User:Rsinthespace/Hula
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hula (/ˈhuːlə/) is a Polynesian dance form accompanied by chant (Oli) or song (Mele, which is a cognate of "meke" from the Fijian language). It was developed in the Hawaiian Islands by the Polynesians who originally 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 main two categories being Hula ʻAuana and Hula Kahiko.[1] Ancient hula, as 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 main 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 a complex art form, and there are many hand motions used to represent the words in a song or chant. For example, hand movements can signify aspects of nature, such as the swaying of a tree in the breeze or a wave in the ocean, or a feeling or emotion, such as fondness or yearning. Foot and hip movements often pull from a basic library of steps including the kaholo, kaʻo, kawelu, hela, ʻuwehe, and ʻami.
There are other related dances (tamure, hura, 'aparima, 'ote'a, haka, kapa haka, poi, Fa'ataupati, Tau'olunga, and Lakalaka) that come from other Polynesian islands such as Tahiti, The Cook Islands, Samoa, Tonga and New Zealand; however, the hula is unique to the Hawaiian Islands.[2]
In the concept of indigenous Hawaiian music, some songs that are used in hula dance are metered, and it shows a definite opposite to the unmetered recitation forms that are called as oli. There are also five subcategorized forms under the general category of hula. However, both oli and hula are the overall domain for storing traditional Hawaiian artistic contents and the indigenous essence in the region. Owing to the particular conceptual scheme, the term “ancient” was found nearly equal to the indigenous praxis that is different from the genres that appeared after Christianization, such as himeni, mele Hawaii, and hapa haole song.
There are two main aspects from which the westernized genres of Christian himeni and secular mele Hawaii can be contrasted. First of all, according to the nineteenth century historical evidence, neither himeni nor mele Hawaiian songs were presented together with hula dances during the late nineteenth century. The second thing is, the oral transmission of hula songs have been mostly gone orally even until today. Moreover, staff notation has been used differently since hula songs were not counted as the product of literate composition.
All five hula genres can be placed at certain point at a spectrum that features “the most ancient” on the left and “the most modern” on the other side. Hula pahu and hula ‘ala’apapa are two subcategories that are always considered to be ancient, with origins sticky reflected before the introduction of Christianity. Thanks to the nearly intactly preserved repertoire that is even being played nowadays, the important guidelines that performers should follow for bringing the poetic text back on stage remains clear in manuscript sources. On the other side of the continuum, hapa haole songs are relatively modern and those songs were also disseminated as notated sheet music, which were the joint effort devoted by contemporary ethnomusicologists and songwriters. The rest of the two hula types, hula ku’i and hula ‘olapa leave a massive challenge to editors in terms of entextualizing and representing these two genres generally within a critical edition. These two genres show a reflection of the social transformation and westernization happened within the region when the American economic and politics influence immerse more within. More importantly, the same strophic text format is applied in both genres, being constructed with two of four lines of text, with each of them is commonly set to an uniform number of beats. During performance, it is a usual practice that the songs are separated into stanzas which are normally repeated by a brief rhythmic interlude. Among all five genres of hula, the corresponding melodic structure and the strophic musical structure are elements that make modern hula ku’i and hula ‘o lapa distinguishable when compared to others. [3]