Emma Farden Sharpe
Emma Farden Sharpe | |
|---|---|
| Born | September 16, 1904[1] Pu‘ukōli‘i, Lahaina |
| Died | 1991 |
| Family | Irmgard Farden Aluli  |
Emma Kapiʻolani Farden Sharpe (1904 – 1991) was a Hawaiian hula performer and kumu hula (hula teacher). Sharpe was a musician who released several singles with her sisters as well as leading her own musical troupe; she was also a composer and a producer of professional Hawaiian shows. In 1984 she was recognized as part of the Living Treasures of Hawaiʻi program.
Early life and family[edit]
Emma Kapiʻolani Farden was born in Pu‘ukōli‘i, Lahaina on September 16, 1904.[1] She was part of a large family with 13 children born to mother Annie Kahalepouli Bastel Shaw Farden, of Hawaiian-Hungarian heritage, and Charles Kekua Farden, of Hawaiian-French German heritage.[2] The family's ancestral home was named Puamana and was located on Lahaina's Front Street.[3] Each of the family members were musicians, with Emma and her younger sister Irmgard Farden Aluli the most well known.[2] Growing up, the children sang harmony as they worked in nearby sugarcane fields.[2]
Sharpe was a schoolteacher at King Kamehameha III Elementary School for forty years, beginning in 1923.[3][4] She had three children with her husband, David Taylor Sharpe.[3]
Music and dance[edit]
Five members of the family released singles under the name The Farden Sisters: Emma, Irmgard, Edna, Maude, and Diane.[5] The Farden family as a whole won the Hawaiʻi Aloha Award from the Hawaiian Music Foundation in 1977.[2]
Sharpe's best known work, Lahaina's Fabulous Emma Sharpe, was published in 1960.[3] The album featured members of her troupe, including her daughter Kaloulukea Imamura.[3] In the 1960s and the 1970s, Sharpe performed every Sunday evening in the Discovery Room at the Maui Surf Hotel (later the Sheraton-Maui).[4] The dancers of Sharpe's Puamana troupe, named for the Farden family house, danced there and at other hotels nightly through the 1980s.[6]
She composed songs such as "Hula O Pakipika" and "Nani ʻUlupalakua."[1] Sharpe also established the Hawaiian Cultural Festival (Na Mele O Maui).[1]
Sharpe learned traditional hula from several teachers. At age fifteen she began studying with Kauhai Likua, a dancer for the royal court of King Kamehameha IV.[7][8] She would pass Likua's style, flowery and gracefully, on to her students.[3][6] Sharpe would later study hula with Joseph Ilalaʻole and scholar Mary Kawena Pukui.[7] Sharpe taught hula to anyone who wanted to learn, instructing thousands of visitors to Hawaii as well as kumu hula such as Nina Maxwell and Kathy Holoʻaumoku Ralar.[3]
Death and legacy[edit]
Sharpe was recognized by the Honpa Hongwanji Mission of Hawaii as part of the Living Treasures of Hawaiʻi program in 1984.[9] She died in 1991.[1] The Maui News described her as "the leader of Maui's cultural scene for more than half the century."[6]
She started a hula festival as part of the Na Mele O Maui; it phased out in the 1990s but was restarted in 2014 with a new name honoring Sharpe.[7] The annual Emma Farden Sharpe Hula Festival is an invitational event in Maui featuring performances, cultural workshops, historical exhibits, and artisan crafts.[10]
References[edit]
- ^ a b c d e Maui County Committee on the Status of Women (March 2010). Women's History Month 2010: Writing Women Back Into History: Selected Women of Maui County. p. 30. Retrieved May 18, 2021.
{{cite book}}:|website=ignored (help) - ^ a b c d "The Farden Family". Haʻilono Mele. 3 (12). The Hawaiian Music Foundation. December 1977. Retrieved May 18, 2021.
- ^ a b c d e f g "Emma Farden Sharpe: A legend celebrated". Lahaina News. December 16, 2010. Retrieved May 18, 2021.
- ^ a b "Emma Farden Sharpe". Territorial Airwaves. February 24, 2017. Retrieved May 18, 2021.
- ^ "The Farden Sisters : Irmgard, Emma, Edna, Maude, Diane / Joe Keawe And His Harmony Hawaiians - Laupahoehoe / Mom". Iseipetali. Retrieved May 18, 2021.
- ^ a b c "Emma Farden Sharpe: A legend celebrated, Part II". Lahaina News. December 23, 2010. Retrieved May 18, 2021.
- ^ a b c "Festival to pay tribute to Emma Farden Sharpe". Lahaina News. August 21, 2014. Retrieved May 18, 2021.
- ^ Sharpe, Emma Farden Kapiolani (1982). "Kumu Hula Emma Farden Sharpe of Maui" (Interview). Interviewed by Ishmael Stagner. Kahana, Maui: Institute for Polynesian Studies. Retrieved May 18, 2021.
- ^ "Living Treasures: List of Honorees". Honpa Hongwanji Mission of Hawaii. Retrieved May 18, 2021.
- ^ "Emma Farden Sharpe Hula Festival, Aug. 11-13". Maui Now. August 3, 2017. Retrieved May 18, 2021.
External links[edit]
- Kumu Hula Emma Farden Sharpe of Maui 1982 interview and hula demonstration