HONOLULU — Strike a pose. 

The University of Hawaii at Manoa’s Department of Theatre and Dance recently added a queer dance class to its curriculum, according to a news release.

It is one of the first full-semester, three-credit courses in queer dance in higher education.

“There is a great need to create a space of visibility for queer performing artists,” Kara Jhalak Miller, an associate professor and associate chair of dance at UH Mānoa, said in the news release.

The class encompasses influences from drag, runway, vogue and pageantry, stemming back to the 1980s. The queer dance celebrated in the class comes out of LGBT dance clubs and ballroom culture, which pop artists, like Lady Gaga and Madonna, have popularized. Queer dance features impersonation, lip-synching and pantomime. The UH Manoa course also incorporates techniques and choreography from Asian and Pacific Islander māhū culture. 

The class is being taught by Sami L.A. Akuna, a drag queen known by his stage name Cocoa Chandelier. Akuna earned his BFA in dance, BA in theatre and MFA in Asian theatre. The Native Hawaiian instructor combines choreography and dance techniques that have been a part of Hawaii’s entertainment scene for decades, dating back to the popular 1960s downtown Honolulu drag bar, the Glades. 

“LGBTQ+, māhū and ally students tell me that Sami L.A. Akuna’s queer dance is both empowering and life affirming,” said Camaron Miyamoto, director of the UH Manoa LGBTQ+ Center. “This is truly powerful and transformative education — exactly what higher education can do when it is at its very best.”

The students in the queer dance class will perform at the Hawaii State Art Museum on Dec. 2.

Michelle Broder Van Dyke covers the Hawaiian Islands for Spectrum News Hawaii.