Re-discovering hula on Maui

My (Marsha’s) image of hula dancing is forever changed by my experience on Thursday night at Keolahou Hawaiian Congregational Church in Kihei on Maui.

Our hosts in Maui, Renee and Barry, invited us to attend a weekly ukulele/Hawaiian song jam session, so we duly turned up at the small church at 7 p.m. There, we found two very good ukulele players and a bass player in front of mics at the front of the church, a box of loaner ukuleles, and about 20 people in the pews holding well-worn copies of songbooks (with the ukulele tablature conveniently written above the words).

After friendly banter from the leaders, we started the evening with several a capella traditional chants, and also the Lord’s Prayer — all in Hawaiian.

Then we moved on to the songs, and the hula dancers joined the musicians. There was a Hawaiian lady (sister to the lead ukelele player) who was clearly the teacher, several other women, and three young girls. I had always assumed that hula dancing was all about dancing the ancient tales of Hawaii, with lithe, sexy young girls in grass skirts following carefully prescribed movements passed down through the ages. But these dancers showed me that hula is a living language. There were no grass skirts or pasted on smiles for the camera. No leis draped around them. Here they were, dressed in street clothes, using body language to communicate the stories of whatever song we were singing — songs of native pride, love songs, humorous songs, even “I’m dreaming of a White Christmas.”  It was like watching a mixture of modern dance and American Sign Language, with constant gentle swaying, beautiful languid arm and finger movements, and choreographed movements of the head and eyes. Some movements were clearly traditional – such as fluid hand movements mimicking ocean waves, sunrise, or the putting on of a lei. Yet the hula also incorporated movements for modern references in songs, such as sticking out a thumb for “let’s get going”.

Here’s a link to a short video of one of the songs. https://photos.app.goo.gl/PtiuHzVRKhXX6sMj1

With each song we sang, my ears were listening to the ukeleles and musicians to learn the tunes while my eyes worked overtime trying to watch the dancers, look down at my songbook to decipher and sing the Hawaiian words, and read the English translation of the Hawaiian, all at the same time. Thankfully, we usually repeated the Hawaiian verses twice so that the ukelele learners could practice the chords – which gave me a chance to catch whatever I had missed the first time!

It was a wonderful, informal evening, full of laughter, joy, and stories told by the lead ukelele player about growing up with Hawaiian ways. But as I told the lead hula dancer at the end, what made the evening special for me was the realization that hula is not confined to recreating tales from the past, but that it is a living language for storytelling.

Maybe next time I’m in Hawaii I’ll sign up for hula dance lessons!