Irina is here. I am a realtor on the Big Island of Hawaii. What makes Hawaii a land of enchantment? When a visitor comes to the isalnd he/she is enchanted by Hawaiian way of treating visitors with Aloha, and by Hawaiian music: songs and dance. Hula dance is something that will help to embrace Hawaii with all sensors. Every dance tells a story in sign language. Anyone who has a desire to worship Creator and share love for the Island of Hawaii can dance.
Some women believe that they don’t have special talents or they can’t separate the hips from the torso. Some men think it’s a woman dance. Originally hula was created as a man dance. Women were watching the men having fun and decided to start their own dance. So it’s for both men and women. Ideally a correct movement is to separate hips from torso. Well It’s not a problem if you’re an athlete like dancers in luau on the Big Island. Although what really moves a dancer it is a spirit to worship, to share love for the Island of Hawaii and to give greetings to the Creator. Hula Dance is for all genders and for all ages. It’s a story of love and aloha in sign language. My favorite song is Pua ‘Olena. You can watch a practice of this song with subtitles here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWbYMSBS_oA
I’d like to introduce Kumu Hannah. Kumu means Hula Teacher.
Hannah started to dance when she was a little girl.
In my house if you didn’t play music you had to do dishes. I didn’t want to do dishes and I started to dance. I used to dance in many parades. I was born and raised in Honolulu before getting married and moving to CA. I worked in schools, they had different programs and I taught dance 6th graders Tahitian and Maori dance. The boys were so good at dance that girls asked not to bring the boys because they stole the show. I moved to Hawaii in 2000. They had a lot of Praise and Worship Hula – christian songs. I started to teach hula in Evangelical church because they had a worship praise. We had 24-28 dancers practicing in the church but then they said that they had to be members or regular attendees of the church. They left crying so I said find me the place and I will teach you there. The same week they found the place – St.Jude Church on the Big Island. Here we started to practice Hula twice a week. Whatever church you go or you don’t go to church – come to dance with us. We’ve been practicing here since 2005. We practice Hawaiian songs and worshiping songs.