You’ve seen hula dancers in commercials for resorts in Hawaii. Nowadays hula is often used as advertizing for the tourism industry, but it has a long and fascinating history that involves a lot more than hula skirts, lei, and coconuts.
Hula was originally a sacred dance of the tribal religion of Hawaii. It was created by the goddess Laka, possibly to appease her sister the volcano goddess and make her smile. Mortal hula dancers performed at ceremonial occasions, holidays, and feasts to honor chiefs. Hula took on special significance and dancing incorrectly was considered to bring terrible bad luck.
When Westerners showed up, initially they tried to suppress hula. Christian missionaries saw it as a heathen practice that was too closely associated with the worship of the gods to be tolerated. Missionaries aimed at converting important people like chiefs, and once they succeeded, they had the chiefs ban the dance. But many chiefs only paid lip service to this ban and secretly continued to hold hula dances. Since the missionaries couldn’t completely annihilate hula, they eventually decided to regulate it. In the 19th century, dancers actually needed to apply for permits to hold a public hula dance!
In the 20th century, hula was on the rise again. Westerners began to take in interest in the dance because it seemed exotic and harmless. At this time, hula split apart into two different styles. Hula Kahiko maintains the traditional, ancient forms of hula, while Hula ‘auana merges Western instruments, costume, and style to make a more modern and performance-oriented version. Both types of hula live side by side, danced by people of all religious backgrounds.
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