hula

Hula () is a Hawaiian dance form expressing chant (oli) or song (mele). It was developed in the Hawaiian Islands by the Native Hawaiians who settled there. The hula dramatizes or portrays the words of the oli or mele in a visual dance form. There are many sub-styles of hula, with the two main categories being Hula ʻAuana and Hula Kahiko. Ancient hula, performed before Western encounters with Hawaiʻi, is called kahiko. It is accompanied by chant and traditional instruments. Hula, as it evolved under Western influence in the 19th and 20th centuries, is called ʻauana (a word that means "to wander" or "drift"). It is accompanied by song and Western-influenced musical instruments such as the guitar, the ʻukulele, and the double bass. Terminology for two additional categories is beginning to enter the hula lexicon: "Monarchy" includes any hula which were composed and choreographed during the 19th century. During that time the influx of Western culture created significant changes in the formal Hawaiian arts, including hula. "Ai Kahiko", meaning "in the ancient style" are those hula written in the 20th and 21st centuries that follow the stylistic protocols of the ancient hula kahiko. There are also two main positions of a hula dance: either sitting (noho dance) or standing (luna dance). Some dances utilize both forms.¶

Hula dancing is complex, with many hand motions used to represent the words in a song or chant.¶

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Hula”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence.¶

hula is Polynesian dance, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition.¹¶

The source record links this tradition to 12 external registers, which can be verified through the citation.¹¶