Hukilau training gives Dayton kids taste of island culture

Sometimes a mom can make all the difference.

Staff at Camp Tumbleweeds planned on having an Aloha Day at their Dayton summer day camp for children, as a way of teaching them about island life.

When camper Alyssa Limasa told her mom, Valerie, about the event, the wheels were set in motion to give the tikes at Camp Tumbleweed some real island culture.

Limasa is a dance instructor at DanceSpirit on Stewart Street, and is also married to an Oahu native. Together they have created Tropical Moves Hula Halau, a 12-member Hawaiian dance troupe and The Big Tsunami, a band that performs Hawaiian music.

So, dressed in grass skirts made of crepe paper and necklaces and leis made from beads and construction-paper flowers, kids at Camp Tumbleweeds got to learn the Hukilau.

But first, they got to watch four dancers perform both slow, graceful dances as well as fast, snappy numbers to recorded Hawaiian music provided by Baylen Limasa, a disc jockey who performs around the area.

Limasa didn't dance herself, due to a knee injury, but dancers Kaleo Fuller, 33, her daughter, Lohi, 7, Limasa's daughter, Alyssa, 9, and Shelly Hardy, 16, showed the hushed audience of 57 children the moves of the islands.

The four, in their colorful pink-and-white tops, white knee-length pants covered by bright green grass skirts, showed the students that Hawaiian dancing isn't just about using the belly; dancers also use their arms and legs to tell a story.

Even the small boys looked entranced as the four swayed and motioned to the music, sometimes using ipus, or gourds as drums and uli ulus, similar to maracas, in their dance.

The group instruction started out a jumbled morass of kids at Camp Tumbleweeds, a day camp run by Lyon County Parks & Recreation, but most picked up the moves by the third try.

Limasa said her group often performs fundraisers around the region, and both band and dancers will be performing from 4-8 p.m. Saturday at Reds Old 395 Grill.

She said the two younger girls want to raise funds for a trip to the Merry Monarch show on the Big Island of Hawaii in March.

• Contact reporter Karen Woodmansee at kwoodmansee@nevadaappeal.com or 882-2111 ext. 351.