Biography
The Artist
Māhealani Uchiyama is an award-winning dancer, musician, composer, choreographer, recording artist, author, and teacher. She is the founder and director of the Māhea Uchiyama Center for International Dance in Berkeley and is Kumu Hula of Hālau Ka Ua Tuahine. She is the creator and director of the Kāpili Polynesian Dance and Music Workshops and the African American Mbira Project. She holds a BA in Dance Ethnology and an MA in Pacific Islands Studies from the University of Hawaiʻi. She trained in traditional hula and Tahitian ʻori under the late Kumu Hula (hula master) Joseph Kamōhaʻi Kahāʻulelio. In addition to awards for excellence in Hawaiian and Tahitian dance, she is the recipient of the Aloha Spirit Award and has been presented the “Ke Kanaka Poʻokela” Award by the Berkeley Hawaiian Music Festival. She has been honored by the City of Berkeley with a proclamation declaring January 22, 2019 as Māhealani Uchiyama Day.
Major appearances include the Hollywood Bowl, Te Papa Tongareva National Museum of New Zealand, and the San Francisco Opera House.
The Teacher
A teacher and performer of Polynesian music and dance for over 40 years, her passion and mastery of Hawaiian and Tahitian performing arts has led to numerous concert tours to Tahiti, New Zealand and the islands of Hawai’i. She has taught workshops throughout the United States and Mexico, and was a Visiting Scholar of Hawaiian Language at Stanford University.
Her hālau Ka Ua Tuahine has participated in and been awarded top honors in competitions in California as well as in Hawaiʻi, including the King Kamehameha Hula and Chant Competition in Honolulu, and Kū Mai Ka Hula on Maui.
Ms. Uchiyama has also been an instructor of Hawaiian Dance at Gambia Academy.
The Author and Recording Artist
Māhealani has contributed a chapter on the hula for the publication Dancing on the Earth, Womenʻs Stories of Healing and Dance, (McMaster and Lesho) and a chapter in “Laka and Kapō: A Sacred Balance”, (Edith Kanakaʻole Foundation). She has also authored the Haumāna Hula Handbook for Students of Hawaiian Dance, as well as the book The Mbira, An African Musical Tradition, (both published by North Atlantic Books / Penguin Random House).
Māhealani has produced numerous recordings of traditional Hawaiian and Tahitian music. Her CD “Tatau” has been widely used by Polynesian dance organizations worldwide. She also has two recordings of mbira, the spiritual music of the Shona people of Zimbabwe, “Ndoro dze Madzinza” and “The Sky That Covers Us All”. Her CD “A Walk by the Sea” was awarded a Hawaiʻi Music Award for Best World Music Album. She has used her unique perspective as a lineally recognized Kumu Hula and one of (possibly the only) Kumu Hula of African descent to inform her recording project, Pōpoloheno – Songs of Resilience & Joy, a celebration of the African experience in Hawaiʻi, supported by grants from the Gerbode Foundation and the Kenneth Rainin Foundation. Pōpoloheno – Songs of Resilience & Joy was nominated for 2026 Nā Hōkū Hanohano Awards for “Hawaiian Album of the Year” and “Hawaiian Engineering of the Year”. It was also awarded the 2026 Global Music Award Silver Medal for Outstanding Achievement.
The Cultural Bridge
Māhealani has served on the panel of judges for the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival and the Tahiti Fete of San Jose and Hilo. She is the former President of the Board of Directors of World Arts West, and former Co-Artistic Director of the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival, a nationally acclaimed event which was recognized for making the Bay Area “the epicenter for dance from over 100 unique world cultures, resulting in the most vibrant and diverse dance community in the world” (World Arts West). She also served as Vice President of Mbira The Non-Profit, an organization dedicated to the perpetuation of Shona music.
She has also produced the Mitambo Festival of Shona Music at Ashkenaz Music and Dance Community Center and the Full series at the Berkeley Film Archive, featuring artists such as Hālau o Keikialiʻi, Miriam Peretz and Melanie DeMoore.
Affiliations
Founder & Director
Mahea Uchiyama Center for International Dance (MUCID)
Dedicated to facilitating cultural understanding and creating community through dance, music and literature.- Founded in Berkeley, CA
- 30+ year legacy of cultural programming
- Annual concerts, workshops and community events
Voting Member
The Recording Academy
Hawai'i Academy of Recording Arts
Awards & Honors
2026
2026
2019
City of Berkeley Proclamation
2018
Arts for a Better Bay Area
2015
Berkeley Hawaiian Music Festival
2008
Hawaiʻi Music Award
Explore Further
Explore Māhealani’s complete artistic journey.
Official biography, hi-res photography, and more.