Wednesday marked the halfway point in our stay in Waikiki.
It's gone so fast I can't believe it.
I still haven't gotten up on a paddle board or climbed Diamond Head.
Beautiful Diamond Head
Waikiki, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
February 14, 2025
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue. All Rights Reserved
It's not that I haven't been busy. I've been doing a lot.
Mostly I've been working on my anti-dementia plan.
Say what? Every time I forget something, I worry.
Every time I have trouble figuring something out, I worry.
Even though dementia doesn't run in my family, I worry.
So I've been doing things that are good for the body, good for the mind ~
As in learning hula dances, Hawaiian words, and a Hawaiian chant.
Kilohana Hula Show
Prince Kuhio Beach, Waikiki, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
February 12, 2025
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue. All Rights Reserved
Kilohana Hula Show
Prince Kuhio Beach, Waikiki, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
February 12, 2025
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue. All Rights Reserved
That will make my family members laugh!
They know I can't dance, can't carry a tune, and am terrible at learning languages.
But they cheer me on, because I don't give up.
I can't dance, but I still try!
Me (Louise) During Our "Thriller" Rehearsal
270º East ~ Ovation of the Seas
South Pacific Near New Zealand October 28, 2023
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue. All Rights Reserved
So, I have a round of hula lessons: One on Tuesday and two on Sunday.
I catch hula shows like the Kilohana show on the mound at Prince Kuhio Beach
and the Wednesday night hula show at the Royal Hawaiian Center.
I even try to catch the performance class following my class on Sunday night.
My Sunday night class is two hours long and is taught by Pono,
the resident manager at the Royal Kuhio where Terry and I are staying.
He teaches using the method that Hawaiians have used for centuries,
which means you watch and then try it, practicing until you get it right.
The most advanced students line up in the front,
and the other lines form according to the students' progress.
Guess where I am?
I'm the very last line, standing behind four and six year old Hawaiians. 😂
But I don't mind! I consider it a privilege.
Pono at the Lunar New Year Lion Dance
Royal Kuhio, Waikiki, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
February 1, 2025
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue. All Rights Reserved
And I practice, practice, practice, especially in the pool.
I walk up and down in the pool chanting and working on flexibility in my feet.
I stand by the side of the pool and drill the various steps:
kāholo, hela, ami, kā'o, lele, uwehe, and combinations of these steps.
The uwehe (oo weh' heh) is the most challenging for me.
When doing the uwehe, you lift one foot, lower it, and shift your weight to the opposite hip.
Then you raise your heels and push your knees forward while swaying your hips.
All of this is done with your knees slightly bent.
And sometimes you do step, owehe, step, owehe a number of times to a fast beat.
Kilohana Hula Show ~ uwehe Step
Prince Kuhio Beach, Waikiki, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
February 12, 2025
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue. All Rights Reserved
I've really struggled with the owehe.
A couple of days ago, Pono told me what owehe means in Hawaiian.
I thought it meant this complicated step.
No.
Pono told me it means the splash a raindrop makes when it hits the ground.
Isn't that beautiful?
Now I'm telling myself step, splash, step, splash which makes me faster.
I think I'm finally getting it!
Oh, there's one harder step, and I don't remember what it is called.
It's only appeared in one of Pono's drills in one class.
You crouch down, and remaining in the crouch,
take eights steps around clockwise until you're back where you started,
followed by eight steps anti-clockwise to do a complete circle to the left.
This takes knee bends to a new level!
Repeat, repeat, repeat ...
I just laughed. 😂
I crouched for about 20 seconds, but couldn't move anything.
Then I toppled over. 😂
So I have more exercises to do in my daily stretching session.
Pono is an excellent teacher.
He keeps us all engaged, from 4 years old to me.
He makes it fun, but everyone knows when he's serious,
and he can silence everyone with one word.
Well, maybe not the tiny toddlers who have escaped from their mothers' carriages.
They are celebrated as the gifts they are and run, giggle, shriek, and laugh freely.
Pono says things like:
"There is no shame in our culture. Leave your shame at home."
"All we can do is try. What's the key word? ... "
"After the first e komo, take a big breath and run to the end of the sentence."
That last quote refers to the longest sentence in our permission chant:
e komo, e komo aku ho'i au ma loko inā ka pu'u nui waho nei lā lē
We say the chant at the beginning of each class
to ask permission to enter the space and dance.
When Pono chants it with his melodic voice coming deep from his belly,
the chant is a thing of beauty, ancient and mysterious.
A male hula dancer or hula kāne dances to the beat of an ipu hula or large gourd drum.
Hyatt Regency, Waikiki, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
March 3, 2015
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue. All Rights Reserved
You can hear an example of a chant and hula here .
where the 2024 Merrie Monarch Kahiko (first place) winners perform He Inoa No Hina
to honor Hina, the Hawaiian Moon Goddess.
Hina is the mother of the island of Moloka'i.
The Merrie Monarch Festival is a non-profit organization
honoring the legacy of King David Kalākaua.
The king inspired the perpetuation of Hawaiian traditions, native language, and arts.
I have been making recordings wherever I can, so I can practice hula at home in Aurora.
The hula offerings online are not the best.
I have finally grasped enough that I think can really learn.
Here is a quick, simple, and touristy hula taught by the Kilohana singers and dancers:
There's a big contrast between the two videos, I know,
but Waikiki performers make experiencing hula fun for visitors from around the world
and continue the long tradition of extending Hawaiian aloha to visitors.
I'm participating n a hula Class at the Royal Hawaiian Center.
Waikiki, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
February 1, 2025
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue. All Rights Reserved
I'm linking to Rain's Thursday Art and Dinner Date, Tom's Aloha Friday, and Nicole's Friday Face Off.
For Rain: Favorite Animal ~ My favorite animal is the platypus, and my favorite platypus is Tilly whom I saw in the Taronga Zoo in Sydney, Australia in 2023. Tilly was swimming too fast for me to catch a photo of her.
Tilly, rescued in the wild at four months old, is treated at Taronga's Wildlife Hospital.
For Tom: Aloha ~ Aloha is a complex word and its meaning goes beyond "Hello" and "Goodbye." To Hawaiians it has a deeper cultural and spiritual meaning as a force that holds existence together. It encompasses love, affection, peace, compassion, and mercy. Source
The following photos are a sequence of steps for "When I say aloha to you."
They are performed by the daughter of my hula instructor at the Royal Hawaiian Center.
(The photos aren't as sharp as I'd like, but I was taking screen shots of my video.)
When I Say ...
Aloha ...
To ...
You.
For Nicole: Friendly Faces! ~ Spending a lovely afternoon with friends. Kathy and I knew each other in 1963-64. She was in my brother Roy's 7th grade class and I was in grade 8 at Wolfville High School. Her father baptized me. We reconnected in Honolulu where she and her husband live, and we have been getting together for several years.
Terry, Kathy, and Bruce
Magic Island
February 20, 2025
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue. All Rights Reserved
Bruce, Me, and Kathy
Magic Island
February 20, 2025
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue. All Rights Reserved
See you next time! ❤️🌺🍀
A Wave Breaks on Magic Island ~ Sweeping in from Māmala Bay
Oʻahu, Honolulu, Hawaiʻi, United States
February 20, 2025
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue. All Rights Reserved
Till next time ~
Fundy Blue
Standing Into Danger https://selkiegrey4.blogspot.com
Copyright ©2025 – All rights reserved.
My next post will be
Friday, February 28th. 🤞
On the Bay of Fundy
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue
All Rights Reserved
The traditional dance is really inviting. I would love to learn the dance
ReplyDeleteIf it makes you feel better, I'd be right there at the very back with you!
ReplyDelete...I sure do miss hula shows and live Hawaiian music. Soak up all of the culture and the sun, Louise.
ReplyDeleteHow wonderful that you are taking a hula and chant dance class! "Owehe -- the splash a raindrop makes when it hits the ground" -- beautifully evocative, pure poetry! The flexibility and movement benefits of hula reminds me very much of tai chi, which also has evocative names for its forms. I found I could learn a form better and quicker if I knew the name too!
ReplyDeleteI loved that video. It took me back to a time in Maui when My Rare One and I attended the year-end concert of a local hula school and watched all the classes perform (from tiny tots right up to adults). The concert lasted hours and was packed with proud friends and families of the performers. It was amazing! I miss Maui so much.
When I can't remember something, I have the same worry. Names are the worst, but then when I was 20 I was bad at it too. So you are not alone when it comes to the concerns. But that looks like fun. Not just to learn new things, but fun because I bet it is fun. What a great way to spend the winter! here in New Hampshire it has been tough. Have a super weekend and enjoy your class.
ReplyDeleteKeeping the brain and body working and learning is good, dementia fears or not. Even if you are relegated to the children's line lol kids are more fun anyway.
ReplyDeleteThe slower video seems doable. Don't think I'd break anything doing that.
Hopefully you enjoy the next half of sun and sand before returning to that white crap.
Lovely Hawaii!
ReplyDeleteI have something I have to do today. I will return later to visit blogs and answer comments. Aloha!
ReplyDeleteOn all the trips I’ve taken to Hawaii I’ve never thought of taking hula lessons — great idea! I hope you keep having fun. When I worry about being unable to think of something I always consider what my granddaughter said when she was around 4 years old — “What’s that word? I know it but I can’t say it.” And I ponder that this is normal at any age.
ReplyDeletebest…mae at maefood.blogspot.com