About Kumu Hula Kekoa Yap
Born on the island of Maui and raised in the town of Lahainä, Kumu Hula KekoaYap started
his hula training at the age 7 and was raised in a family where his mom, the late Lily K.
Kaleiopu Yap, grandmother, the late Theresa Ka’aiawahia Kaleiopu, uncles, aunts, and grand
aunts danced the hula. Kekoa’s connections with the hula were more of a lineal foretelling.
His lineage is that of nä ali’i, the chiefs, chiefesses, and kahuna.
While attending The Kamehameha Schools as a boarding student in Honolulu, Kekoa began
his hula training first with Kumu Hula Wayne Keahi Chang followed by Kumu Hula Holoua
Stender and Randie Fong while being a part of the high schools concert glee club. It was as a
glee club member that Kekoa met his formal hula training teacher and friend Darrell ‘Ihi’
ihilauäkea Lupenui, a renowned and well respected Kumu Hula and entertainer throughout
Hawai’i and the world. It was here that Kekoa entered his first hälau or hula school, The Men
of Waimäpuna. That first year Kekoa excelled to become a line dancer, then show dancer and
finally a competition dancer. In the year 1980, The Men of Waimäpuna won first place in all
categories of hula in the Male Group competition garnering the first Hula Hälau to ever win
the Perpetual Trophy in The Merrie Monarch’s Hula Festival’s history. Since then Kumu Hula
Kekoa Yap has entered 8 Hula competitions as a line dancer and a solo dancer with other
Hälau such as Hälau Hula O Ka Makani Wili Makaha O Kaua’ula; Kumu Hula Keali’i Reichel
and Uluwehi Guerrero, Nä Hoaloha O Lele; Kumu Hula Cliff Ahue, Akoni Akana and Ke’ala
Kukona and has done workshops with Hula Master Uncle George Na’ope and Aunty Leilani
Sharpe Mendes, Kawaikapuokalani Hewett, Aunty Nälani Kanaka’ole and Kaumaka’iwa
Kanaka’ole , Tony La’akapu Lenchenko to name a few.
Kekoa Yap has won a total of six competitions in the Male Solo Hula categories s and is the
only male solo dancer to achieve this ranking. As a professional dancer, Kekoa started at the
young age of 16 with The Chuck Machado’s Lü’au Show in Waikïkï. Since then, Kekoa has
danced throughout all of Maui’s popular lü’au show’s; The Lü’au at the Sheraton Maui where
his grandmother used to dance with the legendary Maui Kumu Hula Aunty Emma Sharpe and
has danced with Hawaiian recording artists such as Keali’i Reichel; Kawaipunahele
Productions, Uluwehi Guerrero; Ka Ulupono Productions, Amy Hanaiali’i Gilliom as well as
throughout all of the North America with the Maui Visitor’s Bureau and overseas in Japan.
Kumu Hula Kekoa Yap has volunteered countless hours and time to the fight of HIV/AIDS
through the teaching of hula to HIV positive men in Maui for the Maui AIDS Foundation.
Kumu Kekoa started teaching hula in Seattle in 1985, moved home to Maui in 1988 and in
1997 founded Hälau Hula O Ka Ua Pa’üpili. Kekoa is now the Kumu Hula of Hälau Hula O
Wailehua in Palm Springs, California.
| King David Kalakaua said, "Hula is the language of the heart, and therefore the heartbeat of the Hawaiian people." |
| ‘Ölelo No’eau: A Hawaiian Proverb I le’a ka hula i ka ho’opa’a. The hula is pleasing because of the drummer. The lesser details that one pays little attention to are just as important as the major ones. Although the attention is given to the dancer, the drummer and chanter play an important role in the dance. |
