UH Hilo Hiloverse Dance Crew Chosen to Perform at Nationals!

Aloha everyone,

If you have arrived at this GoFundMe for the UH Hilo Hiloverse Dance Crew from the Hawaii News Now article from April 7, 2025, please know that any donation you make goes directly to the same UH Hilo students who will be traveling to Washington, D.C. to perform at the 2025 National College Dance Festival at the beginning of May. Hawaii News Now was given this GoFundMe link for our recent trip to Laramie, Wyoming to attend the 2025 American College Dance Association (ACDA) High-Desert Conference. Our current GoFundMe for our upcoming trip to the National Festival in D.C. contains additional details about both the selection process for Haliʻa Aloha No Kaimu as well as the student's incredibly well-received performance.

Mahalo nui loa,

Kristi Kea Kapahua

University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo

Performing Arts Department

Instructor of Dance

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We Need Your Support

After our first successful and fulfilling dance conference in Utah in March of 2024, we will be taking 17 dance students from the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo to the American College Dance Association's (ACDA) High-Desert Conference from March 26-29, 2025, hosted by the University of Wyoming Theatre and Dance program in Laramie, Wyoming. In 2023, UH Hilo became an institutional member of the ACDA, and this will be our second opportunity to take part in an ACDA conference.

In keeping with the High-Desert conference's theme of Elevating Dance Through Expression, we are elevating our expectations and aspirations this year by not only taking twice as many students to the conference but also by presenting both student-choreographed and faculty-choreographed dance works at the conference for adjudication...another first! This gives us the potential for a piece (or pieces!) to be selected to be performed at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. during the culminating performance of the ACDA National College Dance Festival in May 2025. Additionally, works selected for the National Festival will have the chance to be performed during the world-renowned Jacob’s Pillow Summer Dance Festival in Berkshire County, Massachusetts. During the conference in Wyoming, the students will also have the good fortune to participate in workshops held by the acclaimed dance company Urban Bush Women (UBW) based in Brooklyn, New York, and attend their inspiring evening dance concert.

ACDA’s regional conferences provide an amazing opportunity for students and faculty to engage in four days of performances, workshops, panels, and master classes taught by instructors from around the region and country. The conferences are the primary means for college and university dance programs to perform outside their own academic setting and to gain exposure to the diversity of college dance throughout the United States.

The Students

With your assistance, the following 17 dance students will be able to attend the 2025 ACDA High-Desert Conference:

Amber Dahl

Andre Reneau

Cailin Gaume

Fae Melendez

Hanna Pempengco

Jordan Ancheta

Jourdan Park

Kanon Hata

Kara Murphy

Karissa Shimaoka

Kira Okazaki

Loreal Gonzales

Melinda Eder

Melissa Durando

Misty Cruden

Savannah Christensen

Milia Dela Cruz

The students have already had several successful fundraising events to reach their financial goals to attend the conference including a bake sale at the University, a Krispy Kreme doughnut fundraiser, and most recently two "Fitness Fun-Raisers"; a Pilates mat class and a Zumba class.

Where Your Assistance Will Go

Mahalo for your support!

We appreciate any and all of your assistance as it can be quite costly for college students attending an event like this outside of Hawaiʻi.

This will be another great educational and networking experience for our dance students as guest artists and dance workshops are limited here on the Big Island of Hawaiʻi.

We are truly thankful for your support through donating and/or sharing this GoFundMe so that we can help our UH Hilo dance students get to ACDA once again!

In Gratitude,

Kea