HULA: The real stuff

I have danced Hula since I was a very small child.

The first time that I recall ever seeing it "live" was my mother dancing Hula in our living room in Covina. I was three years old. She was pregnant with my kid brother. It was summertime and she was uncomfortable most of the time but, when she cleaned the house she danced Hula with the vaccuum cleaner, and lots of times, without it.

Yes, even very pregnant.

I did that same thing when I was pregnant, too.

All three times.

That is not what I am writing about, though. It is really cool to know that while I carried all three of my kids in my belly, I did not stop dancing, neither teaching, this dance that I have loved for better than 45 years.

What is way more cool (because I get to correct the wrongness in thinking right that moment) is over the years that I danced and taught as my primary work in this world, I was asked a whole lot, one really...annoying question -

"Whereʻs your grass skirt?"

I want to sit here and yell at people for turning our dance into something that it is not.

For one thing, we do not wear the following - check it out:

This is misappropriation at its very lowest, ugliest finest.

I do not know where anyone would get the idea, other than in some Hollywood studio a very long time ago, that any one self-respecting person would wear this get up as some sort of representation of our culture.

It is not now, and neither has it ever been.

It can be anything that anyone wants it to be, but what it is not and will not ever be is anything Hula, or even Hawaiian for that matter.

I used to get very offended that people would even bother to buy something like this, let alone wear it. Then one day I actually watched people who bought this thing and actually wore it and realized that they were in no way ANY KIND of representation of who I or anyone else who loves this dance and our culture like we all do. They have no idea what they look like. Maybe they think they look sexy or hot or whatever, but, no Hula dancer is trying to look like any of those descriptors.

We just end up doing that anyway, and we actually donʻt really show very much flesh at all.

That is, unless we are doing what is known as Kahiko Hula.

Which, then you might see a little more flesh BUT...

...you might not want to approach, namely when they are in a moving moment of prayer in honor of whatever deity they are dancing for.

And I promise that we are ALL dancing in honor of someone or something. Typically our heritage.

Polynesians are very proud people. We are very proud of our culture, and our music, and our dance, and our food. This dance is NOT supposed to be some sort of ...sexy...half naked writhing...thing.

It is one of our most revered cultural icons, this dance which I have loved from the time that I was a tiny little kid, growing up on this side of the Pacific in the San Gabriel Valley, in Covina, CA.

So, pretty much

I am trying to put it into at least one personʻs head that Hula is not some fun little sexy dance.

It isnʻt and never has been. Gilliganʻs Island made you believe that.

It is not done in a grass skirt, and it is not done in a grass skirt that is made of cellophane, or rafia, or plastic. They are called Ti Leaves, and we do not go out into some field with a scythe to create our "grass" skirts - folks might want to think that the grass would turn brown pretty damned quick.

Nope.

Hula.

It is the thing that comes to mind, the most, when people think about anything Hawaiian.

What it is not and has never been is some sort of activity that was meant to woo anyone - we pray to our gods and our Ancestors through the dance.

It is a very big deal to us.

For some of us, when it comes to not just things "Hawaiian," but also being that, it is the BIGGEST deal - I get that ugly, cringy feeling whenever I hear or see something like that colorful, flowery, not-made-for-actual-Hula thing with all of those fake flowers. The only fake flowers (maybe) that ANY ONE OF US WEARS do NOT look like things that you would find at a party store.

And furthermore - we do not flaunt what we have. It flaunts itself.

I know this. I danced and taught for years.

It is not done in anything you would buy at a party store, no matter what.

Now I teach mostly women my own age to remember who they truly are once it is that they are able to escape from the violence they never thought would be something theyʻd have to do one day. It happens.

It happened to me.

The reason why Hula, at least for this specific dancer, is so important, is so NOT this...sexy..thing - is because for a lot of us, to dance heals us. Hula was my medicine. It was not ever something that someone could call anything other than beautiful.

When I was in the middle of trying to escape for years, Hula was the very thing that I did to soothe my very pained and aching soul.

It is not sexy.

It is medicine.

It is my medicine.

Please believe Lilo and please believe Moana, because the world seems to not want to believe us, the ones who have danced from the time that we were tiny little children.

Tiny little Hawaiian children.

This was all a lot of us had when we were children.

And you want to turn it into a sexy costume every year?

Please.

Donʻt.

Put your clothes on.

You donʻt look sexy.

You look cheap....and cold.

Sheesh !