10/04/2026
It’s been a very long time since I introduced myself and NalaniDance to my followers. The time is right because it’s also the 20-year anniversary of my dance journey (actually, that was back in June 😆)
Aloha, my name is Taraya.
I am a born and raised Calgarian residing on Treaty 7 Lands, and I claim zero Hawaiian or Indigenous culture or ethnicity. I began my dancing when I was child, experimenting with ballet, jazz, and Irish dancing. As an adult I took Belly Dance, Bollywood, and Hula. I’ve dabbled in other styles – Tahitian, African, Pole, Hip-hop. I always come back to hula.
In 2006 I was living in Lethbridge after having graduated from the university with a Bachelor’s of Anthropology, and I started taking Belly Dance lessons to keep myself busy in the evenings. That instructor also taught Hawaiian Hula, and I eventually joined those classes. She was a Canadian from Vancouver, having learnt hula and other Polynesian dances from a Polynesian teacher, Paul Latta. In 2007 I moved back to Calgary and continued learning on my own.
Eventually I met up with yet another Canadian dancer, this one from Ontario, who was self-taught. Her and I performed together for a few years. During this time, we kept running into a band from Calgary that played Hawaiian music led by Jim Samuelson. The band is no longer together, and that other dancer and I have parted ways, but Jim and I are great friends and often perform for many events in and around Calgary.
It was Jim who invited me to Aloha Music Camp, where I met the Kumu who would provide me with the necessary instruction and teachings that I had been missing out on. The first time I visited Hawaii was in 2007, but the first time I attended AMC was in 2014. I attended AMC 6 times in 10 years, learning at the feet of such great Kumu as Moanalani Beamer, Mauli Ola Cook, Robyn Knuehble, Uluwehi Guerrero, Kaliko Beamer, Alan Akaka, Hope Keawe, and many others. Sadly, AMC has closed as Kumu take a much deserve rest and retirement.
I began my teaching journey in 2011 when someone asked me to teach them how to hula. I was a very green teacher! In the early years I was hard on myself, I didn’t have the training to be a teacher, and I made mistakes. I was always looking for ways to improve my approach to teaching, so I enrolled in a variety of courses such as the YMCA Group Fitness Leadership Program to a 35-hour Yoga Teacher Training Course through Yoga Santosha (formerly Bhodi Tree), to a teacher training course in the tea industry. Every one of these courses and all the other professional and personal development courses I have taken in the last 20 years has made me a better person than what and who I was when I started learning hula in 2006.
Hula has provided a creative outlet for me, it has provided a second income when I was facing some challenges, it has brought some phenomenal people into my life who are still dear friends, it has taken me throughout southern Alberta for performances. I’ve been on Global News for a WestJet Hawaiian promotion. Jim and I performed for a Make a Wish send off for a child heading to Hawaii to swim with the dolphins. I’ve performed for Alberta Municipalities Association annual conference. I’ve performed in schools, backyard luaus, weddings, birthday’s, celebrations of life, and at dozens of seniors living communities.
Through it all I’ve had a lot of fun, brought joy and happiness to people, and learnt so much about who I am. While I no longer offer public dance classes, I am happy to conduct private group or solo lessons. And I am always happy to perform for all sorts of events large and small, public and private, as a soloist or as group with musicians and other dancers.
E hula mau (keep on dancing)
Pictures from Sept 12 performance at Mahogany Culture Days, courtesy of Home Again Photography
