Smithsonian magazine looks at the history and tradition of hula and its reemergence from the 1950s and 60s Hawaiiana boom that threatened to turn the beautiful dance into a kitschy coconut bra-wearing simulacra of itself. Apparently, there’s quite a renaissance of serious hula happening today, in Hawaii and beyond. From Smithsonian:
Kumu hulas (hula masters) generally teach their students both hula kahiko (traditional hula) which involves chanting accompanied by percussion instruments, and hula ‘auana (modern hula) which features songs, mainly sung in Hawaiian, and instruments such as the ukulele and guitar. Early hula kahiko costumes for women featured skirts made of kapa, or bark cloth. Men wore the skirts, too, or just a loincloth, called a malo. A lei for the head and its counterpart for the ankles and wrists -– called kupe’e -– were made of plants or materials such as shells and feathers. Hula ‘auana emerged in the late 1800s, when international visitors introduced stringed instruments to the culture. It was at this time that the ubiquitous grass skirts came on the scene as well, though costumes for hula ‘auana are often more Western in appearance–fabric tops, skirts and dresses for women, and shorts and pants for men, but with lei and kupe’e as adornments. These accessories, however, depend upon which type of dance is being performed. “In hula kahiko,” says Noenoelani Zuttermeister, a kumu hula who teaches at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, “a circular lei would be worn on top of the head, whereas in hula ‘auana, the dancer may affix flowers to one side of the head.”
But while hula historically has involved a merging of different cultural forms, kumu hulas of today want blending stopped. Rather than integrate Japanese or, say, Mexican dance traditions with Hawaiian hula in Tokyo or Mexico City, (kumu hula Rae) Fonseca says hula must be kept pure, wherever it is performed. “It’s up to us teachers to stress that where we come from is important,” he says. Zuttermeister strongly agrees: “If the link is not maintained as it should, then we’re not passing on something that is hula and we’re not being true to our culture.”