Grace Anniskett blog

Grace Anniskett
Blog Entry – Jan 9
Hawaiian Dance w/ Vicki Holt-Takamine

Today this wonderful class of East Coast College students
made an attempt at learning the very complex and intricate
art form of the dance: Hula. Our Kumu Hula was Vicky, she
apprenticed for 13 years before being able to learn to
become a master for 2 years. She told us elaborate stories
about her ancestors and how one becomes a master hula
dancer. She is an intense woman who is passionate about the
rights Hawaiians have been neglected. She not only teaches
hula but uses it as a protest strategy to keep her culture
alive. I feel that back at home people envision some lady
with a grass skirt on shaking around in front of us, but
Vicky was a normally dressed woman who danced in a way that
does take many years of practice and learning. She is not
just a Hula dancer, she is what we would call in my culture,
a warrior of culture. She is using this unique art to
captivate people and pull them in so that they can learn the
words of her ancestors and gain a respect for this culture.
We began with a few "simple" moves. I am not the most
coordinated . . . "dancer" in the world so these simple
task were like trying to become a master hula dancer for me.
Many of the students struggled at first, but quickly picked
up the moves as she began to accompany us with the drum. We
danced and chanted the song of Pele, the goddess of fire who
can been seen in the lava and smoke that comes from erupting
volcanoes. Interestingly, but not surprising, the men had a
few different moves to do than the women. They were to
demonstrate different speeds of the lava flow than the
women. It took us about an hour to get a weak grip on this
maneuvering. I had a very rough time with some of the moves,
but quickly adapted my own little version of them. It takes
an awareness of your entire body to do the hula correctly
and I found it similar occasionally to belly dancing, which
I learned in high school. After learning the dance and chant
together we moved along to the 'uli'uli, or the
feathered rattle gourd. With this we learned how to shake it
and perform a song about the rising of the sun. This also
was accompanied by hand gestures and dancing. We faded
quickly when the dancing was added. After a much shorter
attempt at the rattle gourd, we moved on the an actual
lecture  play time was over.
We learned the history of the hula and all the categories
above and around it. It is only a portion of what is known
as Mele. Oli is the chanting that is not accompanied by hula
and is always written in Hawaiian, it was started before
missionaries came so it is written in through composed
rather than strophic. It is a very monotonous sounding
chanting that is a free rhythm. The other categories of Mele
is Hula which is broken into two components, kahiko (ancient
style hula), and 'auana (modern style hula). We learned
kahiko hula today.
Overall the lesson was a lot of fun and very eye opening
given her vast knowledge in the culture and its struggles
politically.

Grace A