My goal in teaching or performing dance and storytelling for elementary students is to incite in them a life long love of learning, an excitement about trying new things, a firm belief in their own potential to be a success at whatever they try, a deep respect for humanity and a delight in daring to explore their creativity. I feel it is my responsibility as a creative arts specialist to open doors for them that they might not ever even find. I am their guide on the adventure of self discovery, providing them with skills, tools, parameters of safety and points of reflection.
It is a delight to collaborate with Hawaii’s classroom teachers in this exciting path of exploring best practices in education and implementing them together in the classroom. I bring experience and enthusiasm to integrating creative dance, drama, storytelling, puppetry, music, and Hawaiian Studies to curriculum topics grades pre K – 9th.
Mauli Ola Cook is on the faculty of Kanuikapono Hawaiian Charter School as a Hawaiian Studies resource teacher. She was a Kumu for 18 years with the DOE Hawaiian Studies program and has taught residencies in creative dance, storytelling and puppetry throughout the state for the last 34 years. She teaches creative dance residencies annually at Kawaikini Immersion Language School conducting classes in Hawaiian language. Mauli worked with the Maui Arts and Cultural Center as a presenter of PD workshops for teachers and teaching artists in arts integration for over a decade and has led PD workshops for teachers and teaching artists at the Walton Arts Center in Arkansas, Pomaikaʻi School, Kamalani School and schools throughout Kauaʻi. In the last decade she created and taught 3 PD courses for teachers that were presented on various islands. Since the pandemic she has created a series of Hawaiian storytelling videos with accompanying creative dance lessons. She is a teaching artist for the Kennedy Center’s National Tour and has worked with teachers and students in various national locales. Mauli was a featured solo dancer and storyteller in her own show at the Kauaʻi Princeville Hotel for 13 years. She performs frequently at community events and her performances are often featured on local cable TV.
The Artistic Teaching Partners (ATP) Roster is an adjudicated directory of Hawai‘i professional teaching artists qualified to conduct in-depth residencies in educational settings. Each artist or arts organization has a page in the directory with contact information, a short bio, and an artist statement. The State Foundation on Culture and the Arts draws from this roster for arts education programs including Art Bento at the Hawaiʻi State Art Museum and Artists in the Schools.
