Discovering Hawaiian Culture Through Dance

If you’re a dancer who comes from a ballet background, you’ve probably done what we call “character” dance. This usually involves various European cultural dances. For example, I’ve learned traditional Russian, Ukranian, Moldavian, Spanish, and Nordic dances, among others. I’m not sure if our heavy lean towards Eastern European dances was standard or if it was because the majority of my teachers were Eastern European themselves. Regardless, I find it interesting that most dancers who started with ballet have this as a part of their standard training.

When I entered college, I decided to leave the ballet world, but I didn’t want to stop dancing. I tried hip hop, but as one who’s never been told to “get down,” I had some issues in adjusting from my straight-backed ballet upbringing. That’s when I started to look into cultural dances with a newfound interest. 

At a school like UCLA, there were too many choices to look into. I considered Chinese lion dancing, since I am, in fact, half Chinese. But a part of me was afraid to take part because only Chinese students really joined that club and… well… I look white. I know I was just setting up a psychological barrier for myself, but after being called the white kid in Chinese club when I was in high school, I didn’t want to feel that way again. What surprised me was that I didn’t settle on a socially acceptable European dance. I instead joined Hawaii Club. I know I’m not Hawaiian, but because so many Hawaiians are mixed race and there were plenty of non-islanders in the club, I fit right in. 

The posturing and grace in hula was similar enough to ballet that I could more or less catch on. I had a bit of trouble with the hands, specifically my thumbs, since you’re not supposed to tuck them in, like in ballet, but you’re also not supposed to stick them out. It was a paradigm I had to grapple with for a while. Then, of course, there’s the factor of doing the right hand motions. In hula, you tell a story. This is one of the things that I absolutely love about Hawaiian dance, but it also means you have to be very careful with your hand motions. I got corrected once where my flowers blooming motion was actually more like dead flowers coming back to life… yikes.

What I didn’t expect was how much hula is intertwined with Hawaiian culture. Sure, I did many dances from many different cultures, but do I feel like I know a lot about those cultures after 15 years? No. I know that with only 4 years of hula, I’ve barely scratched the surface, but even so, I’ve learned so much. Maybe the difference is that I grew up with ballet. It’s nothing new to me. Hula is different and new, so it feels like I’m learning more. Or maybe it really is that much more intertwined in Hawaiian culture. My guess is that it’s a combination of the two.

Hula, of course, still has its problems. A part of me is afraid that I’ll look like an imposter taking ownership of somebody else’s culture, but it’s important for all of us to gain perspective from people of all walks of life. Being a part of this club has done that for me. Maybe I’m wrong, but I think to truly understand something or someone, you have to have similar experiences. In that regard, I’m sure that I’ll never truly understand what it is to be Hawaiian, but thanks to this club, I’m doing the best that I can. I’ve even taken steps outside of the club in my classes, going as far as writing a research paper on Hawaiian representation in popular culture. Hawaii has a beautiful culture that, as a result, has been exploited, and I think that as an American, I need to understand that all of the indigenous cultures of my country have been wronged on an astronomical level. Maybe I would’ve fully understood this at some point even without dance, but that is how I got to the understanding that I’m at today. This is why dance is important.