Hula | Page 3 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

August 11, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

‘Door to the Heart of the People’

“One turns from the study of old genealogies, myths, and traditions of the Hawaiians with a hungry despair at finding in them means so small for picturing the people themselves, their human interests and passions …”

“… but when it comes to the hula and the whole train of feelings and sentiments that made their entrances and exits in the halau (the hall of the hula) one perceives that in this he has found the door to the heart of the people.”

“So intimate and of so simple confidence are the revelations the people make of themselves in their songs and prattlings that when one undertakes to report what he has heard and to translate into the terms of modern speech what he has received in confidence, as it were, he almost blushes, as if he had been guilty of spying on Adam and Eve in their nuptial bower.”

“Alas, if one could but muffle his speech with the unconscious lisp of infancy, or veil and tone his picture to correspond to the perspective of antiquity, he might feel at least that, like Watteau, he had dealt worthily, if not truly, with that ideal age which we ever think of as the world’s garden period.”

“For an account of the first hula we may look to the story of Pele. On one occasion that goddess begged her sisters to dance and sing before her, but they all excused themselves, saying they did not know the art.”

“At that moment in came little Hiiaka, the youngest and the favorite. Unknown to her sisters, the little maiden had practised the dance under the tuition of her friend, the beautiful but ill-fated Hopoe.”

“When banteringly invited to dance, to the surprise of all, Hiiaka modestly complied. The wave-beaten sand-beach was her floor, the open air her hall; Feet and hands and swaying form kept time to her improvisation:”

“Look, Puna is a dance in the wind;
The palm groves of Kea-au shaken.
Haena and the woman Hopoe dance and sing
On the beach Nana-huki,
A dance of purest delight,
Down by the sea Nana-huki.”

“The most telling record of a people’s intimate life is the record which it unconsciously makes in its songs. This record which the Hawaiian people have left of themselves is full and specific.”

“When, therefore, we ask what emotions stirred the heart of the old-time Hawaiian as he approached the great themes of life and death, of ambition and jealousy, of sexual passion, of romantic love, of conjugal love, and parental love …”

“… what his attitude toward nature and the dread forces of earthquake and storm, and the mysteries of spirit and the hereafter, we shall find our answer in the songs and prayers and recitations of the hula.”

“The hula, it is true, has been unfortunate in the mode and manner of its introduction to us moderns.”

“An institution of divine, that is, religious, origin, the hula in modern times has wandered so far and fallen so low that foreign and critical esteem has come to associate it with the riotous and passionate ebullitions of Polynesian kings and the amorous posturing of their voluptuaries.”

“We must make a just distinction, however, between the gestures and bodily contortions presented by the men and women, the actors in the hula, and their uttered words. ‘The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.’”

“In truth, the actors in the hula no longer suit the action to the word.”

“The utterance harks back to the golden age; the gesture is trumped up by the passion of the hour, or dictated by the master of the hula, to whom the real meaning of the old bards is ofttimes a sealed casket.”

“Whatever indelicacy attaches in modern times to some of the gestures and contortions of the hula dancers, the old-time hula songs in large measure were untainted with grossness.”

“If there ever were a Polynesian Arcadia, and if it were possible for true reports of the doings and sayings of the Polynesians to reach us from that happy land …”

“… reports of their joys and sorrows, their love-makings and their jealousies, their family spats and reconciliations, their worship of beauty and of the gods and goddesses who walked in the garden of beauty …”

“… we may say, I think, that such a report would be in substantial agreement with the report that is here offered; but, if one’s virtue will not endure the love-making of Arcadia, let him banish the myth from his imagination and hue to a convent or a nunnery.” (All here is from Nathaniel Bright Emerson, a son of missionaries.)

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April 7, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Hui Lei Mamo

Hawaiʻi’s last King, Kalākaua, has been referred to as a Renaissance man. Concerned about the loss of native Hawaiian culture and traditions, Kalākaua encouraged the transcription of Hawaiian oral traditions, and supported the revival of and public performances of the hula.

He advocated a renewed sense of pride in such things as Hawaiian mythology, medicine, chant and hula. Ancient Hawaiians had no written language, but chant and hula served to record such things as genealogy, mythology, history and religion.

While seeking to revive many elements of Hawaiian culture that were slipping away, the King also promoted the advancement of modern sciences, art and literature.

He is remembered as the “Merrie Monarch” because he was a patron of culture and arts, and enjoyed socializing and entertaining.

All of Kalakaua’s dancers were kept on retainer and were given a place to live on the palace grounds. These dancers, musicians, and chanters were all compensated for performing. Dancing the hula for entertainment was their source of income. (Tong)

Kalākaua believed his nation and people would prosper with cultural rebirth and brought hula teachers from the countryside and neighboring islands to his court. At his 1883 coronation and 1886 50th birthday jubilee, Kalākaua’s dancers performed publicly on palace grounds for about two weeks on each occasion. (Imada)

“Kalākaua always had dancers in his court dancing for his pleasure…. There were parties for his guests from the mainland on their way to Australia with dancers as well. They weren’t only for his friends, but for everyone in Honolulu.” (Kupahu; Tong)

Through chanted poetry and bodily movements, these hula performers celebrated the births and achievements of ali‘i, recorded the genealogies of high chiefs, and relayed Hawaiian epics. Hula was also embedded in a culture of sexual arousal.

In 1886, the same year of his jubilee, Kalākaua assembled Hui Lei Mamo, a group of eight Hawaiian women and girls under the age of 20. Hui Lei Mamo was a ‘glee club’; it performed acculturated hula performance as well as choral music. (Imada)

As a member of the royal family and the reigning monarch of Hawai‘i, King Kalākaua had the rightful authority to dictate when the hula would be performed. (Tong)

While Kalākaua’s older court dancers performed pre-contact forms of hula with indigenous instrumentation and chanting, the young women of Hui Lei Mamo performed only the hula ku‘i, ‘the modern hula’.

An acculturated dance that developed in the king’s cosmopolitan court, hula ku‘i merged Western music and instruments with traditional hula steps. It is suggested that Kalākaua himself was the inventor of this hybrid genre …

“[The king] took some steps out of the old-fashioned [hula] and put them into the modern [hula] with guitar. He was the first one to start this.” (Kapahu; Imada)

Performed in Hawaiian language and accompanied by guitar and ’ukulele, this hula utilized polka or waltz tempos, couplet verses and a vamp that separated the verses.

Every Thursday afternoon from 2 to 5 pm, Kalākaua invited friends and out-of-town guests to Healani, his boathouse in Honolulu Harbor, where his younger court dancers performed hula ku‘i. (Imada)

When Kalākaua died in 1891, the dancers no longer had a place in court. Nevertheless, they continued to benefit directly from Kalākaua’s cultural renaissance through training in hula ‘schools’.

Called hālau hula or pā hula, these schools became gendered institutions through which a critical subset of Hawaiian women received rigorous training in performance, history, religion and protocol.

Namake‘elua (who is sometimes recorded as Nama-elua), a hula teacher Kalākaua summoned for his jubilee, had decided to remain in Honolulu instead of returning to his home on the island of Kaua‘i.

The handful of students undertook training in hula genres associated with Indigenous pre-European contact traditions, very different from the hula ku‘i of the court. (Imada)

Four women entered the hālau hula. Three of them were Hui Lei Mamo dancers. Their intensive training commenced in 1892, with the young women taking residence in the teacher’s home.

For about six weeks, the dancers were kapu (sacred or consecrated). They dedicated themselves to the goddess Laka, the patron of hula, and erected a hula kuahu (altar), imploring Laka to give them knowledge.

They danced for about six hours a day, taking swims in the ocean and meals in between practices. The repertoire was ‘very religious’. Hula practice was a part of a sacred realm and governed by strict rules, because hula performances manifested the gods’ and ali‘i’s mana (sacred power) and rank.

On the day of the ‘ūniki (ritual graduation), graduates of other hula schools came to watch the four women dance. Only after undergoing ‘ūniki were they released from sacredness and became noa (free). The following day, they celebrated their release with a feast and public performance for friends and family.

In 1893, some of these dancers went to the Chicago World’s Fair as part of the Midway Plaisance, a street of themed villages from around the world. The 1893 Chicago World’s Fair was the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s arrival in the New World.

The Midway Plaisance was inspired by the 1889 Paris Universal Exposition, where the French government and prominent anthropologists turned representations of the French colonies into ethnological villages featuring people from Africa and Asia. (Tong)

The performers who went abroad directly benefited from King David Kalākaua’s national revival of hula and traditional cultural arts during his reign from 1872 to 1891. (The image is believed to be the members of Hui Kei Mamo.)

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October 30, 2017 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

How did the missionaries feel about Hula?

“Hula is the language of the heart, and therefore the heartbeat of the Hawaiian people.” (attributed to Kalākaua)

“Their dances … are prefaced with a slow, solemn song, in which all the party join, moving their legs, and gently striking their breasts, in a manner, and with attitudes, that are perfectly easy and graceful … .” (Captain Cook Journal, 1779)

“Hula is not just a dance, but a way of life, an ancient art that tells of Hawaiʻi’s rich history and spirituality.” (attributed to many)

Did the Missionaries really stop Hula in Hawaiʻi, as we are most often led to believe?

In taking a closer look into the matter, most would likely come to a different conclusion.

First of all, the missionaries were guests in the Hawaiian Kingdom; they didn’t have the power to ban or abolish anything – that was the right of the King and Chiefs.

Most will agree the missionaries despised the fact that hula dancers were typically topless; they also didn’t like the commingling between the sexes.

So, before we go on, we need to agree, the issue at hand is hula – not nudity and interactions between the sexes. In keeping this discussion on the actual activity and not sexuality, let’s see what the missionaries had to say about hula.

As hula is the dance that accompanies Hawaiian mele, the function of hula is therefore an extension of the function of mele in Hawaiian society. While it was the mele that was the essential part of the story, hula served to animate the words, giving physical life to the moʻolelo (stories.) (Bishop Museum)

Hula combines dance and chant or song to tell stories, recount past events and provide entertainment for its audience. With a clear link between dancer’s actions and the chant or song, the dancer uses rhythmic lower body movements, mimetic or depictive hand gestures and facial expression, as part of this performance. (ksbe-edu)

So what did the missionaries really think?

As Hiram Bingham once noted, they “were wasting their time in learning, practising, or witnessing the hula, or heathen song and dance.” (Remember, heathen simply means ‘without religion, as in without God.’)

Others were more supportive.

“The hula was a religious service, in which poetry, music, pantomime, and the dance lent themselves, under the forms of dramatic art, to the refreshment of men’s minds. Its view of life was idyllic, and it gave itself to the celebration of those mythical times when gods and goddesses moved on the earth as men and women and when men and women were as gods.” (Emerson, son of missionaries)

“(W)hen it comes to the hula and the whole train of feelings and sentiments that made their entrances and exits in the halau (the hall of the hula) one perceives that in this he has found the door to the heart of the people.” (Emerson, son of Missionaries)

In describing a hula danced before Keōpūolani and her daughter Nāhiʻenaʻena, in Lāhainā in 1823, Missionary CS Stewart wrote:

“The motions of the dance were slow and graceful, and, in this instance, free from indelicacy of action; and the song, or rather recitative, accompanied by much gesticulation, was dignified and harmonious in its numbers. The theme of the whole, was the character and praises of the queen and princess, who were compared to everything sublime in nature, exalted as gods.” (Missionary Stewart)

And how did Hiram Bingham feel (again, the one most often accused of a Hula ban?)

“This was intended, in part at least, as an honor and gratification to the king, especially at Honolulu, at his expected reception there, on his removal from Kailua. Apparently, not all hula was viewed as bad or indecent.” (Missionary Hiram Bingham)

“In the hula, the dancers are often fantastically decorated with figured or colored kapa, green leaves, fresh flowers, braided hair, and sometimes with a gaiter on the ancle, set with hundreds of dog’s teeth, so as to be considerably heavy, and to rattle against each other in the motion of the feet.” (Hiram Bingham)

“They had been interwoven too with their superstitions, and made subservient to the honor of their gods, and their rulers, either living or departed and deified.” (Hiram Bingham)

The missionaries most often opposed nudity, drinking and ‘wasting’ time. Even today, laws forbid nudity in public; frown on excessive drinking and, likewise, we tend to encourage people to be productive members of their community (kind of like the concerns expressed by the early missionaries.)

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May 28, 2017 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Margaret Aiu’s Hula Studio

She was born Margaret Maiki Souza on May 28, 1925 in Honolulu, the daughter of Peter Charles Souza and Cecilia Pai‘ohe Gilman Souza.

Hānai (adopted) to her maternal grandaunt Cecilia Rose Mahoe and John William Kealoha, she grew up in Palolo Valley (she considered them her grandparents.) (Chun; Carnes)

She was educated at St Francis Convent School and lived with the sisters. She later lived with another grandaunt, Helen Pamaieulu Ha‘o Correa (her Tutu,) in Pauoa Valley.

She turned to hula at about the age of 14 or 15.

“Hula of the day of the kings was just a memory to some of the old timers. The old hula lived only in the talent of a few masters. Fortunately, these were training a small number in spite of the odds against their every putting their learning to good use.” (Lake; Advertiser; Chun; Carnes)

She was trained in a full range of the ancient and traditional hula. In 1943, at the age of 18, she graduated (‘uniki) as an ‘olapa (dancer.)

For 8-years she entertained at the Club Pago Pago (now the site of the Japanese Cultural Center on Beretania) – and continued to study, learn dances and seek mentorship for several hula masters. She later married Boniface Aiu.

A devout Christian, she encountered difficulty on practicing traditional rituals and prayers to Laka, the goddess of hula. Her Tutu helped her reconcile the Christian and Hawaiian beliefs and practices and was able to find peace with ancient practices and her own Christianity. Weeks)

She was also studying to become a nurse. But with the encouragement from others, she began to teach hula to the Hawaiian Society at Blessed Sacrament Church. They gave performances at the church and elsewhere.

She formed Margaret Aiu’s Hula Studio. Her students learned Hawaiian genealogies, culture, mannerisms, legends, poetry and the ‘beauties of our own Hawai‘i.’ (Ariyoshi; Chun: Carnes)

The demand for instruction increased. She employed a new teaching style that departed from traditional recital and memorization and incorporated written references, with a blackboard in the studio and student testing.

“She was a successful teacher and many of her graduates went on the become noted kumu hula. She coined the phrase ‘hula is life,’ the concept of ‘hula brothers and sisters,’ and the practice of keeping hula books: writing down motions, lyrics and notes on each hula. … She was as innovative as she was traditional.” (Weeks)

“She really brought back the love and respect for hula and the interest in learning, lei making, costuming, research, history, language and methodology. She was acknowledged by many people as a hula academic responsible for the modern renaissance of hula.” (Daughter Coline Aiu; Chun: Carnes)

In 1952, she received permission from her teachers to change the name of her dance studio to Hālau Hula O Maiki. (However a sign painter reversed some of the wording to read ‘Hula Hālau O Maiki.’)

She later married Haywood Kahauanu Lake, a noted singer, arranger and song-writer, with whom she performed.

She kept it, however in 1974 the studio moved and the sign was corrected. During that year, she was employed by Paradise Park in Mānoa Valley to supervise all their Hawaiian cultural activities.

She held regular, ongoing classes for dancers at all levels, from young to old and from beginner to advanced, with hundreds of students enrolled at any time in different classes.

She welcomed any who were interested in the dance, regardless of age, race, background, or ability, encouraging each student to experience “the art of Hawaiian dance, expressing all that we see, hear, smell, touch, taste and feel.” (Nogelmeier)

After twenty years of teaching in her hālau, Maiki advertised a special class for kumu hula in 1972, apparently the first time such an opportunity had been offered publicly.

Some were critical about the appropriateness of such an open invitation, but the kumu class attracted a large group of high-caliber students, intensely dedicated to the hula and motivated to undergo the rigors of traditional training.

The Papa Lehua, with a graduating class of twenty-six, was the first of many groups of kumu to eventually emerge from Maiki’s “hula university,” as some called it. (Nogelmeier)

Every subsequent kumu class, each named for one of the plant forms in the hula, produced more new kumu hula, all having been trained in the art of the dance and in Maiki’s particular style of instruction. (Nogelmeier)

Recognized as the ‘Mother of Hawaiian Renaissance,’ she graduated 42 first-generation kumu hula, who in turn have graduated 34 second-generation ‘grandchildren.’ (Cazimero)

The list of graduates of Hālau Hula O Maiki includes may of Hawai‘i’s prominent entertainers and kumu hula.

Maiki could be a tough teacher, scolding, cajoling, explaining. “She was all those things, depending on what she had to be. When you were her student, you were also her child; she was your mother.” (Chang; Enomoto, Star Bulletin)

“When we had problems, many went to her before their own parents; that’s how tight the bond was. If she felt we needed to be scolded, she scolded us unmercifully. And it wasn’t privately like a counselor; it was in front of the family. Boom! Right between eyes.”

“Sometimes I left class drained physically, sometimes absolutely drained emotionally; that’s what Maiki did. And, like in any Hawaiian family, she had her favorites, her punahele.” (Chang; Enomoto, Star Bulletin)

The three symbolic virtues of faith, hope and love were the guiding principles of Lake’s life. “Embracing these values, the devoted kumu hula overcame personal and professional challenges to establish her dream, a dance academy built on classic Hawaiian traditions and practice.

Lake not only was a forerunner, she also was a conduit through which the mastery of ‘Iolani Luahine, Mary Kawena Pukui and Lokalia Montgomery was passed on. (Sunderland; Midweek)

Margaret Maiki Aiu Souza Lake died on June 19, 1984 at the age of 59. “Maiki left a legacy of the place of the hālau in the imparting of the whole art and tradition of learning the hula.”

“The place of beginning to learn is not on the dance floor but before the altar, where the offerings are put in place, and where the student comes into the presence of spiritual love and power.” (Ariyoshi)

“Through the Hula we are endowed with great Heritage.” (Aiu) We “are reminded of how special her legacy has become to all who know and learn to dance the hula. This is why hula is life.” (Ariyoshi)

Here is more on Maiki:

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Maiki Aiu performs during her 1948 uniki ceremony-Ariyoshi

April 18, 2017 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Princess Lei Lokelani

At the corner of what is now Baker Street and Marina Boulevard in San Francisco’s Marina District was where the Hawaiian Pavilion stood during the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in 1915.

These Hawaiian shows had the highest attendance at the entire fair and launched a Hawaiian cultural craze that influenced everything from American music, to movies, to fashion. (Mushet)

“The hugely popular Hawaii pavilion … showcased Hawaiian music and hula dancing, and was the unofficial launching pad for ukulele-mania.” Hapa-haole songs were featured in the Hawaii exhibits and hula ‘auana, contemporary hula was born.

‘Princess Lei Lokelani’ performed traditional foot movements – ku‘i and ‘uwehe – to modern ‘ukulele and steel guitar songs – this also launched the hapa-haole hula phenomenon into broader markets. (Wianecki)

Today, hula has been divided into two main categories; hula ‘auana and hula kahiko, also known as modern hula and ancient hula.

Hula ‘auana are always accompanied by mele, and have soft and floating movements. The ‘auana is also inspired by the hula of the 20th century up until the late 1960s, including the hapa haole styled hula. (Torgersen)

The costumes of the hula ‘auana are different from the kahiko costumes, which usually involve a pā‘ū (hula skirt) and a top to match the pā‘ū for female dancers, and a malo (loincloth) for the male dancers, as well as anklets, wristlets and a headpiece made from traditional hula plants and flowers.

The ‘auana costumes often involve mu‘umu‘u (long dress or gown) for women and black pants, a shirt and sash for the men. The women often have large headpieces made from flowers and greens and may wear shoes as part of the costume.

The kahiko dances must always be danced barefoot, and the dancer is not allowed any jewelry or excessive makeup. (Torgersen)

By 1916, there were hundreds of Hapa Haole tunes written. That same year, reportedly more Hawaiian records were sold on the mainland than any other type of music.

And they came in all the popular styles of the day: in ragtime, blues, jazz, foxtrot and waltz tempos, as “shimmy” dances and–even–in traditional hula tempos, but jazzed up a bit.

In 1935, a radio program began, broadcasting live from the Banyan Court of the Moana Hotel on the beach at Waikīkī, and radios nationwide tuned in to hear “Hawaii Calls.” Not only did nearly every island entertainer cut his or her teeth on the program, many went on to become well known.

The ‘Princess’ was 15-year old Elizabeth Jonia Leilokelani Shaw; she and her family were a hit at the Exposition. “A native of Hawaii, Shaw went to Portland with her family, several of whose members are professionals, in 1906.”

“Her first professional appearance was at the Panama-Pacific Exposition at San Francisco, where she was featured for her beauty and talents as a dancer in the Hawaiian village on the zone.” (Variety, May 6, 1921) She was so popular that she was almost crowned ‘Queen of the Zone,’ missing the honor by just a few votes. (Wianecki)

For the next four years, she was doing vaudeville as ‘Jonia and Her Hawaiians,’ “in which she is assisted by her sister and a male Hawaiian orchestra of four pieces. Jonia’s efforts consist of two dances, one with her sister, who appears in male attire, and one as a solo.”

“The remainder is made up of work by the orchestra, one of the men handling a vocal solo with the others playing a duet with steel guitars.”

“The Jonia act is still suitable for vaudeville, notwithstanding the number of turns of this order that have been seen about during past season.” (Variety, May 11, 1917)

Elizabeth Jonia Leilokelani Shaw, aged 20, was stricken with pneumonia at Washington, DC. She was brought to Portland and died there April 18, 1921. (Variety, May 6, 1921)

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