After the world’s most popular hula event was canceled last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Maui’s Cierra Mei Ling Hau’olimaikalani Pagaduan Chow was honored to step onstage again for the 58th Annual Merrie Monarch Festival.

While it was Chow’s third year participating in Merrie Monarch with her halau, this was her first Miss Aloha Hula soloist competition, which was pre-recorded last week on Hawaii island. Under the direction of Kumu Hula Kamaka Kukona, of Halau O Ka Hanu Lehua, she danced two solo performances, kahiko, or ancient style of hula and auana, modern hula.

“It’s just the greatest honor you can be asked of your kumu,” the Paukukalo resident said on Friday afternoon. “I mean, it’s not about you at that point, it’s about being the best representative that you can be for your kumu, for your lahui, your halau, for our kupuna and our ohana, and just being that vessel for each of them and knowing that your kumu has chosen you to represent him and his hula legacy is really a feeling that can never compare to anything else.”

This year’s event did not have the usual live audience due to COVID, making it a “very different and unique experience, but also very, very special,” said the 23-year-old.

“Just having to adapt to all the new changes was at first very difficult, but I think it just showed how persistent I am and how even through trialing times, we’re able to overcome these challenges,” she said. “As a hula dancer, you always have to be flexible and be able to adapt to all kinds of things. The experience was just truly amazing and just a true testimony of what it means to be a hula dancer.”

The 2021 Miss Aloha Hula competition and results aired Thursday night.

Chow did not place in the competition, but praised her fellow dancers.

“I commend each mana wahine that had worked so hard and effortlessly to present their presentations because I know as a soloist what it takes physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually to prepare yourself for this one special moment in time, this seven minutes of vulnerability and pressure that you get from everybody,” Chow said. “It definitely showed throughout their hula and their performances, and their journey. It’s beautiful and so meaningful to see them on that stage. You can see the beauty of their hula and their stories, but you can also really see their growth.”

Rosemary Ka’imilei Keamoai-Strickland from Ka La Onohi Mai Haehae on Oahu won the top individual award on Thursday, just edging second place by one point.

Ashley Kilioulaninuiamamaoho’opi’iwahinekapualokeokalaniakea Lai of Halau Ka Liko Pua O Kalaniakea, with studios in Oahu, San Francisco and Japan, took second.

Maka’ala Kahikinaokalalani Victoria Perry of Ke Kai O Kahiki of Oahu took third place.

Overall seven women competed for the soloist title.

For the kahiko, Chow danced to ‘O Lauli’a Ke Ali’i, in which Chow portrays Hopoe, who chants in an attempt to save her own life while caught in the path of Pele’s raging lava flow. Hopoe’s life is spared in the end.

In her auana, called Ka Wai Lehua ‘A’ala Ka Honua, Chow embodied a completely different persona. This hula speaks of the waters of life, specifically the rain that falls from the heavens.

“Both rain and lehua blossoms drift from the tree to the earth and then into the waters of the sea,” she explained. “The cycle of life is metaphorically cast and interwoven in the mele.”

Dancing has had a big impact on Chow, who grew up as a softball player and competed on the Baldwin High School team before falling in love with hula just five years ago.

Transitioning into a graceful hula dancer, and learning intricate and elegant movements that come together to tell important pieces of Hawaiian history as well as portray the culture and language, made her into “the person that I am today.”

“When you have somebody else who sees that potential and light in you, it makes you realize that you are worthy and deserving of this, and you need to believe that,” she said of her kumu hula and halau. “That’s something that I have learned through this journey. It hasn’t been easy, but not every journey is easy and that’s what makes this so special, is learning about yourself and growing through those uncomfortable situations, you learn that you can do anything that you set your heart and mind to.”

Chow said that she and some hula sisters will be watching the third and final night of the 2021 Merrie Monarch Festival, which will be broadcast beginning at 6 tonight on KFVE.

A rerun of Thursday’s Miss Aloha Hula performances will be broadcast at 1 p.m. Today on KHNL and KFVE.

Along with Halau o Ka Hanu Lehua, another Maui halau, Halau Kekuaokala’au’ala’iliahi, led by Na Kumu Hula Haunani and ‘Iliahi Paredes, is also competing in the group competition.

Tonight’s performances will feature halau dancing the auana. Friday’s performances featured the kahiko.

For more information, including how to view the competition via livestream, see www.merriemonarch.com/2021-festival/.

* Dakota Grossman can be reached at dgrossman@mauinews.com.