I did not begin training professionally until I restructured my life to accomodate pursuit of a college education. First in Business Economics, becoming a tutor at what was known as CLAS, with a great mentor, Danson Kiplagat, then following the prompt of the inner wide wise voice, to look inside and consider "you arenʻt done yet".  I received this prompt while going through ceremonies for Econ with highest honors, shocked to see, there were very few with the blue and gold braid on their shoulder. 

I knew when I was a child, that I wanted to dance, but was not conscious at that time, our family having been targeted, and victims of the system, that the woman across the street and a woman up the street that trafficked both myself and my sister to wealthy clientele in Beverly Hills (we were young, like under 6 years old) for swank situations that included drugging us, they work at de-powering the child. They look at what the child loves to do. I was taking little kid ballet at the time. A.F. tied me up with ropes and told me I was crooked. Piano lids were bashed on my fingers. The part of me that was the visual artists went, oh, I better not tell about loving to draw. At this time, the Catholic confessional became a way of knowing which kids were vulnerable, and there was also trauma associated with St. Brunoʻs Catholic Church, and also, we were victims of what I now coin, WeAreFreeNOW – lights on not out. 

It was systemic, they knew who my father was and his genius level IQ for mechanical things, and it is my memory, he wasnʻt given a choice in the matter. Just as my cousins in Slovenia expressed, the Slovenian family said, when they came, they were not given a choice, they were told what to do.

He cried with some of what was happening, and was given a paper bag with cash in it.

Learning to dance came with moments of fear going across the floor, sheer terror, mixed with the joy of simply being my, what James HIllman would call, my "soulʻs code". 

In this dance, there was a woman in the community that was the punahele of the community, and she was not able to be in this dance, so the mentor asked me.

I performed it as an offering of aloha to the land.

Here it is lumped with the other work by this teacher: https://www.kanopy.com/en/product/three-films-tonia-shimin?frontend=kui

I also worked, at this time, with faculty James Donlon, with his professional performance group, and also, in the creative research of Alice Condodina, with her group Smudges, which was experimental in form. I found it interesting, with her, while my first impulse was to use installation, in my early classes, the department made it clear they wanted me to use dance phrases and not use interdisciplinary approaches, yet, later, when I was invited to work with her, this mentor began to do what I had been doing, use installations and perform within the installations. I found that very curious. 

This dance won a Golden Eagle Award. It is credited as follows on the authorʻs University Affiliation.

"T.S. received the CINE Golden Eagle Award in 1994 for her debut dance film, Passage. This film marked her transition from dance performance to dance filmmaking and was honored for its artistic merit and contribution to the field. Passage also garnered Honorable Mention Awards and was screened nationally, highlighting its impact within the dance and film communities."

I was the soloist in the film, and filmmaker Dana Driskel was amazing to work with! Portions of the film are improvised, and when I improvise, it is with intention to be a "hollow bone" and let a greater intelligence move through me, which I see in part, as the ancestral field of relationship with life. These close connections.

I may have been the first Hawaiian to be associated with this award, nope! Another person! Born two years before me: Edgy Lee (born 1957). First filmaker, I was the first Hawaiian dancer to be associated with the award.

In the credits, it is my family name, Annette Puʻu.

The CINE Golden Eagle Award, established in 1957 by the Council on International Nontheatrical Events (CINE), recognized excellence in film, television, and digital media. Over its 61-year history, the award was a significant accolade for both emerging and established filmmakers. CINE ceased operations in 2018 .WikipediaFilmFreeway

Notable Recipients:

• 1963: Mel Brooks received the award for his short film The Critic.WTOP News+1Wikipedia+1

• 1967: Jim Henson was honored for Time Piece.Wikipedia

• 1969: Steven Spielberg earned recognition for his short film Amblin'.WTOP News+1Wikipedia+1

• 1972: Ron Howard, at age 15, won for Deed of Daring-Do.WTOP News+1Wikipedia+1

• 1981: Ken Burns received the award for his documentary Brooklyn Bridge.WTOP News

• 1993: Edgy Lee, a filmmaker from Hawaii, was honored for Papakolea – Story of Hawaiian Land .Wikipedia

• 2001: Pualani Kanakaʻole Kanahele co-directed Holo Mai Pele, which won the award for excellence in film production .University of Hawaii

• 2013: Al Jazeera English received multiple awards for investigative journalism, including for What Killed Arafatand Syria: Songs of Defiance .Wikipedia

Hawaiian Recipients:

• Edgy Lee: A native Hawaiian filmmaker, Lee was recognized in 1993 for her work on Papakolea – Story of Hawaiian Land, highlighting Hawaiian culture and history.Wikipedia

• Pualani Kanakaʻole Kanahele: In 2001, she co-directed Holo Mai Pele, a hula drama that received the award for its excellence in film production.University of Hawaii

• Connie Florez: An accomplished filmmaker from Hawaii, Florez has been honored with the CINE Golden Eagle Award among other accolades .documentaries.org

• Ann Marie Kirk: Based in Hawaii, Kirk has received the CINE Golden Eagle Award for her contributions to film and media .