Jess was a significant part of the hula show you had in the Gardens — producing, training, managing on-site, there night after night. As part of the company that presented it, she helped oversee its day-to-day running.
Twenty-five years in hula, cultural performance, and private events across Maui.
James runs two kitchens in the Gardens — MYTH Legendary Kitchen and SŌKAI Pacific Rim — with his parents, Costa and Mary. Third generation in Kīhei.
He builds the systems behind Ulana.
This isn't a stranger's pitch. It's the next thing from two people already inside your gates — and we want to be direct about what it is.
Born and raised on Molokaʻi, where her ʻohana lived close to the land and the ocean — hunting, fishing, gathering, and the practices passed down through family and community. Culture wasn't something studied. It was lived.
Danced hula from five. At nine, the big stage: the Maui Hula Bowl — traveling between Molokaʻi and Maui with Ka ʻOhana Aliʻi Productions and Pueo Pata. Boarding at Lahainaluna, in a town where history, land, people, and culture were one thing.
Then Old Lahaina Luau: first as a hostess, then as one of the dancers on its stage — for fourteen years. Then a decade producing and performing private events across the island, and event planning and coordination on top of that. Both sides of the stage.
Twenty-five years. She isn't new to this industry. She has been its backbone for a long time.
The best show on Maui, bar none — and here is what that means.
The pahu. Chant, percussion, the strength of kāne and wahine together. Jess's earliest lasting impression was John Kaimikaua's kāne at Ka Hula Piko on Molokaʻi — the drum reaching past what you could see. That is the feeling this movement is built to give a room.
The islands through mele — melody, story, movement, implements. Live musicians who bring their own connection to each song, so the music is part of the storytelling, not behind it.
Dancers nurtured inside the practice, from the school of Jess's close friend Tereva — rooted in Tahiti, teaching her culture here on Maui, inspiring many through her passion for the performing arts. Not a segment of a Polynesian show — a culture carried by people who grew up in it.
The cast loves it, and the room can tell.
Fire knife — siva afi — is Samoan in origin. We credit each culture in every program.
Our dancers come from hālau backgrounds. They aren't entertainers learning choreography for a stage — they've been surrounded by their cultures from a young age: the histories, the stories, the family teachings. That's what a guest feels, even when they can't name it.
And it runs the other way, too. Tereva trains the young dancers of Maui — into professionals. When they're ready, they carry straight over into Ulana. A girl who starts in her classes at eight has a career in her own cultural practice waiting for her.
When anyone asks what live culture in the Gardens is for, that's the answer.
A family steps off. First time on Maui, a week ahead of them, everything new.
They saw the Gardens on the screens at the airport. They book.
They eat from three of them at one table.
Kahiko, ʻauana, Tahitian — and then fire under the trees.
They've tasted the food, met the people, and felt something of this place.
They come back for the trucks they missed. They tell the family at the next table. Every return trip to Maui starts with the memory of that night.
The next time there's a show in the Gardens, no one should be able to say it wasn't done right.
We're building Ulana to hotel-vendor standards:
We say "building" on purpose. We'll show you each piece as it's in hand — not before.
When the shows come back to the Gardens, we want to be the company that produces them. Not a new show from strangers — the one you already know, from the person who can build it again, now on her own terms and better than it was. We're not asking for a decision today; the timing isn't yours to control yet. We're asking to be your first call.
The first time you want to show anyone what live culture in the Gardens looks like — a Council member, the Mayor, a community night, a room that needs to see it to believe it — say the word. We'll bring a beautiful, fully produced cultural presentation, at no cost to you, on your timeline. One debut, one time, to prove what we can do before a contract ever exists. Frankly, we'd love the chance to show off. We're ready to roll.