"Reviews"
Rochester Guitar Club
Link to Review: http://rochesterguitarclub.com/articles_50.html
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City Newspaper
www.Rochester-CityNews.com
I think it's really neat that we have a Hawaiian Center in Rochester. It's colorful, it's tropical, in a city that receives precious little sunshine. The Gallery Kauai Center for Hawaiian Studies & Performing Arts teaches everything from hula to ukulele, and there was quite a turn out for the Hawaiian dance at Pittsford Library on Saturday, January 12. The room was filled to capacity, many having to stand along the walls or sit on the floor once the seats were filled. But it was a happy and colorful crowd, each presented a Hawaiian lei as they entered, many of which were quickly turned into head bands and tiaras.
Chirpy, enthusiastic, a bit over the top, and pretty, gallery owner and dance teacher Ka'iulani is every little kid's dream teacher. The kind they fall in love with, and a parent loves to drop the kids off to spend time with. Her husband, Kimo, accompanies her on various stringed and percussive instruments. Together they put on a nice combination program of demonstration, instruction, and participation, leaving little time for the tykes to get restless. It was pretty much a perfect thing to do with your little kids on a snowy Saturday morning
More reviews to come...
"Articles"
Her Rochester Magazine July 2007
www.HerRochester.com
Victoria Kaiulani Visiko..."Woman to Watch"
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Victoria Kaiulani Visiko finds joy in anything Hawaiian. She especially loves chanting, using an Ipu Heke double gourd to keep the beat during ancient Kahiko chants. She and her husband have even recorded two CDs (using their Hawaiian names, Kimo and Kaiulani). |
Personal: 48, married (for
almost 31 years to high school sweetheart), six children (ranging in age from 5
to 28; five are adopted).
Occupation: Owner and director of Gallery Kauai, Hawaiian Performing Arts Center
of Jefferson Road (www.gallerykauai.com);
instructor of Hawaiian Dance and Culture at the University of Rochester;
professional Hawaiian dancer, choreographer and producer (producing
approximately 200 Hawaiian events per year).
Community activities: P.E.O.
(Philanthropic Education Organization), an international organization that helps
women further their educational goals; my husband and I donate performances for
charitable organizations.
My favorite thing to do in Rochester: I love performing with my husband at
different venues in Rochester (i.e. Starry Nites Cafe and Bernunzio’s Downtown
Music). We meet so many wonderful, appreciative people. I love the ambience of
these places.
What I’m reading now: Everything
about Hawaiian culture — I always strive to increase my knowledge of all
Hawaiian topics.
Biggest challenge I’ve overcome: Singing. I have a very solid Hawaiian chanting
background; my voice rings out loud and clear in the Hawaiian language ... I was
always encouraged as a child to dance, but not to sing. About two years ago, my
husband said, “Get past it and do it ... just sing.” So, I did! Of course, it
took many years to get to the “just do it” stage. I believe that, as parents, we
should not label our children. Give them the freedom to explore all their
talents.
The best advice I ever received: Be
true to yourself so that you can be true to others.
One thing I’ve always wanted to do but never have: Go on a second honeymoon ...
alone ... with my husband. We always travel with our children ... Don’t get me
wrong ... we want our children with us but, we have not been alone away from
home in 20 years.
Something people don’t know about me:
After my husband and I graduated from college, we moved to New Jersey, near the
ocean. We lived there for 17 years before moving back to Rochester six years
ago. [While there,] I owned two businesses — An Actor’s Place I (in New York
City) and An Actor’s Place II (in Red Bank, N.J.) — where I taught acting. I
[also] studied modern dance at the Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance …
they wanted me to [join] the Martha Graham Dance Company. But, my businesses
were booming and I was also directing off- (and off-off-) Broadway theater ...
so I declined. In rare moments, I regret that decision ... but, it then passes
because I am doing exactly what I am supposed to be doing in life ... everything
Hawaiian.
What I do to relieve stress: Dance — my best works have been created during
stressful times in my life; go to the Seneca Park Zoo with my husband and our
children.
My biggest guilty pleasure(s): Wine, chocolate and my husband’s shoulder
massages.
The one thing I can’t live without:
My ohana (family), which includes my husband, children and pets — also my
students and their families as well.
As a child, I always wanted to be: Everything that I am today ... and more.
The song that best describes my life:
“I Am Woman” by Helen Reddy or “Beautiful Hula Dancer” by John Keawe.
What people say about her: Sara Boettrich, educator for school programs at
Strong — National Museum of Play: “What is most remarkable about Victoria’s
teaching style is her ability to connect with everyone in a room; young and old,
male and female, all are enticed by Victoria’s contagious love of Hawaiian
culture. The compassion she has and shares emanates from her voice, her
movements and her expressions. The fact that she can inspire teenage boys to
hula on stage is proof of her gifts and talents as a teaching artist.”
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Democrat and Chronicle
www.DemocratandChronicle.com.com
Say 'aloha' to sounds, sights of Hawaii
Kauai Center teaches the music, spirit of 50th state By Alan Morrell Staff writer
(December 16, 2007) — Gallery Kauai
is the kind of place that can make you forget about the cold and snowy weather
in a hurry.
Barefoot dancers in floral-print skirts practice the hula inside the Jefferson
Road studio, which is labeled the Center for Hawaiian Studies and Performing
Arts. Wayne Knox, the gallery's music director, alternates between playing slack
key guitar and an Ipu heke, both musical instruments that resonate with
the sounds of Hawaii.
On a mat, Victoria Visiko, Knox's
wife, instructs the dancers, reminding them to smile! and breathe! and turn
slowly!
Knox and Visiko go by their Hawaiian names at the studio, where he is known as
Kimo and she is called Kumu Victoria Kaiulani. They say their studio is one of
the few in New York state that offers classes in Hawaiian music and dance.
Both have been to Hawaii many times, but their roots are in Rochester. They met while attending East High School years ago and married shortly after, while both were in their teens.
"I was basically born with a Hawaiian
soul," Visiko said.
She graduated from Nazareth College with a degree in theater arts. He graduated
from the University of Rochester with a degree in optics. In 1984, they moved to
New Jersey, where he worked at Bell Labs and she commuted to New York City and
worked in theater, directing off-Broadway plays for years.
Along the way, Knox, a classically trained musician who studied at the Eastman School of music, played in bands and dabbled in different styles of music, including Hawaiian. Visiko has taken Hawaiian dance classes since she was a child, along with other dance lessons.
They returned to Rochester in 2001 and opened Gallery Kauai. The place first was near the Crystal Barn in Pittsford before moving to the Bowl-a-Roll Plaza, at 1560 Jefferson Road, 21/2 years ago.
"We're trying to convey the feeling of being in Hawaii," said Knox, 50, whose day job is director of optics at UR. He teaches slack key guitar, which has more tunings and a different sound from a typical guitar, and other instruments, including ukulele.
Visiko, 48, said she received
blessings from a Hawaiian dance teacher to perpetuate the Hawaiian culture
through teaching.
"We're told by a lot of people (in Hawaii) that someday, the Hawaiians will come
to us, because they're not living the culture," Visiko said. "It's important
what we're doing here. It's our calling."
One of her dance students is Kate Norako, a UR graduate student who was born in Hawaii, the child of a Marine father who traveled the world. She learned about the Henrietta school at college.
"After one night of dancing here, I said, 'I don't care what I have to do, I will fit this into my schedule,'" said Norako, who also is studying slack key guitar. "It reminds me of being little. It does so much for my spirit."
Another student, Martha Jodoin of
Henrietta, said she started taking dance classes as a way to exercise.
"It's a mood lifter," she said.
While Visiko is teaching, the five children that she and Knox adopted sit off in
a corner of the studio, giggling and munching McDonald's food. The couple also
have a son, Chris, 27.
Knox and Visiko regularly perform at
their studio and at places such as Starry Nites Cafe on University Avenue in
Rochester.
They travel to Hawaii yearly to perform — Visiko said she needs to do so, to
revitalize her spirit. They're heading to the 50th state from late June to early
August in 2008.
"When I get there, I kiss the ground," Visiko said. "I want people to know, this is a studio of Hawaiian culture, not just a dance studio. I try to bring that 'welcome' here."
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Democrat and Chronicle
www.DemocratandChronicle.com.com
DCan't go to Hawaii? Go to class in Henrietta...
By Staff report
Gallery Kauai, Center of Hawaiian Studies &
Performing Arts, is in its sixth year.
It offers in-studio and out-of-studio classes, workshops
and performances.
Dance classes include Hawaiian Hula, Tahitian Maori Poi
(a dance performed with balls attached to flax strings), Acting for Hula, and
Anchients Chants and Performance.
Music classes include Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar, Ukulele
and (coming soon) Tahitian Drumming.
When you enter Gallery Kauai, you will likely be immersed
in authentic Hawaiian culture with teachers/performers/recording artists Kimo
and Kaiulani.
Instructor Victoria Kaiulani Visiko of Pittsford has
dedicated her life to perpetuating the Hawaiian Culture through Hula (which she
began training in 1965), music and the cultural arts of the Hawaiian people.
Share Aloha!
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Democrat and Chronicle
www.DemocratandChronicle.com.com
Dance center like a breeze from Hawaii (December 17, 2006)
Blame it on Elvis...
At the tender age of 4, Rochester native Victoria Kaiulani Visiko saw The
King crooning in Blue Hawaii. As he strummed his ukulele and swiveled his
hips, she had a mystical vision.
"I knew that I was Hawaiian and that
I had to dance the hula," recalls Visiko. "I told my mother. She just looked at
me."
But 43 years later, that precocious call of the islands has led to a Hawaiian
performing arts center in the heart of Henrietta. Gallery Kauai, run by Visiko
and her husband, Wayne Kimo Knox, has become western New York's main school for
Hawaiian and Tahitian dance.
Its classes may come as a shock to anyone who remembers the spicier dance scenes from Mutiny on the Bounty. You won't find any grass skirts, topless solos or rum-laden love potions. Instead, local students don graceful sarongs and rehearse centuries-old steps in a modern studio.
At a recent class, three women languidly stretch their arms and sway their hips as island drums echo from a boom box. Visiko demonstrates the moves on a lagoon-blue dance floor: "Keep it smooth as silk! Breathe! Now shake your legs out!"
Catching their breath, the students
describe the dancing as somewhere between aerobics and relaxation therapy.
"It gives you serenity — and you don't have to be thin and young to do it," says
Lynn Goldberg, 76, a Brighton child care provider.
"I found out about this class by accident when a Penny Saver ad fell on the floor. It has a real 'ohana' (family) atmosphere for people of all ages."
Martha Jodoin, a Henrietta grandma,
has been learning Tahitian dance at the center since 2001.
"I was very depressed after the 9/11 attacks and wanted something to lift my
spirits," she says. "My husband and I have been to Hawaii several times, so this
seemed perfect."
Aptly enough for a studio that features so much spinning, the 5-year-old Gallery Kauai is located right next to Bowl-A-Roll Lanes at 1560 Jefferson Road. But instead of worshipping champion bowlers, students dance before a giant altar to the hula goddess Laka. Dangling from its bamboo frame are red rooster feathers, leis and tea leaves to fend off evil spirits.
The charm seems to be working because each year Visiko enrolls 60 students and gives 200 performances at weddings, clubs and festivals. She teaches Hawaiian dance at the University of Rochester and performs at the Strong — National Museum of Play and Rochester Museum & Science Center.
Not surprisingly, the studio is a magnet for local Hawaiian, Tahitian and Samoan students and immigrants. Among the Hawaiian-born dancers is Nunda, Livingston County, homemaker Mareva Baldwin, 26.
"It's getting harder to do this,"
puffs Baldwin, who is expecting her second child next month. "But it feels great
to get my energy going."
Visiko and Knox are Rochester natives who imbibe the Hawaiian spirit each summer
by teaching and performing on the islands. They married right after graduating
from East High School and at first pursued independent musical paths.
After graduating from Nazareth College, Visiko studied hula dance with several Hawaiian masters and later with legendary dancer Martha Graham. Knox played lute while a graduate student at the University of Rochester, where he now heads the world-renowned Institute of Optics.
As music director at Gallery Kauai, he accompanies Visiko on ukulele and teaches Hawaiian slack key guitar — an instrument that uses varied tunings and no pick.
The couple has passed on their passions for music and dance to their seven children (ages 4 to 30). And for their many South Pacific students, the gallery is becoming a local outpost of a distant tradition.
"They come here to rediscover
their culture," says Visiko. "The last thing they expect to find is a Hawaiian
arts center in the Snow Capital."
Gallery Kauai Performing Arts
Productions
(585) 313-1195 www.GalleryKauai.com.
More Articles to come...