Created for students of LIS 693 in Fall 2016

1. Hula

2. What is hula?
hula
1. nvt. The hula, a hula dancer; to dance the hula. For types of hula see below and ʻai
haʻa, ʻālaʻapapa, ʻami, hapa haole, hue, kiʻelei, kōlani, kuhi, kuʻi, muʻumuʻu, ʻōhelo,
ʻōlapa, ʻōniu, pahua, paʻi umauma, ʻūlili, UL 275–6. For hulas named for instruments
see ʻiliʻili, kāʻekeʻeke, kā lāʻau, pahu, pā ipu, papa hehi, pūʻili, ʻulīʻulī. For hulas named
for creatures see below or honu, ʻīlio, kōlea, manō, peʻepeʻemakawalu, puaʻa. He hula
(For. 5:479), a huladancer. Kumu hula, hula master or teacher. Hula mai ʻoe (song),
come to me dancing the hula. Haihai askula nā wāhine apau mamuli ona, me nā mea
kuolokani, a me ka hula (Puk. 15.20), all the women followed after her with timbrels
and dancing. hoʻo.hula To cause someone to dance; to pretend to hula. (PCP (f,s)ula.)
2. nvt. Song or chant used for the hula; to sing or chant for a hula.

3. What is hula?
"Hula is a reflection of life. Hula is a way
of telling history."
"The dance steps that you see are
traditional dance steps, they've always
been done, and they represent different
movements in nature, whether it has to do
with the wind in a circular movement, or
the currents in a circular movement."
--Pualani Kanakaole Kanahele

4. What is hula?
"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..."
--Nathaniel B. Emerson (1909)

5. Where does hula come from?
● Pele and Hiiaka
○ Emerson (1993): Pele sees Hopoe dancing down at Haena, and she is
entertained. She asks her sisters to offer a hula in response. All of the
Hiiakas shy away, saying they don't know hula. Finally, Hiiakaikapoliopele
gets up and dances for Pele.
● Kapoulakinau
○ Kapo and her ohana travel from Kahiki to Hawaii and arrive at Niihau.
There, Kapo instructs her younger sister, Kawela, to get up and dance.

6. Brief history of hula
● 1778: first recorded observation of hula, from Captain Cook ma
● 1820: Calvinist missionaries arrive in Hawaii, and soon thereafter label hula as
"heathen" and "lascivious"
● 1830: Queen Kaahumanu (who had been accepted into the church in 1825), issues
an edict forbidding public performances of hula
● 1851: Public hula performances require a license and heavy fee
● 1860s: Alii revert to old custom of having poe hula available to provide
entertainment
● 1883: Kalakaua's coronation includes a great number of hula
● 1952: Maiki Aiu Lake opens Halau Hula o Maiki, the "first modern hula school"
● 1964: Merrie Monarch Hula Festival begins
● 1970s: "Hawaiian renaissance" includes kumu hula reviving hula

7. Important aspects
● Hula is a practice, and that practice has a genealogy
● There are numerous types of hula, each type named for specific instruments,
animals, functions, etc.
○ Noa vs. kapu (what is free vs. what is privileged)
○ Kahiko vs. auana (classifications based on time period and musical
accompaniment)
● Aohe pau ka ike i ka halau hookahi: not all knowledge is found in one school