Context:

The informant is a 19-year-old student from Santa Monica, California. Her dad is from Hawai’i, so she has been learning and performing hula since she was 5 years old.

Text:

“At the start of every practice before entering like the practice space, we all circle–stand in a circle at the entrance and do like a chant, which is it’s called like Kunihi Ka Mauna. And basically like any hula dancer you ask, they know this chat because it’s like in every halau, which is like the school’s, they do this chant. It means like ‘steep and calm is the mountain.’ And so the idea is that before you start practice, you’re asking permission to learn the hula and like enter the space. And so you’ll do, it’s called like an Oli Kahea and the Kumu, the teacher, will respond back and then when you hear like a certain line of their response, that means you can enter.

And then also you always put on and take off your skirt, like, over your head. Like, you never like step into it or like step out of it if that makes sense because, like, it’s about like– It’s, like, disrespectful to, like, put the energy, like, below you or something. Yeah, so you’re putting it over yourself, like, over your heart.

Something kind of similar to that is whenever you have a lei, the flower, the direction of the flowers goes like upward facing on your left side. So like on your left side, they’re, like facing up same thing with, like kukui nuts, are like those, you know, like the blonde or black, like, nuts. And they’re kind of like heart shaped. Same thing, like the heart shape goes up on your left side because it’s like, your heart is. So, for flowers and any kind of lay that it goes in that direction because it’s like the, since your heart is on your left side, it’s like the circulation of the energy in the correct direction.

And you dance barefoot to be closer to Mother Earth.”

Analysis:

This is a ritual that the informant says, everyone who practices hula learns early on. Hula seems to have a strong connection to both Mother Earth and their home of Hawai’i. They want to show their respect every time they perform with these rituals. Performing these rituals repeatedly every time they perform dhow their dedication to respecting Mother Earth and the culture.