"From the beginning, here we go," said Kumu Hula and Polynesian Cultural Center Theater Director Ellen Dela Rosa.

"When they asked if I could help with a few more dances,l I said I would love to," she said.

At the Polynesian Cultural Center, hula was healing hearts and minds, and reinforcing a special bond for a halau from Japan that has been through so much.

"This is our first reunion in awhile and I'm so excited that we're able to meet up again," said Dela Rosa.

"The first thing that was hard for me was that I lost a place to dance," said dancer Ookawara Akaya. 

The journey for the Hula Girls from the Spa Resort Hawaiians in Iwaki, Japan, has been devastating, remarkable and well documented.

In 2006, a critically acclaimed movie debuted, based on real-life events in 1965.

A group of girls learned hula and helped transform their small coal mining town, which was suffering from severe unemployment.

But Japan's triple disaster in March 2011 tore up Iwaki, buckling roads, damaging buildings and shutting down Spa Resort Hawaiians.

A month later, the halau had their first practice. It was their first time seeing each other since the disaster.