NICOLE JUNG
Alooooooha!!
I'm Nicole
...and my hula journey began before having ever stepped foot in halau. Having just seen the movie Lilo and Stitch, I became obsessed. I watched it over and over until I knew every word. Soon enough I started watching the "How to Hula" video at the end of the movie and my little heart just knew this was for me. My parents searched for a place for me to dance and stumbled upon a small halau in Oakland just 3 minutes down the freeway from our home.
"How to Hula" video
We went on a Saturday morning to go check it out and guess who was there... Kumu Mark, and the whole Kukui line from my "How to Hula" video!! My parents were shocked as I walked right in and made myself at home with the people I was already so familiar with.
Little did I know, these people would become my hula family.
Little me had the opportunity to perform in many shows as we formed an advanced keiki team. In 2009 I competed at Ia Oe E Ka La in my first competition ever, and I had fallen in love with hula a whole new aspect of hula. I knew I wanted to push myself to be even better so that I could one day dance with the adults.
Fast forward to 2015, and I was invited to train for Merrie Monarch. I was absolutely stunned at the thought of even training for such a big competition that I didn't even care if I made the floor LOL my little 8 year old self was already so proud that I even got invited to try out!! I came home after every practice no matter how tired I was and kept practicing to make sure I didn't forget anything. I ended up making the floor and let me tell you it was the hardest training I had ever gone through.
My hard work had definitely paid off though as I was invited to train for Merrie Monarch the following year as well. However, 2016 was the year unfinished. We made it all the way to the Edith Kanaka'ole Stadium. We were ready, but due to unforeseen circumstances we had to forfeit. The thought of it still hurts, but I knew that there were more opportunities to come. 3 years later and we were training for MM2020. I had the heartbreak of 2016 to motivate me now, and I had to fulfill that promise to myself. Well...almost. Covid hit and the world shut down. We went from 100 to 0 in a heartbeat and I didn't know what to do.
Fast forward one more time to the present, and I am training for Merrie Monarch once again. Now with 2 unfinished years to motivate me, I'm more than ready to put my all out onto that stage.
It's crazy to think that I started out learning to kaholo in my living room, and now I'm a kukui (lead dancer) dancing along side those who I've been inspired by my whole life. This is my family, and I can definitely say that little 3 year old me made the right choice:)
