Kanoe Miller, for three decades the featured hula dancer at the Halekulani's House Without a Key, arguably is Waikiki's most seasoned stylist in Hawaiian dance.

With a passion for hula, she finally fulfilled a longtime dream by producing and releasing a DVD that preserves the integrity of what she does for a living. The bonus is that she's documented the hapa-haole era of Island music and hula history.

She spent the past four years and beaucoup dollars to self-produce — with husband John Miller's kokua and kala (money) — a DVD titled "Romantic Waikiki Hula," in which she brings a visual presence to fabled hapa-haole songs.

"I felt that the kind of music I perform to, for a largely visitor audience, is mostly hapa-haole — a whole genre of beautiful romantic music between 1915 and 1965 — that was going away," Miller said. "I see more and more of our musicians, coming up from the ranks, who don't know many of these songs because they didn't grow up with them. If you don't know, you don't play, so an era of Hawaiian music was going away."

It's a genre, she said, that "the world outside of Hawai'i still looks for. It's the paradise that they envision. It's what I try to make happen every night at the hotel — create that picture of a beloved Hawai'i."

At 54, Miller said she's old-school, savoring the past. So she made a long list of preferred and requested hula faves she has performed in her career, and pared it down to 10 selections.

Instead of merely performing the songs, she and her husband created scenarios.

"When I was taught hula, I was told that when you dance, you have to take yourself to that place," Miller said. "So I take to that place in my mind whenever I dance."

For "Sweet Leilani," a garden of roses and ferns seemed fitting.

For "Hawaiian Vamp," Miller is featured in an old-fashioned cellophane skirt in a 1940s nightclub setting.

To fulfill her dream, it took a chunk of change.

"We got a business loan; we borrowed money from friends; we mortgaged the house; we tapped John's pension; we went through much of our savings," Miller said, without divulging actual figures.

John Miller, an Aloha Airlines pilot for 29 years, retired in 2005. "He always said that we're baking pies and trying to distribute," referring to their homegrown DVD. "When you're baking your own pies, you figure out the ingredients."

The past two years, they worked on filming, and finally released the DVD late last year.

Now she has a keepsake that projects her artistry and preserves a wedge of hula history.

"I see many dancers, young ones, out there; I feel very senior," Miller said. "But I don't feel old."

Reach Wayne Harada at wharada@honoluluadvertiser.com.