Keo Woolford’s I Land in Manila!
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“I Land” has landed in Manila! I Land is a one-man off-Broadway show featuring acclaimed actor and hula dancer Keo Woolford. (Yes, you read that right, he is a hula dancer.)
So what is “I Land” and why is there so much buzz about it? “I Land” is Keo Woolford’s moving search for the meaning of heritage in a post-modern world weaving together traditional Hawaiian hula, Hip-Hop, Hawaiian talk story and spoken word.
This show is loosely based on Woolford’s life from searching for his heritage to his first exposure to the hula and how he came under the instruction of his Kumu master (hula teacher). The show also describes his fleeting brush with fame as a member of the almost-famous Hawaiian boyband Brownskin. “I Land” also exposes his subsequent descent into a world of drugs and partying and his rising up from those by rediscovering the dance that connects him both to his culture and to himself.
I got the chance to do an interview with him and boy was it a fun learning experience. Contrary to popular belief and stereotypes, men do hula too! In fact, as Keo shares in the interview below, pre-colonial Hawaii had a lot of male hula dancers.
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