'Hula, the ancient dance of Hawaii which has also evolved into a modern form that is famous for its grace and romantic music, is an interpretive and expressive dance that often tells a story or expresses meanings and feelings from almost any phase of life.
In ancient times, hula was a religious homage to the gods, accompanied by chanting, drums and other traditional percussion instruments such as the feathered gourd, rock castanets, bamboo rattles and striking sticks. In those times, hula was the exclusive domain of men.
After contact with Europeans, however, Hawaiians adapted western music but added their own unique influences, and women also participated. The ultimate result is that hula is now better known as a woman's dance, although many Hawaiian men still do the hula today. Also, over the past two centuries hula has lost almost all of its religious significance and has become entertainment. However, hula still has a strong cultural link to Hawaii's past heritage, and thousands of young island people — and many not so young — study and perform this exotic dance. The distinction is also made today between hula kahiko — the dance done in the old energetic style accompanied by chants and percussion instruments, but no music; and hula auana — the modern Hawaiian dance featuring beautiful flowers, and graceful movements and often done to the romantic sounds of the steel guitar and ukuleles.
Hula implements and instruments: Many of the implements used in Hawaiian hula today have actually survived from ancient times. Every kumu hula [hula teacher] who performs hula kahiko [the ancient form of dance], for example, uses a pahu or drum to accompany the movements and chanting. Pahu were usually made from hollowed-out coconut tree trunks that were often intricately carved and covered with dried shark skin.
The puniu or kilu is a much smaller drum made from a coconut shell and covered with the skin of the kala fish. Dancers sometimes tied puniu to their legs and struck them in rhythm or counter-rhythm to their movements.
The puili is a piece of dried bamboo approximately two feet long that has been split into strips down most of the length. Dancers strike two puili together or against their bodies to create a rattling accompaniment.
The 'ohe is a simple bamboo flute that produces a soulful sound, but unlike most other flutes in which the player blows across the hole with his lips, the Hawaiian flute is angled so it can be played by blowing air across the opening from one nostril: hence, it's called a nose flute.
Like the Fijian derua, Hawaiians strike ka'eka'e — varying lengths of bamboo that are open on one end — on the ground to produce a drum-like sound. Ka'eka'e are also sometimes called a bamboo organ because different lengths produce different pitches.
Hula dancers sometimes make percussive sounds by literally striking two sticks or kala'au together. Most kala'au are short, but some dancers use one short and one staff-like long one.
The dancers also make percussive sounds by striking two small, flat river rocks, or ili'ili, together like Spanish castanets. Dancers would often hold two ili'ili in each hand. They also often switch from one instrument to another.
Dried Hawaiian gourds, or ipu which have had the top cut off and the insides removed, proved invaluable for a wide variety of purposes in old Hawaii; but they are also used as drum-like instruments: Dancers hold the ipu in one hand by its throat, and carefully strike it with the palm or fingers of the other hand, or it is struck against the body or a pad on the ground, in rhythm to the hula. Sometimes two gourds were glued together into an ipu heke.
The grapefruit-sized gourd from the la'amia tree was dried, hollowed out, and after a few pebbles were put inside, often decorated with bird feathers to create the uli'uli, which is still widely used today in both ancient and modern hula.
Other older instruments include the kulili, a clever triple-gourd rattle that uses a pull-string to rotate the individual parts; and the pu or seashell trumpet.
The ukulele and Hawaiian steel guitar are the most famous modern hula instruments. Both, of course, were adapted by Hawaiians from early European instruments; but the results are strictly an island story: Ukulele is perhaps another of the best-known Hawaiian words in the world, and is relatively easy to learn to play simply, and simply beautiful when played well. The Hawaiian or steel guitar was invented in Laie, the home of the Polynesian Cultural Center, by Joseph Kekuku, many of whose descendants still live here. Kekuku figured out he could make beautiful sounds by sliding a steel bar across the guitar strings.
