Hula Play Shop
There are 2 basic types of hulas and they are the ancient (kahiko) style and the modern (auwana) style.
KAHIKO -
The kahiko style is harder to do. It requires dedication and commitment and years of serious training. This is the true hula of our Hawaiian culture. It embodies the beliefs we hold in the sacredness of life, the power of our deities and their descendants on earth, procreation and the respect for all things. It is Hawaiian.
AUWANA –
This is the style most people in the world are familiar with. It’s fun, far easier to learn and remember and more commonly seen. As in the Kahiko, this style tells the story with the hands. It can be stylish and elegant with long gowns, beautiful leis and flowers in your hair as well as fast paced with swishing skirts.
What can you expect? I teach kahiko as well as modern auana hula. If you’ve never taken hula, you will be learning the auwana style.
If you have some experience with hula, then you will learn auwana and a little bit of kahiko hula.
If you are an experienced hula dancer, then you have your choice of auwana and kahiko or either one or the other depending on your preference as well as your level of experience.
In every play shop, I also teach 1 chant that asks for blessings from above for our hula experience here. This is the most important of the hula.
My goal when I teach is for you to be able to not just learn the dance but also be able to feel the spirit of the hula and be able to dance it by yourself. After all, you came to learn the hula, you paid to learn the hula and you should expect to be able to take it with you when you go home.
Kumu Neaulani Kuamo'o-Peck
Hula, everyone knows, is beautiful ladies in grass skirts and coconut bra tops , smiling and swaying gracefully with huge flowers in their hair. Well yes, sorta and that is lots of fun at parties and for entertainment. Hawaiian hula is a form of story telling. There was no written language in Hawaii so the stories were passed down through the hula. Hula literally means , dance.
