To tap a growing interest in Hawaiian culture and offer a new draw for tourists, the Waikiki Improvement Association plans to hold an annual three-day hula conference at the Hawai'i Convention Center, starting this fall.

The first International Waikiki Hula Conference will be Nov. 15 to 17 and could draw about 1,000 participants, mostly visitors and many from Japan, said association president Rick Egged.

"The target audience is hula lovers from around the world," he said. "This is not a competition. It's sort of a hula academy."

The Waikiki conference is not intended to rival the annual Merrie Monarch Festival in Hilo, Hawai'i's most famous hula event.

The Merrie Monarch usually sells out months in advance, an indication of the international popularity of hula. But "in no way is it (the hula convention) competitive with Merrie Mon-arch," Egged said.

Still, some of Hawai'i's best-known hula practitioners will gather at the Waikiki event — to share culture and values along with hula steps.

Marnie Weeks, coordinator of the Kuhio Beach Torch Lighting & Hula Shows, is serving as producer of the conference, pulling together kumu hula from across the Islands to teach dance, costume, implements and lei-making, language and history, songs and music.

When she talks with visitors each week in Waikiki, Weeks is constantly asked where they can learn more about hula.

"There isn't really much opportunity for visitors to take part; they can only watch," Weeks said.

She said the three-day conference will allow people to learn hula "in the land of its birth." And that's part of how the event has been able to draw something of a who's who of hula, with many names familiar from the Merrie Monarch and other venues.

Demand for hula is at an all-time high in Japan, Egged said. "However, finding qualified hula experts has been difficult in Japan, and this hula conference hopes to bridge that gap," he said.

The conference could help reverse the declining number of Japanese visitors to the Islands. Japanese arrivals last year were off 9.4 percent compared with the year before.

Weeks said the conference aims to avoid the stereotypes and share the culture as well as the dance. She stresses that the conference will open the door and enrich students without promising instant expertise. "We're not cranking out kumu hula to go home and teach," she said.

Kumu hula Maelia Loebenstein Carter of Kaimuki's Ka Pa Hula 'O Kauanoe O Wa'ahila will be among those teaching. Carter, the 1993 Miss Aloha Hula, said the conference will allow teachers to share with visitors hula's traditions, values and culture.

Carter said the gathering also will offer a rare chance for a wide variety of teachers with varying styles and experiences to get together outside of a competition. "It's just something that we needed to do; it's long overdue," she said.

Carter said hula halau often have the unfounded reputation that "hula halau are very competitive and very secretive against one another and have this love-hate relationship."

She's excited about the chance to be with many kumu. "It's not just one hula line or one hula tree that's being represented."

Kaleo Trinidad serves as director of the Kamehameha Schools Hawaiian ensemble, where he leads the high school's chant and dance program. He also has his own halau, Ka Leo O Lake I Ka Hikina O Ka La, which has won many awards at Merrie Monarch.

As an educator, Trinidad sees this as another way to communicate Hawaiian culture and values. "The bottom line is supporting Hawaiian culture — having people understand who we are and where we're coming from, and there's no better place to do it than here in Hawai'i," he said.

Trinidad said he saw the benefit of the association's support of weekly torchlighting and hula shows in Waikiki. "It's awesome to have Hawaiian culture which is authentic, right in Waikiki. Free."

And that made him want to do more. "Seeing what a valuable experience that is for local halau, for local kumu hula, for kama'aina, for local people who come to watch and for visitors," he said.

Carter said the conference's goal is to reach beyond those who already know about hula, beyond Hawaiians or those who live here.

"It's going to be from the very basic beginners to the advanced students," Carter said. "I think the door is open for anybody who's ever had an interest or a love or expressed an inkling of wanting to learn hula."

Reach Robbie Dingeman at rdingeman@honoluluadvertiser.com.