Hula In Hawaiian Culture

What is Hula? When people hear hula they picture beautiful girls with long hair in grass skirts and coconut shell bras, dancing gracefully to the beat of the drums accompanied by chants. Although that is true, hula is actually much more than entertaining and remembering different techniques of moves, but properly understanding the stories behind them. Hula maintains meaningful parts of the Hawaiian culture with its bond to express history and spiritual beliefs. I am neither Hawaiian nor do I dance hula, but I tried learning how to dance a couple of times and it was very difficult. There are so many things going on all at once: hand motions, foot patterns, body movements, and using every element of your body. At first I thought hula was just …show more content…
But for the Hawaiians their perspective on hula is way more different, it goes beyond just women in bras and grass skirts dancing to the beat of the drums. Men originally performed hula, but women were the ones that expanded its form. Though whether or not a male or female is performing hula the dance itself is powerful, meaningful, and beautiful. Hula speaks history, and history is an important aspect to everyone and everything. Whatever happened in the past has help form the future. Hawai’i would not be the same if hula had not existed, without tourist people would not have jobs today. Hula has been here for centuries, and hopefully will still live long for much more. Because most hulas performed today are much modernized than ancient, hula has lost its meaning and most of us today are unaware of its actual importance. Understanding hula from a different perspective opened my eyes to see that hula is much more than a dance; it is a symbol. Hula is the voice of the Hawaiian people that continues to perpetuate its history till this day. With the help of hula lessons and competitions, which welcomes other ethnicities to learn how to dance hula, learn its history, express their talent, creativity, and devotion to hula can help its culture live longer. It was very interesting learning about another culture and how hula, what I thought is just a dance, is much more than that. “Hula is the language of the heart… and therefore the heartbeat of the Hawaiian people” quoted by King David Kalakaua. Without hula and any other Hawaiian aspect what will be left to remind us of its wonderful culture? Hula is a very important part to the Hawaiians, therefore it should also be important to us as