can you tell us why you chose The Point?

Wailana: The Point was just the most logical place to go outside while here at Kalani. Thus it is a celebration of nature really, more than reclaiming anything or making a poltical statement.  It is to honor the 'aina (land) and to recall the story of Hi'iaka and Pele where they live here in Puna.  It is so inspiring to live where their myths and legends are lived out.  And, as you know, the Point is so symbolic.  To me it is  like where time stands still, a portal to the gods and the sea,  a symbol of union where the sea meets the sky.  Supernature is a nod to the super nature found here and to the supernatural gods and goddesses of Hawaii.

NR: One well known Goddess of Hawaiian myth is Pele...

Wailana: Pele has chosen to live here next to us, with her "clan," right here at Kileaua.  We are right next to her, we feel her everyday. We can't do a dance outside without talking about Pele. I want to pay homage to this wahi pana (storied place) of Puna that have been told for hundreds of years.

NR: What will you be doing for the performance?

Wailana: It's very eclectic and all over the place.  Some acting, spoken word. Some oli (chanting). We're going to be doing some Aerial work too on the tissue, ring, and straps, hanging from the trees there. We're going to have a Nina Simone song I am excited to work on in the aerial straps, a pas de deux to "Wild is the Wind" by my favorite, Nina Simone.

We'll have some different influences, like some kitschy camp 70s music (Supernature by Cerrone), some original hula and oli, songs about Pele.

NR: How can we come see you in this unique performance?

The performance is Saturday March 19th, 5:30pm at The Point. We are accepting love donations of any kind!  We are a very young company and are very ambitious. We are premiering Wai Company, our name, our mission and and our website -  waicompany.com.  We are stoked to be this unique dance theater company based out of Puna. We are faced with lots of challenges here but we make them into opportunities.  You have to to survive. You gotta be creative. I never would of thought I would start a dance company here. But I am so glad I did.

thank you pele
for embracing me with open arms
for teaching me what it is
to create myself anew
over and over and over again
putting that which no longer serves
into the fire of transformation;
birthing new land
from fire,
a place to stand.

thank you
for giving me the time i needed
to let the running around
run itself out
for slowing me down
to see
how out of stillness,
movement emerges organically.

for heart-to-hearts with lizards
the heady scent of night jasmine, asking:
does the harvest of your life sustain you?
and the seeds you plant each day--
will they grow to nourish you, in time?
answer this question:
what's really important?
over and over and over again.

they say it takes a village
to raise a child,
but many of us
didn't grow up that way.
thank you for filling in some pieces
of my puzzle
becoming sister,
brother,
crazy uncle.

living as family
with people you just met
brings the concept
of interdependence
close enough to touch
the favor you do for me
in the morning
returned by another
in the afternoon.

thank you
everyone
for being everywhere
all the time
especially the person
i didn't want to see
holding a mirror to my face,
insistently.

thank you
for teaching me
to love in the moment
and then let go.
for safe haven
to let myself be known;
for remembering that everyone
is soft underneath
before other stuff gets in the way.

thank you
to the goddess of the freebox,
whose abundance is legendary
providing costumes for us
to wear every day.
for men who let me do their hair
dress them up
and send them down the runway
in silver leggings
butterfly wings
and a bikini top.
(work it, girl!)
for all the fags
a hag could ever ask for.

thank you
for giving me
a positive
high school experience
the second time around.
for dancing on top of
washing machines
and dryers
first thing in the morning;
for late-night conversations
in the laundry shed;
for rambutans taped
to the top
of my saved dinner.

thank you
for the anonymous gifts
left in mailboxes.
for creative expression everywhere,
and all the hidden talents
that everyone seems to have.
for chandeliers and flat screen tvs
in a-frames--
who knew
that a shack
in the jungle
could have so much potential?

thank you for the generosity
of this land
for the abundance of spirit
that lives here
for so many rainbows,
double rainbows,
moonbows. for cats that smell like flowers
for lilikoi, lychees, coconuts,
guavas, starfruit, soursop
nourishment
grows on trees here,
grows all around.
for the blessing of being
in a place
where nature is alive
and speaking all the time
for grace
for living aloha
i am so grateful.

I have been in China for this past month and half, and am loving it here. The food, the people, the scenery, it's all great. I'm working as a teacher, and the kids are a lot of fun to teach. I was wearing my Kalani t-shirt a few days ago and one of the Chinese staff members at the school took great interest in it and asked me about it.

I explained the concept of living and working at a retreat center, and it slipped out that my family is at Kalani. She said, "oh really? Your family is in Hawaii?" Then I had to explain that my blood family is in Virginia, but I have Ohana in Hawaii. She really liked the idea of such an extended family. She decided that the school where we teach is our Chinese Ohana, and I agree. Well, I do look forward to being back with my Kalani Ohana.

Please give my best to everybody!

Jim

I came for a visit to Kalani. To be a volunteer and do a three month stint. To take a chance and pull out of a life I was very comfortable with to one that seemed very foreign. A little risky for me from a past perspective. So I've been here for around five years now and after only two weeks here I knew inside that I was going to be here for a while. Why or how long? I wasn't quite sure at first.

Over the years Kalani has changed so much for me, but in reality I'm learning that it was in fact my own perception that has changed. In the beginning I was swept away by the beautiful, lush foliage, the friendly people, the cocqui frogs, the full moons so bright that you can read a book by it. The smell of the rain, the great studio spaces along with my cute and comfortable A-frame. But of course what is it that makes any place great?…the people of course. The minute I stepped out of the car from being picked up at the airport I felt I was home. The open easy-going attitudes along with so many warm friendly smiles and this very distinct feeling of being in the presence of non judgment.

People from all over the world arrive and leave and sometimes leave to arrive again later. Time and time again I'm witness to people having major shifts in perception here. Taking away something special and leaving things that were just extra baggage. Too heavy and not needed anymore. Everyone in this world regardless of what religion they are, where they come from, who they know, what they eat or what ethnic background they come from could probably all conclude that they want true peace of mind and to have that peace of mind ALL THE TIME.

I'm learning that where ever I may go there my mind is. Where ever I travel to I take my state of mind with me. Happy, sad, mellow or moody it comes with me like a package deal that is absolutely unshakable. Then what's so special about Kalani? Us, you, me, the people here. We all want peace and are trying to make and give peace to have it. Being part of the management team we are creating a place with our own rules. Rules that are made not to enforce, but to make for what is best for Kalani as a whole. Then all of us as individuals creating a peaceful space with "the whole" in mind. Creating a space where people can not feel judged by how they look, their sexual preference or what they wear, sometimes they wear nothing at all! It doesn't matter because those are things that are all external. I feel deep inside we all desire, know and want to remember and uncover those feelings of peace which we've always have known since time began. It has never left us, it just has been covered up with ego perception we ourselves chose to cover ourselves with.

Kalani is a place of remembering for me now. A place where I am reminded of who i really am and not who I think I was. Kalani is a place where people accept and love you and allow you to express yourself creatively. A place where all I see are reflections of myself in other people who are reflecting back that desire for peace back at me. I'm waking to a inner peace I've always known with friends I've known forever at a place where heaven really does seem to meet with the earth. Kalani Honua