In an earlier blog post I wrote about the pellon that we dyed. Getting dress in that pellon was definitely a group affair!
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| GET WRAPPED LIKE A PRESENT |
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| THEN TIE IT ON |
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| PINNING IN THE PALAIPALAI (FERNS) |
There were multiple different styles of how the hālau wore our pellon skirts. The gracious ladies and keiki wore it long with a butterfly looking fold in the back. The papa pua kalaunu (younger girls) wore theirs at calf length and it was accordion folded. Underneath we wore the brown rompers that we had to sew. Not attractive at all on it's own, but works just fine under our skirts!
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| HULA SISTER WEARING THE ROMPER WHILE HER SKIRT IS PREPARED AND KUMU MAKES A LE PO'O FOR THE LITTLE BOY |
Since this was my first performance, I didn't realize how much waiting we'd be doing and told Chris to come extra early early since parking was going to be a disaster. He wandered around the gardens while he waited. While he wandered around he found that in one of the ponds there was a black-tipped shark!
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| SHARK (WHITE SPOT IN BOTTOM-RIGHT SIDE OF PHOTO) |
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| THE SHARK |
Some guys ended up killing the shark by spearing it because black tipped sharks bite and they were afraid of a keiki falling in the pond and getting bitten. Apparently a few years ago, during the flower drop, one of the keiki was chasing the flowers and fell into a pond!
After we were all dressed, kumu staged us, we practiced a little (while it rained) and then we waited for about two hours for the program to start! Thankfully while we waited, it stopped raining :)
These are some of the ladies I dance with every Wednesday. They are a great bunch of women and I really love class with them.
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| PAPA PUA KENIKENI |
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| HĀLAU NA PUA ‘O ULUHAIMĀLAMA |
Finally it was time to perform. We were performing a mass hula where multiple different hālau all perform the same songs. We danced a kahiko, an older, more traditional style of dance, and an 'auana, or more modern type.
For our kahiko, we danced to "E Lili'u E" and for our 'auana, we danced the "Hilo Hula."
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| E LILI'U E |
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| KO MAKA (EYES) - E LILI'U E |
This picture is the end of the kahiko, "ELili'u E." "He inoa no Lili'uokalani" means that we danced this in honor of Queen Lili'uokalani.
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| HE INOA NO LILI'UOKALANI |
The 'auana made me a little nervous. When they did the rehearsal on Friday and in our classes back at the hālau, when we practiced this song it was really fast. In particular, the version they had us practicing to was REALLY REALLY fast. But when they did the live performance, it was actually even slower than when kumu played it in class on his ukulele.
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| GRACIOUS LADIES - HILO HULA |
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| END OF HILO HULA |
During "Hilo Hula" the helicopter came and dropped some orchids over the crowd. From what I've heard in the past, it's hit or miss where it lands. Well, it missed us :(
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| FLOWERS FROM THE FLOWER DROP IN A POND |
The performance was a ton of fun. All the waiting we did made it so I couldn't even be nervous because I was just ready to dance already. It was nice to have a culmination of all the work we did over the past month of learning the dances and making our outfits. I wish there was a way we could've seen all the other hālau dancing around the gardens, but we couldn't since all the "fan clubs" (parents, etc) and other general guests were in the way. During the rehearsal I got the sense that there were some basic differences in how we all danced the same song and it would've been neat to see (although probably confusing haha).
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