Bali. Tahiti. Hawaii. Garden of Eden. Eve. Lilith. Goddesses. Saraswati. Pele. Hula and Ori. I wish I could fly away to Tahiti or even Hawaii now. In need of a break and restoration after the long years of teaching and now sleep and long month of being sick. But I guess I’m getting to go in a small way every Saturday now that I am finally taking hula basics and ori basics. Ori is hard. Really hard. And awkward. The stance doesn’t agree with my body. Touching my feet at the toes and ankles makes it nearly impossible to do the fast hip circles- fa’arapu. I almost skipped ori this week, but since we focused on technique during hula since our teacher - kumu Mahea was back from her travels I decided to stay. Highlight Keaho said I have good hip isolation, just top moving my shoulders. Guess I have to slow down. The prior week she said when we start moving our shoulders it means we’re moving too fast for our hips. It’s funny, but true, our shoulders become like a little motor or something helping to power the hips. I’ve loved Tahitian dance -ori- since I first saw it on Moorea. It drew me in with it’s raw power and sexuality. I knew it was hard. The men, women and girls sweat and glisten when doing it. Partly cuz of the heat and humidity there. Partly cuz it is a damn good cardio workout. The little ones are the most amazing to watch. There hips move as if they came out the womb doing it and never stopped because there moms taught them by practicing while pregnant. There hips move so fast they blur just like a hummingbirds wings. I thought hula was boring by comparison.
Tahitian dance is like classic rock or hip-hop, while hula like a soft rock ballad. Beautiful, but quiet. A gentle rain shower that begins so quietly you’re not even sure it’s raining. Whereas Tahitian is a powerful thunderstorm and downpour. When I had my first taste of learning hula at the Aloha music camp I realized it’s much harder than it looks too. And now that I am three weeks in, I adore it. And want to be like Auntie Irene @ 93 spontaneously & proudly swaying to hehekouaka. But first I need to practice more. The kaholo alone has so much to think about. Smaller steps. Wrist below the knuckles. Arms at breast level. Bent arm not crossing center. Down then up as step. Hips swaying. Shoulders back. Chest up. Look over arms. We haven’t even got to the smiling part. Moana used to chastise me to smile. I hear her as I do it now, knowing I have that stern look of concentration so I try to smile and relax and have fun as I am learning. She’d be proud.
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I love the way you dissect the dancing here. Examine it from every angle - including your own internal one. Even if the reader has never done any dancing, you make the feeling (both physical and emotional) completely understandable. Great job!
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