Island dances have also invaded the fitness dance arena as summer has been around.
A. DESCRIPTION
Hula was said to be first performed by a god or goddess making it a sacred dance to the Hawaiians, which was performed by both men and women. As time went on, the hula evovled to a dance for entertainment from its ritualistic roots. Still, the meaningfulness of hula as a dance is retained as every movement of the body represents something. The arms are very essential means of executing a representation as imitating a palm tree and even animals. An indvidual dancing the hula, thus transforms himself or herself to the object being portrayed through the dance. Combining all these portrayed movements, the viewer gets to understand the story that the dancer is trying to impart. Traditionally, chants are used along the dance to make the story easier to understand.
The costume worn consist of lei made of flowers around the neck or even the shoulders. A grass skirt is also used and is made of tapa or pau. Dancers also wear anklets made of whale bone or dog teeth.
Hula dancing used to be a way of lifestyle in which dancers go to a dance school in order to learn to dance the hula. They were required to follow rules and behave properly as they follow everything that their hula teacher says. Some of these rules were: Hula students could not cut their hair and fingernails; and hula students could not engage in sex and eat certain foods that were forbidden. Nevertheless, hula students understnad that all the restrictions are for the betterment of thier learning in terms of their dancing the hula.
B. KINDS OF HULA
1. Hula Kahiko
Hula Kahiko is the old style that includes percussion, chanting and the traditional costumes. It is traditional and ritualistic and the chanting tells the story more than the dance moves. (http://www.wailuabay.com/hula.html)
2. Hula Auana
Hula Auna is enhanced by the music and costumes for a more enteratining appeal. This hula type utiizes the hands to be able to make it easier for tourists to grasp. (http://www.wailubay.com/hula.html)
C. THROUGH THE YEARS
Though the dance has been around for quite sometime, it disappeared in the 1800s when missionaries came along to Hawaii. They believed that hula dancing was devilish and against God. They were able to convince the dancers of their wrong doing but King Kalakaua did not want this traditional dance to disappear just because missionaries did not understand what it is all about.
King Kalakua developed his own group of hula dancers and encouraged them to learn the dance, the old style and fortunately this most treasured dance did not disappear intheir cultural awareness. Even today, many of the hula schools stil observe the rules being implemented before.
Truly we get ourselves immersed to the cultural background of the dance where our group exercise routine is based from. Let it be a venue for us to embrace dance as a God-given expression of life.
SOURCE:
http://www.wailubay.com/hula.html
Pictures from:
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/695272069/Troupe-keeps-island-moves-alive.html
http://z.about.com/d/travelwithkids/1/0/H/d/1/TahitianDancer.JPG
http://costumes.lovetoknow.com/images/Costumes/0/00/HawaiianDanceCostume.jpg
http://www.kepolaniohana.com/Hula%20Review%20%2708%20067.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2351/1820350590_867b46843f.jpg
http://tk.files.storage.msn.com/x1p5jJlixfs1z5p6fGb2t8wWfcSrhe5ZTlMd5NQeanXrA_MKNDsRijQ9ei9Z9_OieuAgONycVIgg8dSCoEQVxpKR6g7TtjOE47nZbcRfOxO6WaImmJEo3I8CzGPlwPtYALuq7TlocYYNeM
http://image.absoluteastronomy.com/images/encyclopediaimages/u/us/us_navy_hula_031112-n-3228g-001.jpg
http://ukulele.org/images/kalakaua.jpg
http://www.vipbirthdayparties.com/hula.jpg
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