Hula Around the World

Hula

My journey to Boston was a most exhausting one–my arrival was delayed eighteen hours thanks to engine problems and missed connecting flights.  However, I do not feel it was an entirely unprofitable experience, as I met some interesting characters on my flight.  One of them was a very gregarious, chain-smoking hula dancer from Maryland.  She was going back home from a hula competition on the Big Island and very upset that the airline had lost her luggage, which had all her costumes.

Aloha Expo -- Santa Fe Springs, CA Photo Credit: John Watson

As all of the stranded passengers lamented their troubles, I could not help but notice that this dancer did not seem to have any visible connection to the islands: she was a white mainlander.  Why did she do hula?  She said dancing was a spiritual experience.  But a hula halau in Maryland?  Really?

Curiosity peaked, I did a quick Google search and learned that not only are there hula halaus in Maryland, there are halaus all over the world.  According to mele.com, there are schools in Alabama, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain…the list of unexpected places goes on.  And the hula dancers at the Aloha Harvard event weren’t just random students who were taught some basic steps; they came from a local halau in Cambridge.  I can’t wait to check it out.

Last night, I went to a Hawaii Club dinner where I met upperclassmen from the islands for the first time.  They were already starting to plan for the annual spring luau.  (Turns out March is luau season; all the Hawaii clubs in the Boston area have their luaus around this time.)  Apparently, we will all be dancing.  I’m not too confident in my dancing skills, and doing hula at graduation was difficult enough for me, but I nevertheless look forward to sharing the beauty of hula with the Harvard community.

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