The all-star cast gathers on stage with Emme Tomimbang, wearing purple at right, for a group song. Several of the women from the hālau are pictured at bottom. - Photo: Francine Murray

By Lisa Asato / Ka Wai Ola Loa

Eight Native Hawaiian women left behind their lives behind bars for a day and danced hula for their TV debut on "Emme's Christmas Island Moments," airing Thursday night at 9 on KHON2.

Nā Wahine o Ke Alaula's performance of "Ke Alaula" by the Mākaha Sons left some onlookers in the small, private taping teary-eyed and prompted one audience member to give a dancer an impromptu embrace. "(She) just stood up and grabbed her and hugged her and was crying," said Mark Patterson, warden at the Women's Community Correctional Center in Windward O'ahu, who accompanied the group. The woman was a stranger, and Patterson motioned to the dancer that it was OK to hug her back. The pa'ahao, or prisoners, aren't supposed to hug.

Dancer Laurice Alapai said in an interview that she never envisioned herself performing on TV, and she called the experience "a blessing."

The dancers of Nā Wahine o Ke Alaula of the Women's Community Correctional Center, after their performance. First row, from left, Syleen Aki, Lily Manlapit and Elizabeth Aila. Back row: WCCC Warden Mark Patterson, Dawn Keliikuli, Lisa Antonio, Colleen Pakele, Laurice Alapai and Lorraine Ishii - Photo: Lisa Asato

"When I was younger, I used to dance hula. All my family, they're entertainers," said Alapai. "I lost that joy, and so when I came up here (to WCCC) and found out there was hula, I just dived right into it." Alapai, who turns 37 this week, said her extended family, including five children, will be watching the holiday special.

The dancers shared the stage at a Dec. 2 taping and luncheon at Clear Channel Hawai'i's Road Runner Music Hall at Dole Cannery with entertainers including Willie K, John and Ernie Cruz, Na Leo, Pauline Wilson and Jimmy Borges. Also sharing their talents to celebrate 15 years of Christmas show memories with host Emme Tomimbang were chefs Sam Choy and Chuck Furuya, U.S. marines collecting Toys for Tots, Jordan Segundo, Al Waterson, Voices of Praise, state Sen. Brickwood Galuteria, and radio personalities Perry and Price and Sweetie Pacarro.

The hula dancers are participants in the Ke Alaula treatment program run by Hina Mauka in partnership with WCCC. Patterson said that 90 percent of women incarcerated in Hawai'i are behind bars for drug or drug-related crimes. In order for them to be paroled or released, they have to undergo substance-abuse treatment. The majority of the women at WCCC are required to go through the cultural-based Ke Alaula treatment program, which may account for its size – with 50 participants age 18 to 65, the program is WCCC's largest.

The self-taught hula dancers from the Women's Community Correctional Center make their TV debut on "Emme's Christmas Island Moments" Thursday at 9 p.m. on KHON2. - Photo: Lisa Asato

But the hula hālau is an all-volunteer venture. The women choose to participate, and Patterson notes, "They don't have a kumu hula; they teach themselves."

The song "Ke Alaula," which describes a dawn, means having second chances and learning to "live life on life's terms," said Alapai, who added that she's going from being a drug addict and alcoholic to "seeing what life really has to offer." Being able to perform was a Christmas gift that "gives other (incarcerated) women hope to become who you want to become," she said.

Patterson said exposure of pa'ahao in venues like "Emme's Christmas Island Moments" show helps dispel myths about the prison population and helps humanize them.

Patterson said the group of women chosen to perform were leaders within the hālau who earned the privilege. He recalled that while driving the group back to WCCC after the taping in Honolulu, one of the women remarked from the back of the van, " 'You know, Warden, the entire time we were there, we forgot we were inmates because everybody treated us like regular people.'

"I give all my hugs and kisses to Emme and her staff for that," he said.