He ola

I started today’s blog yesterday to recap my previous two days of research at the Tax Office and Bishop Museum. But I’ll have to forego that information because I ought to talk about the conference, which started at 7:30 a.m. yesterday morning with the warm-up. There are 900+ participants in the Halāuaola, and many of them were already lined up when I arrived in the gym. Kumu Sonny Ching and members of his halau led the morning exercise. We started with some forward bends (hamstrings) and hinges on our knees (quadriceps), which was a bit too much, too soon for my still awakening and cold muscles. Then we stood and began the fun, the basic hula vocabulary: kaholo, ami, uwehe, kao, lele uwehe, huki, hela, kawelu... I can’t describe the power of so many bodies in one room swaying to the ipu, like a massive grove of coconut trees, and the distraction of wanting to watch everybody else. Many of the halau wore their uniform pa‘u and performed each of the movements particular to their hula tradition. The diversity within a so-called codified vocabulary caused me to consider the openness and flexibility available within the tradition. We then learned He Ola, I think itʻs the name, for there was no hard-copy handout to aid our learning this morning; we had learned it in the old style, by ho‘olohe, listening, and ‘ike, watching. The mele/hula is a tradition in Kumu Sonny’s family, which they offer at the arrival of a new year. We’ll perform the hula at the closing ceremony. “Ola” means life, health, well-being, living, livelihood, means of support, salvation; alive, living; curable, spared, recovered; healed; to live; to spare, save, heal, grant life, survive, thrive. It was an apropos thought to start a hula conference. The word would reappear throughout the day.

The conference organizers, Leina‘āla Kalama Heine, Hokulani Holt and Pualani Kanaka‘ole Kanahele, three of the most distinguished, affable kumu hula around, then officially began the proceedings with a fascinating mix of logistical information and hula philosophy. Kumu Leina‘āla, who is from the host island of O‘ahu, described the origin of the quadrennial conference, now in its third iteration, and articulated their initial intention, which was to bring the practitioners of hula who live throughout the world, many of whom have never been to these islands, to experience the source material. Hula, among many other concepts, is about place; it’s about Hawai’i, what Kumu Pualani called “our island earth.” No matter where one is, to do hula properly requires a reference, an embodied, psychological and imaginative orientation that is centered in the sensations of experience, a compass of body and soul to Hawai‘i nei (my interpretation). Kumu Pualani explained the hula altar, or kuahu, which had been erected in the far corner of the gymnasium. She discussed Laka, the god/dess of hula and the rainforest. She presented the reasons she loves hula and assigned each of the 900+ to express seven to ten reasons why we practice hula. In describing the kuahu, she noted the blessed transpirations of water, the rain shower and olu (mist), and how the transpiring sweat of hula practitioners connect them to ritual the cycles of nature, the god/dess Laka of the the flora (the ecosystem really, my interpretation), and the disciplines of enlightenment. Kumu Hoku, who was identified as the conference’s “assigner,” offered much of the organizational details. Woven throughout her speech about room changes, meals and registration, was the recurrent theme of respect for the place of the conference: the Kamehameha School and the island of O‘ahu. She also discussed two simple, yet resonant themes to me. One was the charge of giving back, generosity and sharing, not just taking. Hula dancers take just what is needed, respectfully, always maintaining enough for later and others. They also return. The other was to “be nice.” Aloha. Such plain attitudes, potentially considered naive and earnest elsewhere, seemed fresh this morning, and a sound directive to begin the conference. She also instructed us not to embellish any of the information we acquired, to do precisely what we are taught.

The subsequent morning session was led by Mehanaokala Hind, an impressive hula scholar and dancer for Kumu Leina‘āla’s halau, who described an O‘ahu hula tradition that was new to me, the story of Keaumelemele, a legend written by Moke Manu, in 1888. The halau designed a theatrical production about this myth, and Hind presented the layered and resonant meanings of the mele as well as a the production to life. In the afternoon, I had a three-hour hula noho (on our knees) workshop, with Kumu Kapono‘ai Molitau, who composed this Ipu Kuolo (another term for seated chant and hula with ipu), Aia Ka Wai O Keola, a song written for his father, John Keolamaka‘ainana Kalāhuinokalani Kamehameha‘ekolu Lake. It was a hula with an ipu heke, a double-gourded version of calabash drum. Mahalo, niece Leola, for sharing your beautiful ipu. I have carpet burns on my knees to verify the vigorousness of this “seated” hula in praise of a legendary, dedicated dancer and teacher. The session, to me, reified the processes of transmission and disseminating of a cultureʻs wisdom imbedded in legend, song and dance. The whole day seemed centered on these intelligent voices and hearts from the past that promoted a practice of hula life sustaining in balance with a fragile and, therefore, precious natural, peopled world.

Merce died. So I think of the innovations of modern dance, the newness of the other dance I do. My friend, Eric, texted me the news and described the procession plans for folk to visit the Cunningham Studio. I thought of him many times throughout the day because he was a diety of modern dance. He expanded the art form in directions like no one else. Merce was always pushing his art toward the unknown Future; hula practitioners, on the other hand, look back into History, which is full enough of mystery. There was an issue with the continuance of Merce's legacy. I wonder if he loathed the thought of himself in the past tense. I wondered about the high-tech dedications and altars being erected in his commemoration, his memory, which seems antithetical to him. Both the production of Keaumelemele and noho hula Aia Ka Wai O Keola, oddly, are modern dance productions, for they were truly created recently within the last few years. I went to the Cunningham website, there's a quote from the Tao Te Ching on the opening page: "...only he who is willing to give his body for the sake of the world is fit to be entrusted with the world. Only he who can do it with love is worthy of being the steward of the world." Hula practitioners, looking back and performing now, are stewards of the world for the future of the world, too. They should do it with generous Aloha. Aloha Merce. Mahalo. He ola.