(Ambient noise, waves crashing) Narrator Today's Spectrum Hawaii visits with master dancer and teacher Halla Pai Huhm.

For over 40 years she has fostered Korean culture in Hawaiʻi.

We also look into the world of glassmaking and see how this ancient art form, steeped in tradition, is being carried on and modernized by several Oʻahu artists, but first.

Sielu Avea (Crowd: Aloha!)

Sielu Avea: Thank you.

(Crowd Laughs) And welcome to Samoa.

Everybody, please say Samoa.

(Crowd: Samoa) When you visit Samoa, instead of saying aloha, we say talofa.

(Crowd: Talofa) (Person: Talofa!)

(Crowd laughs) (Drumming) Sielu Avea What I'm trying to show the people that if they go to Samoa then they will agree that from the young generations all the way up to the older generations that you know that they're all the same, I mean that they, when they entertain and they dance or sing whatever they do, there's always a humor that goes along with it.

Donʻt forget.

You go to those places you know what to use.

First step is to kill it.

Second step - push it down.

No more movies.

Follow two steps, don't go home and milk your cow the same way.

Thank you.

(Crowd claps) Sielu Avea I was doing that in slow motion.

In Samoa, this is one of the competitive sports.

Record for the men three seconds, ladies two days.

That's why we cook.

(Crowd laughs) Narrator As a performer and the Polynesian Cultural Center's representative from Western Samoa, Sielu Avea found a way to stay grounded in his own culture while living in Western society.

Sielu Avea Remember the line that runs between the eyes, this is the softest part of the coconut so you got to hit it on that line.

Use hammers and knives, screwdrivers, dynamite.

Samoa we use our forehead.

(Crowd laughs) You don't believe me do you?

Close your eyes.

Sielu Avea With my own career as an entertainer in Hawaiʻi, I would like to extend and go furthermore, to reach out to more people in the world you know, and share them what I can do, and to entertain them.

At the same time I share with them the culture of my people in the islands and the Polynesian people in the way of living.

And as for my son, I have a four year old now, so I'm training him and I'm teaching him how to live, to enjoy cultures wherever he goes.

You know, learn to dance Samoan style, learn to dance the other way and speak the Samoan language, speak English, and when he goes to school, he will will enjoy it more.

The tattoos?

The tattoo represents, is a sign of rank.

Narrator: The tattoo ritual spans seven days.

The elaborate designs are created by pounding dye into the skin with animal bones.

Sielu Avea: When I was selected to receive a tattoo as a matai or a chief, I was also told that, you know, I need to go through the ceremony of the tattooing and to make that tattoo complete.

And when you have the tattoo, it gives you a lot of power, more power to speak and you will be protected anywhere and everywhere you go.

Because the power of the tattoo is very strong, and the tattoo has its very, very unique meaning, you know, because every single marks has its own meaning.

And it representing the culture and the people Samoa.

And it's something that still pass on to generations as of today.

Very painful, but I'm so glad and I'm very proud of it.

When I was young, there's only one man that I've seen in my village perform the fire dancing in the very special occasions that there was happening there.

And after that night, when I watch him, I always wanted to be a fire dancer.

Heavier on one side, so you burn them down a little bit just to give you the balance.

The knives provides me many different things.

Knives gave me a house and a land.

Gives me a wife, a nice one.

And I would like to, in the future to, to own my own show.

And because I want to enlarge it and I want to get bigger and get more into the show business.

But I will never, never forget my friends, my people and my culture.

(Drumming) William Grix I'm strongly attracted to glass because of its transparent qualities.

I tend to work mostly with clear glass because I like the different contrast between the highly polished surfaces and a braided and etched surfaces.

Narrator: William Grix has been creating beveled glass, stained glass and glass sculptures for about 15 years.

Although he works in other mediums like watercolors, wood and bronze, he's primarily a glass artist.

William Grix Initially I come up with a sketch or a drawing, and I'll use that drawing to cut out the different shapes or blanks that I'll cold process to make the different elements of the lamp.

(Tapping) From there I'll take them to the grinding wheels and grind and finish the edges and put any bevels or special edge works on the glass that might be needed.

(Glass grinding) The pieces will have to be laminated together which will take a few days to dry once they're laminated and I'll do the final finishing on the edges.

The base part of the glass itself will be assembled onto the base plate for the lamp.

And then I'll wire up the electrical elements and put the whole lamp together.

These styles of lamps very sculptural, so the bases themselves will characterize a certain element of the shade also.

So it becomes more of a piece of sculpture rather than just a lamp in itself.

This is a watercolor of a sculpture for divider for an entryway.

This is the piece without the base yet, but this is how it evolved from the watercolor.

Narrator: Glassmakers need to understand the chemistry of glass as well as the history of their craft.

Rick Mills/Blown Glass Artist You know, a Roman glassblower could come into our studio and make basically the same thing he was making 2000 years ago.

And within a very short period of about one or two generations, every technique for forming glass was done by the Romans already.

So it's not a history which a glassmaker can ignore, but it's a history where there's very specific designs and styles in terms of form and decoration and functionality, which can become material for the contemporary glass person to comment on.

The actual making process is very fast, but it requires skilled moves that are trained and repeated over and over, it takes years to learn.

And the learning process is one of very much so trial and error and failure.

Narrator This example of blown glass begins with a making of canes or solid glass rods that will be used in the piece.

These are called lattocino canes.

The first cane we'll make will be vetro a retorti cane, which is a twisted cane, and this technique was developed by the Serena glassworks in 1527 in Venice, Italy.

(Cutting glass) The second step is the bottle top of this lattocino bottle where three different types of twisted or vetro a retorti canes are are joined together and blown into a hollow cylinder.

A gather of glass is measured to the right dimension and rolled across this cane marver and all the canes fuse together on the outside of the bubble, that makes up the lower portion of the glass vessel.

(Classical music) Glass blowing, particularly when it involves large pieces, is a real team effort.

(Classical music) The pieces have this very strict sort of linear pattern to them that could make them very sort of, almost too calculated.

So I add a bit of whimsy to him by adding these handles out of white glass with wings.

It took about two and a half hours to make this blown glass vase.

It's a tremendously rewarding experience because the camaraderie the individuals, the fire and the heat and the spontaneity the making process, and the reward of making something very beautiful hopefully, and having to look out at the next day.

(Classical music) Narrator Mary Kennedy began her career in glass doing panels and lamps.

Mary Kennedy/Fused glass artist And then I was on the mainland and I saw a kiln on sale and not be able to resist a good buy I bought a kiln and that started me on fusing.

Narrator Today she's creating all kinds of glassy works of art.

Mary Kennedy/Fused glass artist This lamp is called Evolution because it reminds me of volcanoes.

I did this by taking strips of glass and in its molten state I raked it creating my ups and downs.

We start with plain sheet glass.

Now we buy all the glass, we don't make it in any way unless we make elements to put on the glass.

To make a fused plate, you start with cutting two pieces of glass.

I cut little squares.

And I have my little elements that I put on top.

If you want to just fuse the glass than it, I run it up to 1500 degrees.

So we cut it and grind it, make it nice and perfect the way we want it.

The final step is the slumping where we put it into a mold or over a mold and let gravity do its thing.

When my legs get tired I sit down and do the glass beads.

I work with a torch and melt the glass, make it molten and you wind it around a rod that's covered with kiln wash so that it can separate from the rod.

It's the old Venetian style of making beads.

(Classical music) Glass is a total addiction.

(Man: It's gonna be hot.)

(Scraping noise) Narrator Like scientists, these artists are always experimenting, discovering new ways to form their chosen medium.

Mary Kennedy/Fused glass artist I'm taking a dirty piece of copper foil, putting on just a clear, clear glass.

We've got some mica on there now.

So how about just a little bit of glass, little blue glass.

(Classical music)   Narrator Another form of glass art is etching.

For the Frank Odas, glass etching is a family tradition.

Frank Oda has been drawing for most of his long life.

Today, he continues to do the sketches for the glass vases, plates and stemware that make up the primary inventory of Arts Hawaii, a business he founded in 1946.

Although he has since turned the business over to his son, Gary, the senior Odas continue to stop by the shop on a regular basis.

To the Odas, art is a way of life.

Gary Oda/Etched Glass Artist Well, in our family, we are sort of born into it.

We all studied art when we were young.

I went out with my father and his friends, watched them paint.

I never painted with them, but I would go there, they go to the beach, paint, and I would be hanging around with them, they would send me to the Art Academy.

The process of class etching is simple.

It's like saying drawing is simple.

And if you can draw a line you can etch a line.

(Instrumental music) (Machine whirrs) Narrator In addition to reading to business, Gary Oda creates unique sculptural etchings.

Gary Oda/Etched Glass Artist It just degrees of etching, the depth.

We go in a lot deeper when we're doing architectural pieces, walls, murals, the depth creates a lot more interest in the glass.

I have drawn a lot of inspiration over the years from my father, his work, I've watched him.

I've actually sat at his knees as he's worked on things and I've learned that and now I have gotten off his knees and started my own work.

I've learned the production techniques and I've learned to do the things I learned in art school.

We do different things, but the basis is what I've learned from him.

Frank Oda He's doing all right, he's doing alright.

Gary Oda/Etched Glass Artist One of the beauties of glasses, it reflects light it transmits light in different ways depending on what the light is with the glass, it looks different.

(Instrumental music) Donald Kim I first met Halla Huhm in 1951.

That's some 41 years ago.

Of course those days, the Hawaiʻi community did not have too many people who knew about Korean culture, who can teach Korean culture, especially the Korean dances and arts and music, etc.

And I think that the Halla Huhm emerged as a, as a pioneer of spreading Korean culture in Hawaiʻi community.

I know her early days when she was teaching, she wasn't quite well to do and she had to struggle along to finance her studio and she really spent all her assets and money that whatever she had to open up a studio and teach to children.

And I haven't seen anyone who is so unselfish, so dedicated to the arts and especially Korean culture, Korean dances and so forth.

(Music) Judy Van Zile/ University of Hawaii professor of dance Mrs. Huhm has continued to do studies in a variety of different kinds of Korean dance forms.

She has studied with some of the most important people in Korea, who had been recognized by the Korean government for their ability in different areas.

She studied cord dance, some of the old traditional forms were done for the entertainment purposes, for entertainment for the kings and queens in the courts.

She has also studied Buddhist dance forms from a Buddhist monk.

Dances that were originally done as part of ritual kinds of celebrations.

She has studied with shamans and worked very closely with one in particular to learn some of the kinds of dance things that go on in the context of shaman rituals.

And in her own performing, she's very demanding of herself.

And she's demanding in terms of accuracy of traditional dances that she performs as well as demanding in terms of trying to create new material, but within a very Korean kind of mode.

So she's contributed to the artistic life of the community in portraying the Korean performing arts.

Halla Pai Huhm When I think I started teaching in Honolulu I was deeply understand that that I have to teach the my student Korean manner and the culture to understand a little bit more.

Ten they can learn much more.

Bring your hand like this.

Your next pose supposed to be behind your left shoulder.

Yeah, not this way.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

This way, behind your right shoulder when you use the right arm, you use this, this spirit.

Just like that.

See?

That's why, that's why you have some different feeling in dance from the beginning.

When you sit down already you set it.

But you worry about movement now.

You have to concentrate more you feeling in this.

And now I can see you dance.

Music is music, dance is a dance.

Music and dance gonna be together.

Practice often then this come together.

You come now this much.

So you come more practice, more practice then music and you - you're good friends.

Judy Van Zile/ University of Hawaii professor of dance She's very concerned with the whole person.

She's not just concerned with training bodies to move.

She's concerned with getting the whole feeling of the Korean dance and and the appropriate spirit of the dance.

And so she gives a lot of this background in her teaching.

And I think that there are many Koreans who have learned a tremendous amount amount about Korean culture through going to her dance classes apart from the dance itself.

(Instrumental music) Remy Choi I've been taking Korean dance lessons for nine years.

I really enjoy it because it helps me to learn my culture and my background.

And it helps me to like sort of stay in shape, Julie Yi Ms. Freshley and Mrs. Halla Huhm are really good teachers because they, they help me in expressing the moods of the dances and they teach me really good movements, and they're just really good.

Judy Van Zile/ University of Hawaii professor of dance Certainly with the Korean studio, Mary Jo Freshley has been a very important person.

She's been very helpful in dealing with the business side of the studio.

But she's also kind of an interesting phenomenon in that here's a pure Caucasian who is teaching Korean dance to Koreans.

And that has not been an easy situation all the time either.

Mary Jo Freshley All right, let's take it again.

Go for your dynamics go for your arms.

I got involved in 1962 at the University of Hawaiʻi when Mrs. Huhm was teaching a summer session.

I didn't plan to become an instructor.

And I guess one reason I really stuck with the Korean is because of the rhythms.

I think I'm a jazz lover from a long time ago.

So there's a lot of similarities in terms of nice syncopated rhythms.

(Rhythmic drumming) Remy Choi Korean culture as any culture is very diverse.

And as I tell the students here they're very lucky to have this diversity offered to them at one place.

Judy Van Zile/ University of Hawaii professor of dance Mary Jo herself is also now starting to advance in age and I would hope that there will be some younger generation Koreans who will get very seriously interested in the art to the extent that they will continue to work with Mrs. Huhm as well as continue to go back to Korea and learn what's going on in Korea today.

(Instrumental music)