Fabianne Pomaialoha Wong Dalire, known professionally as Aloha Dalire, (June 22, 1950 – August 6, 2014) was an American

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

kumu hula Hula () is a Hawaiian dance form accompanied by chant (oli) or song (mele). It was developed in the Hawaiian Islands by the Native Hawaiians who originally settled there. The hula dramatizes or portrays the words of the oli or mele in a visual ...

, or master

hula Hula () is a Hawaiian dance form accompanied by chant (oli) or song (Mele (Hawaiian language), mele). It was developed in the Hawaiian Islands by the Native Hawaiians who originally settled there. The hula dramatizes or portrays the words of t ...

teacher. She won the first Miss Aloha Hula as Aloha Wong, in 1971, the same year that the

Merrie Monarch Festival The Merrie Monarch Festival is a week-long cultural festival that takes place annually in Hilo, Hawaii during the week after Easter. It honors King David Kalākaua, who was called the "Merrie Monarch" for his patronage of the arts and is cre ...

was established. The Miss Aloha Hula title is hula's top solo wahine (women's) honor. Dalire Wong was born on June 22, 1950, in

Honolulu Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island ...

and raised in Kaneohe, Hawaii. She began studying hula dancing when she was just three years old under kumu hula master, George Na'ope. Her mother, Mary Keolalaulani McCabe Wong, founded Keolalaulani Halau 'Olapa O Laka, a hula school, in 1963. Aloha Dalire would later become the director of her mother's halau. Dalire won the first Miss Hula title, later known as Miss Aloha Hula, in 1971 under her

maiden name When a person (traditionally the wife in many cultures) assumes the family name of their spouse, in some countries that name replaces the person's previous surname, which in the case of the wife is called the maiden name ("birth name" is also used ...

, Aloha Wong. She pursued a career as a hula teacher, ultimately becoming a kumu hula, or hula master. She remained deeply involved with the Merrie Monarch Festival. She regularly entered her halau (hula school), Keolalaulani Halau 'Olapa O Laka, in the festival's competition for more than four decades. Her halau students often won or placed in the women's kahiko and auana categories at the festival. In 2013, Dalire's wahine won the hula auana, or modern hula competition. Dalire's three daughters also won the Miss Aloha Hula title: Kapualokeokalaniakea in 1991, Kau'imaiokalaniakea in 1992, and Keolalaulani in 1999. One of her granddaughters, "Kili" Lai, placed first runner-up at the Miss Aloha Hula competition in 2014.

Death

Aloha Dalire died at her home in Kaneohe, Hawaii, during the early morning of August 6, 2014, at the age of 64. She had recently returned from a hula competition in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

on August 1. She was survived by her three daughters and sixteen grandchildren. Thousands of people attended her funeral service at the Hawaiian Memorial Park Mortuary in Kaneohe on August 20, 2014. The service included hula dancers and music performed by Robert Cazimero and Jerry Santos. Her funeral procession through Kaneohe included stops at her first hula halau on Kamehameha Highway (now owned by her oldest daughter, Kapua Dalire-Moe) and her hula studio on Kahuhipa Street.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dalire, Aloha 1950 births 2014 deaths Hula dancers People from Honolulu County, Hawaii