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By Lynn Cook
 Celebrating the arts in Hawaii is as much a part of an island day as
sunrise and sunset. Much more than a carved tiki or a kitschy painting
of palm trees, the arts are the heartbeat of the Islands.
The Hawaii Arts Season, February through May, is jam-packed with arts
of every persuasion. Ancient hula to modern dance, opera to
slack-key guitar, fine arts and fine crafts serve up a feast fit for
the most discriminating connoisseur.
Begin with hula. No other state has its own language, music and dance.
Hawaii is the place to see hula that goes back a thousand years or
hula woven into a production by the most modern dance troupe. The
stage at the Hawaii Theatre in downtown Honolulu, is magically
transformed, becoming a Polynesian time machine.
A symphony concert in the islands may have contemporary Hawaiian music
or giant Taiko drums, side-by-side with Mozart. The Neal Blaisdell
Concert Hall or the Maui Arts & Culture Center Castle Theater
vibrate with the sounds.
Featherwork, woven mats and wood carvings are exhibited in fine art
galleries and Hawaiian cultural museums. Painters, printmakers
and film makers capture the beauty of a Hawaiian day in total realism
or total abstract. Museums with state-of-the-art, climate controlled
galleries offer a welcome respite from the usual vacation frenzy.
It may be "way off-Broadway", but the theater scene in the
islands is a standing-ovation success. The opportunity to perform in
great venues, without winter woes, brings Broadway performers to the
islands. Actors, dancers and directors join Hawaii's top talent in
sold-out shows from big-number musicals to edge-of-your-seat mystery
and drama. Comedy comes, island-style, from comics of every ethnic
group making fun of themselves as well as all others, and all in the
islands pidgin English.
Nightlife begins with a visit to Mr. Aloha, Don Ho. His nightly shows
are jam-packed with fans from nine to ninety. Beyond his showroom,
every hotel, eaterie, beachside bar and mall center stage offers
a variety of entertainment to please any taste. Parks are filled with
band concerts, ukulele festivals, hula, Hawaiian music, more hula and
at least one multi-ethnic festival per weekend.
A common cry from Hawaii's visitors is, "can't miss this! Need to
see it all! We will need a vacation from our vacation when we get back
home!" Hawaii is the place to discover world-class arts and still
go home with a tan.
The
festivals website
gives details for the hundreds of art events set for the Season.
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