Spirit of Aloha | Message of Aloha | September/October 2001

This Place

Hula and Taxes

In her 35 years of dancing hula, Jory Pellecchia has found fulfillment and challenge.

Jory Pellecchia works in an office tucked away in the far reaches of the Aloha Airlines Finance Department, where she spends her days seeing to the tax responsibilities of the company. As Aloha's tax manager, she has countless responsibilities that include keeping abreast of filing dates, updates in law and the industry, and legislative actions.

But those who know Jory are aware that her life's passion lies in the joys and discipline of hula.

She has danced hula for 35 years, since she was an 11-year-old growing up in Kailua, O'ahu. When she and her twin sister, Judy, reached high school, the time requirements of ballet and hula lessons forced them to choose between the two. They chose hula, and they haven't stopped since.

Still dancing together after all these years, they have found fulfillment, growth and challenge in the multilayered world of hula.

Although her mother wanted the twins to dance, it was an interest they happened to agree with. "Hula really is a way of life," says Jory. "It's more than just dance. It's discipline and the way you think. A lot of it has to deal with the way you act, and your values. You progress to different levels through dance."

She started dancing at 11 with renowned kumu (teacher) Bella Richards. When her teacher became ill in the late 1970s, she "handed us over to 'Ala so we could continue to dance," Jory explains. "It wasn't just a case of quitting one halau [school] and moving to another. We were actually given over to 'Ala, so I've been with her since 1980."

"'Ala" is Leina'ala Heine, the well-known kumu of the halau named Na Pualei Likolehua. Many of us have seen the dancers of Na Pualei in performances throughout the Islands. As the featured dancer with the popular Brothers Cazimero, Leina'ala Heine dances regularly with the duo, often with her halau.

The literal name of the halau, explains Jory, is "the flower lei of liko lehua." Liko lehua is the young new leaf bud of the lehua tree, also called 'ohi'a, the favorite tree of the volcano goddess, Pele. "Figuratively, the buds represent the young ladies of the halau," explains Jory. "The flower is special to hula, and it's special to 'Ala."

Most often in this school, the students are selected by the teacher, not the other way around. As one of about a dozen alaka'i in the school of 40, Jory is a helper, an assistant, who does some of the teaching.

"We have participated in hula competitions, and we do perform, but the purpose of our halau is to train young women to become teachers, to carry on the Hawaiian culture and traditions," she says. They support a wide range of activities in the local community, including Punana Leo, the Hawaiian language immersion school, and selected cultural events throughout the state.

According to Jory, "The emphasis now is on cultural perspectives. We are encouraged to write our own mele [chant] from our various experiences. We have one mele that's associated just with ourselves. It's very personal, normally not performed in public. It's called an oli [a chant that's not danced to], basically used as an introduction, personal because it tells something about us."

Jory wrote her oli in 1982. "It makes reference to a specific place in Kailua, where I grew up," she explains. "It describes the fragrance of the 'awapuhi [wild ginger] carried on the winds. 'Awapuhi represents 'Ala, and the last part mentions the special lei that I wear, of the liko lehua that brings strength within."

While hula "nurtures the soul," she says, its lessons are never-ending. "There's always something more to learn. It doesn't become second nature, and it keeps me focused. Hula is physical, it's emotional, it's spiritual."

Surprisingly, she finds a relationship between her professional life and hula. "In a way, there's a lot of discipline involved in both taxes and hula," she notes. "In taxes, discipline is required in meeting deadlines and upholding the criteria and laws in filing tax returns. It's similar in hula, where discipline is required in the mind and body."

Glenn R. Zander President and Chief Executive Officer, Aloha Airlines

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