Hula as opera

There’s so much I don’t know. Like hula which I’ve always sort of thought of as Hawaiian clog dancing. But then you hang out with someone like Blaine Kia, a kumu hula, or hula instructor, and all of a sudden you realize that this dance is much closer to ballet than clogging.

“Hula is an oral tradition,” Blaine said as I sat in his garage in Kailua watching his wife, Kaleo, and two other dancers, Kaweni and Margo, choreograph a new dance before heading for Japan where Blaine runs four hula schools (he’s also involved in eight other hula schools from Vancouver, B.C. to Papeete, Tahiti).

photos by David Lansing

“Hula is the end result of everything that is already here. We’re retelling the clouds passing over the water and the wind in the trees and the rain falling from the heavens.”

It’s the mana, or spirit force, that hula is expressing. And Hawaiians believe that there is mana in everything—rocks, wind, ocean, plumeria, turtles, people.

 If you ever really spend time watching a hula halau, or dance group, pay attention to their hands and feet. That’s where the real story is being told.

Blaine and Kaleo Kia

“When we begin to choreograph a dance,” Blaine told me, “we start with the foundation which is from the waist down. That’s the earth. So the feet connect to the earth. From the waist up, it’s the heavens and the arms and hands and face are all about the heart and emotion, expressing the story.”

For the better part of an hour, Blaine and Kaleo discussed whether the palm of one hand should face out or in as she lifted a hand towards the sky. Or whether her foot should stay in contact with the ground as she did a little half-circle movement or be lifted. Every little move was discussed in terms of storytelling.

Watching Kaleo dance, listening to Blaine sing some very beautiful Hawaiian songs, it all felt very emotional. Even though I had no idea what the words meant. It was like listening to opera. Somehow you feel the story even if intellectually you don’t quite get it.

When I told this to Blaine he smiled and said, “Hula is all about the heart. It has nothing to do with the brain. You don’t have to understand it to get it.”

I got it. Even if I didn’t really understand it.