Tau Dance Theater

Tau Dance Theater prepares for an upcoming performance of Goddess of Mauna Kea.

Photo: Donald J. Ranney, Jr., Courtesy of Tau Dance Theater

Tau Dance Theater performer Guyton Galdiera appears as the god Kane in the troupe’s upcoming Poliahu—Goddess of Mauna Kea. Peter Rockford Espiritu, Tau’s creative director, bills the show as a Hawaiian dance opera that blends traditional hula with modern European elements such as ballet. “I’m doing this as a modern Polynesian expressing myself in the now,” he says. “We need to create works for today, otherwise there will be nothing to represent what we were all about, tomorrow.” The performance takes place on Friday, Oct. 8, at 8 p.m., at Leeward Community College Theatre. Tickets: $20 to $30, lcctheatre.hawaii.edu, 455-0381.

This article appears in the October 2010 issue of HONOLULU Magazine.