A hula memorial for Becky Leialoha Jung (1965-2011)

Hereʻs a hula tribute to the late Becky Jung (the brunette; the blonde is Becca Anderson Darling), my dance partner in Pilobolus, who during the last year of her life started dancing hula with me. We are performing her favorite hula, Pa Ka Makani. Becky loved this hula because of its bombastic energy and sensuality. Hereʻs to you, Becky.

Here is the chant from www.huapala.org

Pa ka makani
Naue ka lau o ka niu
Ha`a ka pua kowali
I ke kula
Leha ka maka o ka manu
Ai pua lehua
Ha`u ka waha o ke kahuli
I ka nahele
Li ka 'io o Kaauhelemoa la ea

Kahiko ula ka lama i na pali
Ohikihiki ka ua ke nana aku
Nau ia e ua wale mai no
Kikii ka ua nana i ka lani
Hiki ka haili opua o Kaupea la ea

The wind blows,
The leaves of the coconut sway
The morning glory blossoms
And dances on the plains
The eyes of the bird glance about
Then sip lehua honey
The land shells trill
In the forest
The skin of Kaauhelemoa is chilled

The lama bushes redden the hillsides
The rain can be seen moving in columns
Rain on, rain on, as you please
Pour down torrents from the skies
Till the rain clouds of Kaupea appears

"Rolling Down Like Pele" by Laura Margulies

Here's a film animation about hula by my dear friend, Laura Margulies: http://www.lauramargulies.com/. Laura's got a new project "Local Kine..." and she's raising money here. Please kokua and give her money by going here:
http://www.unitedstatesartists.org/project/local_kine_academy_leader

Ku i ka māna

Like the one from whom he received what he learned.

Said of a child who behaves like those who reared him. Māna is food masticated by an elder and conveyed to the mouth of a small child. The haumāna (pupil) receives knowledge from the mouth of his teacher.

Pukui, M.K. (2008). ‘Ōlelo No‘eau. Honolulu: Bishop Museum Press.

A student.

Nānā no a ka lā‘au ku ho‘okāhi.

“Often said by those seeking strong medicinal herbs. A plant that stood by itself was considered better for medicine than one that grew close to others of its kind.”

Pukui, M.K. (2008). ‘Ōlelo No‘eau. Honolulu: Bishop Museum Press

The image is the the official plant of Hawai‘i, the kukui or Aleurites moluccana, the Candlenut. Every part of the kukui can be used.

Several parts of the plant have been used in traditional medicine in most of the areas where it is native. The oil is a laxative and sometimes used like castor oil. Candlenut oil is also used as a hair stimulant or additive to hair treatment systems. In Japan its bark has been used on tumors. In Sumatra, pounded seeds, burned with charcoal, are applied around the navel for constipation. In Malaya, the pulped kernels or boiled leaves are used in poultices for headache, fevers, ulcers, swollen joints, and gonorrhea. In Java, the bark is used for bloody diarrhea or dysentery.

In Hawaiʻi, the flowers and the sap at the top of the husk (when just removed from the branch) were used to treat eʻa (oral candidiasis) in children. In Ancient Hawaiʻi, kukui nuts were burned to provide light. The nuts were strung in a row on a palm leaf midrib, lit one end, and burned one by one every 15 minutes or so. This led to their use as a measure of time. One could instruct someone to return home before the second nut burned out. Hawaiians also extracted the oil from the nut and burned it in a stone oil lamp called a kukui hele po (light, darkness goes) with a wick made of kapa cloth.
Aleurites moluccana flowers

Hawaiians also had many other uses for the tree, including: leis from the shells, leaves and flowers; ink for tattoos from charred nuts; a varnish with the oil; and fishermen would chew the nuts and spit them on the water to break the surface tension and remove reflections, giving them greater underwater visibility. A red-brown dye made from the inner bark was used on kapa and aho (Touchardia latifolia cordage). A coating of kukui oil helped preserve ʻupena (fishing nets). The nohona waʻa (seats), pale (gunwales) of waʻa (outrigger canoes) were made from the wood. The trunk was sometimes used to make smaller canoes used for fishing. Kukui also represents the island of Molokaʻi, whose symbolic color is the silvery green of its leaf.

Wikipedia.

Lama ((Diospyros sandwicensis and D. hillebrandii; family Ebenaceae), Hawaiian ebony

Wrapped in kapa dyed yellow with olena (tumeric), a log of lama was placed on kuahu (hula alter) as the embodiment of the god Laka

"The lama (Diospyros sandwicensis and D. hillebrandii; family Ebenaceae), aka ēlama, is an indigenous ebony hardwood that was important to ka poe hula as well as traditional healers. Lama grew six to fifty feet high and often had galls or abnormal growths on its stem. The bark is black and smooth on small trunks, but rough on large, old trees. The leaves, pale green and glossy, are arranged in one plane alternately in opposite rows. The small greenish-white- or pink-petal flowers grow close to the twig. Lama produces edible bright red or yellow fruit borne in a cup like an acorn. D. sandwicensis is found in all types of forests of the islands from elevations, 15-4,000 ft; D. hillebrandii is found primarily on moderately wet forests only on Kaua‘i and O‘ahu from 492-1,500 ft. None are found on Ni‘ihau and Kaho‘olawe (Kapi‘olani Community College).
The word, lama, means “torch, light, lamp...enlightenment” (Pukui and Ebert). Such kaona was significant to the kupuna. The plant was considered sacred. The wood, which was very hard, close-grained and a rich reddish-brown color when old, was used in building houses for gods and other religious temples (Kamehameha Schools). They were also used for the tide gates of fishponds.
A piece of lama was wrapped in kapa dyed yellow with olena (tumeric) and placed on the hula altar as an embodiment of the hula god/dess, Laka, the sister/wife of Lono, the god of agriculture. Laka presided over the flora of the forest. And the presence of Laka that was manifested in the brightly draped lama signified the enlightenment that one could achieve through hula. Kumu Roselle Keli`ihonipua Bailey describes how the Hawaiians considered the forests sacred as well as “physically and spiritually dangerous” places where people could get lost, hurt or killed. Learning hula, she says, tames the “undesciplined body, spirit and mind, the forest personality.” Lama stood on the altar as a reflection of the hula practice that seeks enlightenment through poised discipline, respect and open consciousness (Ka ‘Imi Na‘auao O Hawai‘i Nei).
The wood was also used in the ancient Hawaiian healing arts. Lama was used to build the enclosure demarcating the place for healing. The structure, which was called the pa lama, was built in one day during daylight (lama) hours (ibid.). The bark, which was edible, was often mixed with kukui (Aleurites moluccana) and ulu (Artocarpis altilis) and applied to sores.

Bailey, Roselle. “Hula – A Way of Life” and “The Hula.” http://www.kaimi.org/hula.htm

Davenport, Cathy. “Hula Plants.” www.botany.hawaii.edu/ethnobotany/.../pdf/HulaPlants-111907.pdf

Kamehameha Schools. http://kms.kapalama.ksbe.edu/projects/2003/plants.

Kapi‘olani Community College. http://www.kapiolani.hawaii.edu/object/lamaplant.html

Ho‘okupu (ceremonial gift of honor & respect)

Literal translation: to cause growth, sprouting.
http://www.hawaii.hawaii.edu/hawaiian/KHaili/hookupu.htm

Occupy Wall Street

A few weeks ago, I stopped by the Occupy Wall Street protest at Zucotti Park. The protestors had been dwelling there since September. Across the street, the Freedom Tower, the reincarnated World Trade Center, rises in strange, shiny contrast to the earthy, clamor of the protestors below. Much of it is relentless street theater, loud and raucous performance in drag, a gathering, lecturing, drumming, chanting, crowding and parading crowd of all stripes. It's typical New York City, grimy, claustophobic and in-your-face. Among the many cardboard signs and banners, percussion instruments and assorted freaks and geeks of our community, there stood this fellow with the sign, "Aloha," simple, direct, resonant, contradictory.

I didn't ask him what his intentions were. But I didn't need to. As a hula dancer, I think I know what aloha stands for. It's what hula dancers dance for. And what we should live for. Aloha, not the soft, gushy, earnest love or the impetuous infatuation. Tough love: a deep care for humanity and nature, a generous yet tenacious respect for history, community and family; a transcendent and transformative love. The guy behind the shades looks like he could hurt you, but he seems warm and generous.

Ho‘opuka E Ka La

Ho‘opuka e ka la ma ka hikina
Me ka huaka`i hele no Kumukahi

Ha‘a mai na ‘iwa me Hi‘iaka
Me Kapo-Laka i ka uluwehiwehi

Ne‘e mai na ‘iwa ma ku‘u alo
Me ke alo kapu o ka aiwaiwa

Ho‘i no e ke kapu me na ali‘i
E ola makou apau loa la

Ea la, ea la, ea la, ea

He inoa no Hi‘iaka I Ka Poli ‘O Pele


Rise, O sun in the east
With a procession going to Kumukahi

Dancing are the beautiful ones with Hi‘iaka
And Kapo-Laka in the verdant grove

Moving ahead are the dancers toward me
And to the sacred presence of the divine

Let the sacred ways return to the chiefs
Let us all give everlasting praise

Tra-la-la-la

In the name of Hi‘iaka-in-the-bosom-of Pele

Source: This is a formal entrance/exit dance used for kahiko. It honors Hi‘iaka the youngest and favorite sister of Pele, and the major patron of hula. Hi‘iaka learned the hula from her friend Hopoe on the big island of Hawai‘i. Kapo-Laka are the god/goddess of hula. Kumukahi (first beginning) is the easternmost cape in Hawai‘i. The ‘iwa bird (frigate bird) is symbolic of a lover, dancer or handsome person.

http://www.huapala.org/Chants/Hoopuka_E_Ka_La.html

Hula ‘Ulī‘Ulī

From Nathaniel Bright Emerson:
"The hula ūli-ulī was s called from the rattle which was its sole instrument of accompaniment. This consisted of a small gourd about the size of a large orange, into the cavity of which were put shot-like seeds, like those of the canna; a handle was then attached (pl.xi).
"The actors who took part in this hula belonged, it is said, to the class termed hoopaa, and went through with the performance while kneeling or squatting, as has been described. While cantillating the mele they held the rattle, ūli-ulī, in the right hand, shaking it against the palm of the other hand or the thigh, or making excursions in one direction and another. In some performances of this hula which the author has witnessed the olapa also took part, in one case a woman, who stood and cantillated the song with movement and gesture, while the hoopaa devoted themselves exclusively to handling the ūli-ulī rattles.
"The sacrificial offerings that preceded the old-time performances of this hula are said to have been awa and a roast porkling, in honor of the goddess Laka." (107)
Image: "He‘eia" by Caren Loebel-Fried

A dedication to Becky Leialoha Jung (1965-2011)

It was my deep honor to dance and commune with my hula ohana in New York in September in memory of our dear Becky Jung. Mahalo nui loa to my hula brothers and sisters for their generosity and grace. For those of you who were not there in body, we most definitely felt your aloha very present in the air and in our hearts.

Becky loved flowers. It's a passion all hula dancers share, but Becky loved flowers before hula found her. She taught me how to appreciate what I used to consider old-lady flowers, like crepe myrtle. She made me realize, before I started dancing hula again, that every flower deserves our adoration. During the throes of chemo, she loved the maile lei that Mariko sent her; and its arrival sent Jude (a Pilobolus sister) into tears. And as Yvette reported, the one sensation that she had most access to was smell. Sweet floral scents, like Earl Grey tea, caused her to close her eyes and inhale in deep reverie. It was impossible not to infuse each pua (flower) and honi (scent) gesture in our hula with a memory of Becky.

While we were preparing the hinahina (Spanish moss) lei for the memorial, Kumu June reminded me about Becky's first attempt at a haku lei po'o (a woven lei for the head). We were at Genesis, a New Jersey biodynamic farm of our friends, Mike and Kerry, for our first hula retreat. We went "floraging" (foraging for native wild flower...my Jim Nelson's term...which makes me think now of the two vivid hybridized words that Becky coined--"obeast" and "whoregasm"!...Becky had a sharp, lusty core to to her sweet, innocent exterior).

That night at Genesis we made our lei for the performance the next day. I badly wanted to make a beautiful lei. But as I struggled and messed with the raffia and the flowers and leaves, Becky was effortless and quick. Her lei was impeccably full of color and harmony. I was envious.

June said that Becky's Hawaiian name, Leialoha, came to her as she sat in meditation. Lei of love, how perfect. Becky wove us together the other night, effortlessly, full of color and harmony. Mahalo, Leialoha.

Becky was a dance goddess and dance warrior of the highest order. She dedicated her life to dance. She made sacrifices that normal human beings dare not make. She always gave 100%+ of her energy and focus to her work. Never a hack, slacker or flake, Becky performed with an unparalleled precision and strength that was, according to Jim's mom, "hidden under all that femininity." And she had intensely high expectations, which made her sometimes difficult to work with. (We're not all gods and goddesses.)

Fortunately for me, Leialoha was as devoted a friend as she was a dancer. As I continue to miss her, I am grateful to have the community of hula. Mahalo, hula brothers and sisters, for responding to the invitations to dance (special thanks to Erika for arranging Kumu June's trip to NYC); mahalo, Gracious Ladies, for contributing your spirit; mahalo, LBJ, for giving us a place at Fashion Week to express our reflections; mahalo, musicians, for filling the air with songs from your heart; finally, mahalo, Jung family, for giving us Leialoha. I look forward to when--soon, I hope--we are able to come together again.