Hula is often
performed as a form of prayer at official state
functions in Hawaiʻi. Here, hula is performed by Kumu
Hula Frank Kawaikapuokalani Hewett for a ceremony
turning over U.S. Navy control over the island of
Kahoʻolawe to the state.
Hula /ˈhuːlə/ is a Polynesian dance form accompanied by
chant (oli) or song (mele, which is a cognate of Fijian
language "meke"). It was developed in the Hawaiian
Islands by the Polynesians who originally settled there.
The hula dramatizes or portrays the words of the oli or
mele in a visual dance form.
There are many sub-styles of hula, with the main two
categories being Hula 'Auana and Hula Kahiko. Ancient
hula, as performed before Western encounters with
Hawaiʻi, is called kahiko. It is accompanied by chant
and traditional instruments. Hula, as it evolved under
Western influence in the 19th and 20th centuries, is
called ʻauana (a word that means "to wander" or
"drift"). It is accompanied by song and
Western-influenced musical instruments such as the
guitar, the ʻukulele, and the double bass.
Terminology for two main additional categories is
beginning to enter the hula lexicon: "Monarchy" includes
any hula which were composed and choreographed during
the 19th century. During that time the influx of Western
culture created significant changes in the formal
Hawaiian arts, including hula. "Ai Kahiko", meaning "in
the ancient style" are those hula written in the 20th
and 21st centuries that follow the stylistic protocols
of the ancient hula kahiko.
There are also two main positions of a hula dance -
either sitting (noho dance) or standing (luna dance).
Some dances utilize both forms.
the 1890s and early 1900s, hula dancers and Hawaiian
musicians toured the U.S. mainland. This advertisement
appeared in an Ohio newspaper in 1921.
Hula dancing is a complex art form, and there are many
hand motions used to represent the words in a song or
chant. For example, hand movements can signify aspects
of nature, such as the swaying of a tree in the breeze
or a wave in the ocean, or a feeling or emotion, such as
fondness or yearning. Foot and hip movements often pull
from a basic library of steps including the kaholo,
ka'o, kawelu, hela, 'uwehe, and 'ami. There are other
related dances (tamure, hura, 'aparima, 'ote'a, haka,
kapa haka, poi, Fa'ataupati, Tau'olunga, and Lakalaka)
that come from other Polynesian islands such as Tahiti,
The Cook Islands, Samoa, Tonga and Aotearoa (New
Zealand); however, the hula is unique to the Hawaiian
Islands.
Today, hula is seen as a way to attract tourists to
Hawai'i because of the beauty, power, and meaning behind
it. [1]
HULA KAHIKO
Hula kahiko, often defined as those hula composed prior
to 1894 which do not include modern instrumentation
(such as guitar, `ukulele, etc.), encompasses an
enormous variety of styles and moods, from the solemn
and sacred to the frivolous. Many hula were created to
praise the chiefs and performed in their honor, or for
their entertainment. Types of hula kahiko include
ʻālaʻapapa, haʻa, ʻolapa, and many others. Today hula
kahiko is simply stated as "Traditional" Hula.
Many hula dances are considered to be a religious
performance, as they are dedicated to, or honoring, a
Hawaiian goddess or god. As was true of ceremonies at
the heiau, the platform temple, even a minor error was
considered to invalidate the performance. It might even
be a presage of bad luck or have dire consequences.
Dancers who were learning to do such hula necessarily
made many mistakes. Hence they were ritually secluded
and put under the protection of the goddess Laka during
the learning period. Ceremonies marked the successful
learning of the hula and the emergence from seclusion.
Hula kahiko is performed today by dancing to the
historical chants. Many hula kahiko are characterized by
traditional costuming, by an austere look, and a
reverence for their spiritual root.
Chants
Hawaiian history was oral history. It was codified in
genealogies and chants, which were memorized and passed
down. In the absence of a written language, this was the
only available method of ensuring accuracy. Chants told
the stories of creation, mythology, royalty, and other
significant events and people.
Instruments and
implements
Hula dance researcher Joann Kealiinohomoku with hula
implements Puʻili and ʻuliʻuliIpu—single gourd drum
Ipu heke—double gourd drum
Pahu—sharkskin covered drum; considered sacred
Puniu—small knee drum made of a coconut shell with fish
skin (kala) cover
ʻIliʻili—water-worn lava stone used as castanets
ʻUlīʻulī—feathered gourd rattles (also ʻulili)
Pūʻili—split bamboo sticks
Kālaʻau—rhythm sticks
The dog's-tooth anklets sometimes worn by male dancers
could also be considered instruments, as they underlined
the sounds of stamping feet.
Costumes
Traditional female dancers wore the everyday pāʻū, or
wrapped skirt, but were topless. Today this form of
dress has been altered. As a sign of lavish display, the
pāʻū might be much longer than the usual length of tapa,
or barkcloth, which was just long enough to go around
the waist. Visitors report seeing dancers swathed in
many yards of tapa, enough to increase their
circumference substantially. Dancers might also wear
decorations such as necklaces, bracelets, and anklets,
as well as many lei (in the form of headpieces
(leipo'o), necklaces, bracelets, and anklets (kupe'e)),
and other accessories.
Traditional male dancers wore the everyday malo, or
loincloth. Again, they might wear bulky malo made of
many yards of tapa. They also wore necklaces, bracelets,
anklets, and lei.
The materials for the lei worn in performance were
gathered in the forest, after prayers to Laka and the
forest gods had been chanted.
The lei and tapa worn for sacred hula were considered
imbued with the sacredness of the dance, and were not to
be worn after the performance. Lei were typically left
on the small altar to Laka found in every hālau, as
offerings.
Performances
Hula performed for spontaneous daily amusement or family
feasts were attended with no particular ceremony.
However, hula performed as entertainment for chiefs were
anxious affairs. High chiefs typically traveled from one
place to another within their domains. Each locality had
to house, feed, and amuse the chief and his or her
entourage. Hula performances were a form of fealty, and
often of flattery to the chief. During the performances
the males would start off and the females would come
later to close the show off. Most kahikio performances
would begin with an opening dance, kaʻi,[2] and end with
a closing dance, hoʻi,[3] to state the presence of the
hula. There were hula celebrating his lineage, his name,
and even his genitals (hula maʻi).[4] Sacred hula,
celebrating Hawaiian gods, were also danced. All these
performances must be completed without error (which
would be both unlucky and disrespectful).
Visiting chiefs from other domains would also be honored
with hula performances. This courtesy was often extended
to important Western visitors.
Hula ʻauana
Dancer (Hula ʻauana),
Merrie Monarch Festival
Modern hula arose from adaptation of traditional hula
ideas (dance and mele) to Western influences. The
primary influences were Christian morality and melodic
harmony. Hula ʻauana still tells or comments on a story,
but the stories may include events since the 1800s. The
costumes of the women dancers are less revealing and the
music is heavily Western-influenced.
Songs
The mele of hula ʻauana are generally sung as if they
were popular music. A lead voice sings in a major scale,
with occasional harmony parts.
The subject of the songs is as broad as the range of
human experience. People write mele hula ʻauana to
comment on significant people, places or events or
simply to express an emotion or idea.
Instruments
The musicians performing hula ʻauana will typically use
portable acoustic stringed instruments.
used as part of the rhythm section, or as a lead
instrumentSteel guitar—accents the vocalist
Bass—maintains the rhythm
Occasional hula ʻauana call for the dancers to use
implements, in which case they will use the same
instruments as for hula kahiko. Often dancers use the
ʻUlīʻulī (feathered gourd rattle).
Costumes
Keali ʻi Reichel Hula
Hālau
Kealiʻi Reichel Hula Hālau
Costumes play a role in illustrating the hula
instructor's interpretation of the mele. From the color
of their attire to the type of adornment worn, each
piece of an auana costume symbolizes a piece of the mele
auana, such as the color of a significant place or
flower. While there is some freedom of choice, most
hālau follow the accepted costuming traditions. Women
generally wear skirts or dresses of some sort. Men may
wear long or short pants, skirts, or a malo (a cloth
wrapped under and around the crotch). For slow, graceful
dances, the dancers will wear formal clothing such as a
muʻumuʻu for women and a sash for men. A fast, lively,
"rascal" song will be performed by dancers in more
revealing or festive attire. The hula kahiko is always
performed with bare feet, but the hula ʻauana can be
performed with bare feet or shoes. In the old times,
they had their leis and other jewelry but their clothing
was much different. Females wore a wrap called a "pa'u"
made of tapa cloth and men wore loincloths, which are
called "malos". Both sex are said to have gone without a
shirt. Their ankle and wrist bracelets, called "kupe`e"
were made of whalebone and dogteeth as well as other
items made from nature. Some of these make music-shells
and bones will rattle against each other while the
dancers dance. Women perform most Hawaiian hula dances.
Female hula dancers usually wear colorful tops and
skirts with lei. However, traditionally, men were just
as likely to perform the hula. A grass skirt is a skirt
that hangs from the waist and covers all or part of the
legs. Grass skirts were made of many different natural
fibers, such as hibiscus or palm.
Training
Kumu Hula Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu, Honolulu, 2013
Hula is taught in schools or groups called hālau. The
teacher of hula is the kumu hula. Kumu means "source of
knowledge", or literally "teacher".
Often there is a hierarchy in hula schools - starting
with the kumu (teacher), alaka'i (leader), kokua
(helpers), and then the 'olapa (dancers) or haumana
(students). This is not true for every hālau, but it
does occur often. Most, if not all, hula halau(s) have a
permission chant in order to enter wherever they may
practice. They will collectively chant their entrance
chant, then wait for the kumu to respond with the
entrance chant, once he or she is finished, the students
may enter. One well known and often used entrance or
permission chant is Kunihi Ka Mauna/Tunihi Ta Mauna.
History
Legendary origins
,_Danse_des_femmes_dans_les_iles_Sandwich_(1822).jpg)
Female dancers of the Sandwich Islands
depicted by
Louis Choris, the artist aboard the Russian ship
Rurick, which visited Hawai'i in 1816
There are various legends surrounding the origins of
hula.
According to one Hawaiian legend, Laka, goddess of the
hula, gave birth to the dance on the island of Molokaʻi,
at a sacred place in Kaʻana. After Laka died, her
remains were hidden beneath the hill Puʻu Nana.
Another story tells of Hiʻiaka, who danced to appease
her fiery sister, the volcano goddess Pele. This story
locates the source of the hula on Hawaiʻi, in the Puna
district at the Hāʻena shoreline. The ancient hula Ke
Haʻa Ala Puna describes this event.
Another story is when Pele, the goddess of fire was
trying to find a home for herself running away from her
sister Namakaokaha'i (the goddess of the oceans) when
she finally found an island where she couldn't be
touched by the waves. There at chain of craters on the
island of Hawai'i she danced the first dance of hula
signifying that she finally won.
According to Kumu Hula Leato S. Savini of Hālau Nā Mamo
O Tulipa located in Waiʻanae, Japan, and Virginia, he
believes that hula goes as far back as what the
Hawaiians call the Kumulipo, or creation account of how
the world was made first and foremost through the god of
life and water, Kane. Kumu Leato is cited as saying,
"When Kane and the other gods of our creation, Lono, Kū,
and Kanaloa created the earth, the man, and the woman,
they recited incantations which we call Oli or Chants
and they used their hands and moved their legs when
reciting these oli, therefore this is the origin of
hula."
19th century
.jpg)
American Protestant missionaries, who arrived in 1820,
denounced the hula as a heathen dance. The newly
Christianized aliʻi (royalty and nobility) were urged to
ban the hula—which they did. However, many of them
continued to privately patronize the hula. By the 1850s,
public hula was regulated by a system of licensing.
The Hawaiian performing arts had a resurgence during the
reign of King David Kalākaua (1874–1891), who encouraged
the traditional arts. With the Princess Lili'uokalani
who devoted herself to the old ways, as the patron of
the ancients chants (mele, hula), she stressed the
importance to revive the diminishing culture of their
ancestors within the damaging influence of foreigners
and modernism that was forever changing Hawaii.
Practitioners merged Hawaiian poetry, chanted vocal
performance, dance movements and costumes to create the
new form, the hula kuʻi (kuʻi means "to combine old and
new"). The pahu appears not to have been used in hula
kuʻi, evidently because its sacredness was respected by
practitioners; the ipu gourd (Lagenaria sicenaria) was
the indigenous instrument most closely associated with
hula kuʻi.
Ritual and prayer surrounded all aspects of hula
training and practice, even as late as the early 20th
century. Teachers and students were dedicated to the
goddess of the hula, Laka.
20th century hula
dancing
Hula changed drastically in the early 20th century as it
was featured in tourist spectacles, such as the Kodak
Hula Show, and in Hollywood films. However, a more
traditional hula was maintained in small circles by
older practitioners. There has been a renewed interest
in hula, both traditional and modern, since the 1970s
and the Hawaiian Renaissance.
In response to several Pacific island sports teams using
their respective native war chants and dances as
pre-game ritual challenges, the University of Hawaii
football team started doing a war chant and dance using
the native Hawaiian language that was called the ha'a
before games in 2007.
Since 1964, the Merrie Monarch Festival has become an
annual one week long hula competition attracting
visitors from all over the world. It is to honor King
David Kalakaua who was known as the Merrie Monarch as he
revived the art of hula. [5] Although Merrie Monarch was
seen as a competition among hula hālau's, it later
became known as a tourist event because of the many
people it attracted all over. [6]
Films
Kumu Hula: Keepers of a Culture (1989) Directed by
Robert Mugge.
Holo Mai Pele - Hālau ō Kekuhi (2000) Directed by
Catherine Tatge
American Aloha : Hula Beyond Hawaiʻi (2003) By Lisette
Marie Flannery & Evann Siebens
Hula Girls (2006)
Kumu Hina (2014)
Books
Nathaniel Emerson, The Myth of Pele and Hi'iaka. This
book includes the original Hawaiian of the Pele and
Hi'iaka myth and as such provides an invaluable resource
for language students and others.
Nathaniel Emerson, The Unwritten Literature of Hawaii.
Many of the original Hawaiian hula chants, together with
Emerson's descriptions of how they were danced in the
nineteenth century.
Amy Stillman, Hula `Ala`apapa. An analysis of the
`Ala`apapa style of sacred hula.
Ishmael W. Stagner: Kumu hula : roots and branches.
Honolulu : Island Heritage Pub., 2011. ISBN
978-1-59700-621-7
Jerry Hopkins, The Hula; A Revised Edition: Bess Press
Inc., 2011. ISBN 978-1-57306-312-8
References
1.Jump up ^ Leilani Holmes, Ancestry of Experience: A
Journey into Hawaiian Ways of Knowing (Honolulu:
University of Hawai'i Press, 2012), 6.
2.Jump up ^ Mary Kawena Pukui and Samuel Hoyt Elbert
(2003). "lookup of kaʻi". in Hawaiian Dictionary.
Ulukau, the Hawaiian Electronic Library, University of
Hawaii Press.
3.Jump up ^ Mary Kawena Pukui and Samuel Hoyt Elbert
(2003). "lookup of hoʻi". in Hawaiian Dictionary.
Ulukau, the Hawaiian Electronic Library, University of
Hawaii Press.
4.Jump up ^ Mary Kawena Pukui and Samuel Hoyt Elbert
(2003). "lookup of maʻi". in Hawaiian Dictionary.
Ulukau, the Hawaiian Electronic Library, University of
Hawaii Press.
5.Jump up ^ Stacy Kamehiro, The Arts of Kingship:
Hawaiian Art and National Culture of the Kalakaua Era
(Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2009), 2.
6.Jump up ^ Heather Diamond, American Aloha: Cultural
Tourism and the Negotiation of Tradition (Honolulu:
University of Hawai'i Press, 2007), 49.
External links
Look up hula in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Hula Teacher On What's My Line 8/26/62
Everything Related To Hula Dancing, Hula History & Hula
Theory
Hawaiian Music and Hula Archives
Hula Preservation Society
European Hula Festival
Ka`ahele Hawai`i
"Where Tradition Holds Sway" Article about "Ka Hula
Piko" on Molokai, by Jill Engledow. Maui No Ka 'Oi
Magazine Vol. 11 No.2 (March 2007).
American Aloha : Hula Beyond Hawaiʻi (2003) - PBS film
*Above content courtesy of Wikipedia Creative Commons License
....BACK
TO HULA JEWELRY
|
Hula kahiko performance in Hawai ʻi
Volcanoes National Park
Hula is often performed as a form of prayer at
official state functions in Hawai ʻi.
Here, hula is performed by Kumu Hula Frank
Kawaikapuokalani Hewett for a ceremony turning over
U.S. Navy control over the island of Kaho ʻolawe
to the state.
In the 1890s and early 1900s, hula dancers and
Hawaiian musicians toured the U.S. mainland. This
advertisement appeared in an Ohio newspaper in 1921.
|
,_Danse_des_femmes_dans_les_iles_Sandwich_(1822).jpg)
.jpg)
