Leeward Community College students Honybal Sosa and Rob Cornwall held a special performance on September 19 to celebrate their participation in , an international dance festival held this past summer in France. Sosa and Cornwall performed alongside Assistant Professor John Signor and distinguished vocal artist and Leeward alumni Starr Kalahiki.
At the week-long festival, held annually on the campus of , invited dance students and professional dance troupes from across Europe and select regions around the world take part in a collaborative and artistic expression. This year¡¯s festival theme was politics.
The group of four from Â鶹´«Ã½ came the farthest and were the only musicians in the festival. Once in Poitiers, the group begin rehearsals and classes with students from around the world and shared Â鶹´«Ã½¡¯s music and culture with them.
Along with Signor and Kalahiki, the Leeward students focused their festival performance and music around the story of Â鶹´«Ã½ and Queen Liliʻuokalani. The songs they shared included Ke Aloha A Ka Haku, or the “Queen¡¯s Prayer,” and Kuʻu Pua i Paoakalani—two compositions the Queen composed while under house arrest, which tied directly to the festival theme of politics. Cornwall also performed one of his originals, titled, Always Here. Thanks to a translator, the largely French audience understood the Hawaiian lyrics.
Sosa and Cornwall also performed original musical pieces during the festival and even stepped out of their comfort-zone to take part in some dance performances.
“Our students shined!” said Signor. “It was great to see them grow, and it almost seems like a dream now, like it never happened. But I’ll always remember the pride in the students and the joy they felt performing in Europe.”
—By Kathleen Cabral
