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- Its origins trace back to ancient Polynesians who settled in the Hawaiian Islands over a thousand years ago. These early settlers brought their dance and chanting traditions, which evolved over generations into the hula we recognize today.
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hula, sensuous mimetic Hawaiian dance, performed sitting or standing, with undulating gestures to instruments and chant. Originally, the hula was a religious dance performed by trained dancers before the king or ordinary people to promote fecundity, to honour the gods, or to praise the chiefs.
Hula was initially performed to honor and represent the gods, tell stories, and welcome important guests. With its rich oral history, Hula serves as a repository for genealogical, mythological, and historical narratives, akin to a moving library of the Hawaiian people’s ancestral wisdom.
- Overview
- How hula turned into a stereotype
- A hula revival
- From the stage to the resort
How a sacred Hawaiian dance and music ritual was canceled, commercialized, and finally, revived.
With her flower crown and grass skirt, the hula girl has been synonymous with Hawaiian hospitality since cruise ships first docked in Honolulu in the 1920s. Even today, exoticized images of these traditional dancers headline on travel websites, at tiki-themed bars, and on wiggly dashboard tchotchkes.
Over the past two centuries, the cherished Hawaiian dance has moved from a sacred religious practice to a tourist attraction, along the way falling prey to cultural appropriation and near erasure.
“People shunned the old style of hula and looked at dancers like they were heathens,” says Micah Kamohoali‘i, a kumu hula (hula teacher) and cultural ambassador on the island of Hawai‘i. “Then our hula became more of a Hollywood show. We never danced with cellophane skirts and coconut bras.”
For Hawaiians, hula is a living archive of their history and stories. Preserving it is their kuleana (responsibility). “Hula is our highest expression of who we are. It’s our language put into motion,” says Māpuana de Silva, a kumu hula who has been teaching hula on O‘ahu since 1976. “The stories encompass not just our way of living, but our existence, our world.”
Hawaiian cultural organizations are now reclaiming and safeguarding a more authentic version of hula—both for residents and visitors. “People are history seekers today,” says Kumu Kamohoali‘i. “They want to know the truth, and they crave something more authentic.”
On the continent, many Americans learned about the Hawaiian culture at the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco. It ignited a Hawaiian craze and the whitewashed version of hula—with cellophane skirts and coconut shell bras—that permeated Hollywood movies, tiki bars, and vaudeville shows.
When ocean cruises became popular in the late 1920s, thousands of tourists from the U.S. mainland sailed to Honolulu. Hotels, including The Royal Hawaiian, popped up along Waikīkī Beach’s white sands.
Left: Mid-century vacation advertising posters, such as this one by Clipper Travel, objectified hula dancers as Polynesian pin-up girls.
Photograph by Swim Ink 2 LLC, CORBIS/Corbis Getty Images
Right: A vintage Pan American Airlines poster features a stylized hula skirt image.
Photograph by Potter and Potter Auctions, Gado/Getty Images
The mid 20th-century was a time of rapid change, with the Civil Rights Movement improving the lives of Black Americans in the 1960s and influencing the Hawaiian Renaissance of the 1970s. “Our people said, ‘We need to change the laws. We need to be able to give our kids Hawaiian names. We need to be able to speak our own language,” says Kumu Kamohoali‘i. In 1978, the state constitution was amended to include Hawaiian as one of the two state languages and to mandate that public schools teach Hawaiian culture, language, and history, including dance.
Locals were reclaiming the hula, too. On the island of Hawai‘i, the town of Hilo launched the Merrie Monarch Festival in 1964. Now, the annual spring festival draws the best hula groups from the islands and the mainland U.S. Scoring tickets to this “Olympics of hula” can be difficult. Other showcases that are more accessible include Maui’s Hula O Nā Keiki for young dancers; O‘ahu’s Prince Lot Hula Festival; and parades celebrating King Kamehameha Day.
In recent years, younger lū‘au performers have also shifted the tradition back to its roots. When Afatia Thompson’s parents started Tihati Productions in 1969, the lū‘au they produced at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, was typical of the era, a mishmash of dances, songs, and costumes from all over Polynesia.
“Back then, the people who put on lū‘au shows didn’t really know that there were differences in those cultures,” says Thompson. “They just wanted the shows to look pretty and sound good.”
When Thompson and his sister took over the lū‘au in 2007, they changed its programming to focus on the stories, histories, and context of the dances. Their show highlights hula and traditional Hawaiian skills, such as poi pounding. “We go beneath the surface of just entertainment and teach our guests history,” he says.
In addition to lūʻaus, tourists can catch hula performances at the Bishop Museum in Honolulu, Hulihe‘e Palace in Kailua-Kona, and at shopping centers.
Although it seems improbable, large resorts—which once tokenized hula—are now invested in its cultural preservation. Many of them offer hula performances and lessons spearheaded by Hawaiian cultural ambassadors who oversee educational programming.
The Outrigger Reef Waikīkī Beach Resort recently unveiled its new A‘o Cultural Center, which includes an exhibit of Hawaiian artwork, canoe history, and hula lessons, led by director of cultural experience Luana Maitland.
Mar 6, 2024 · The origins of hula can be traced back to the ancient Polynesian voyagers who first settled the Hawaiian islands. Steeped in myth and legend, hula was believed to be a divine gift from the gods, bestowed upon the Hawaiian people to celebrate life, honor the deities, and connect with the natural world around them.
From as early as 1865, the style called hula ku`i (joined hula), blending native and foreign elements, became popular. Urban Hawaiian society in the late nineteenth century was as cosmopolitan as it is today.
Hula (/ ˈ h uː l ə /) is a Hawaiian dance form expressing chant (oli) [1] or song . It was developed in the Hawaiian Islands by the Native Hawaiians who 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 two main categories being Hula ʻAuana and ...
Feb 1, 2018 · The first point of question is where the first hula was performed. The Big Island, Oahu, Kauai and Molokai all claim to be the birthplace of hula. The next issue is who first performed it. Some say Hopoe, a companion of the goddess Hi'iaka, was the first dancer.
