Hālau O Kanahele
Continue to build your community, practice, and relationship with the environment through "the long breath of the forest."
The Long Breath
Hālau O Kanahele
This continued course of study comes after learners finish the foundational courses Papa Hua, Papa Laʻa Lāʻau, and Papa Weuweu, having taken many long breaths of time and depth of understanding to make the necessary shifts in perspective required to come into alignment with Hawaiian values and consciousness. Whether it is a small hop or a gigantic leap across the chasm of long held ideas and values, integration and navigation of new manaʻo does not happen overnight. Hālau O Kanahele provides a community for learners to engage in the deep, long breathing that brings oxygen to our brain and heightens awareness! Through these long breaths, learners can continue building, navigating, discovering, and integrating new ancestral knowledge into their worldview.
Learners can join one of two classes in Hālau O Kanahele, each will meet two times a month online, receiving new content, reviewing previous content, drawing thematic connections, and continuing to discuss the impact of indigenous knowledge systems on relevant issues.
Learners can join one of two classes in Hālau O Kanahele, each will meet two times a month online, receiving new content, reviewing previous content, drawing thematic connections, and continuing to discuss the impact of indigenous knowledge systems on relevant issues.
for learners of Hawaiʻi Lifeways
Hui Kanāhele
Hui Kanahele can be dissected into “hui,” “ka,” and “nāhele”…essentially, “the forest gathering,” and it is here where we continue to deepen our relationships with honua, to explore na mea huna noʻeau o na mele in moʻolelo, loina, and mele, and to reflect on the meaning those discoveries bring to our everyday lives. Learners also begin to delve into the kinship with their individuals landscapes through kuahu building, seeing their environmental relationships with new eyes. This community of learners continues to honor these relationships with practice in hula, hana noʻeau, hei, and oli.
for novice dancers with some hula experience
Papa Hula
At its very core, hula is the dance of the environment, and this program is grounded in that tradition. As such, the goal of each dancer is to become an embodiment of the elements in our mele, our songs, and that requires not only physical, but mental perserverence. Our training focuses on hula, oli, hana noʻeau, and hei as vehicles to continue our journey through the Hawaiian cosmos, learning to sharpen our ancestral and elemental understanding. This community is for learners who desire to enrich their lives through the dance of the environment and ground themselves in native consciousness.
Invitation Class
Papa ʻŌlapa
Welina mai! Welcome! Whether you are on this hula journey in-person or virtually, I am excited to be here with you and share the dance of the environment. Our kūpuna embodied their relationship with the elements through hula, and I am honored that you are curious, hungry, and respectful to see the landscape of our ancestors through a more grounded and indigenous lens.
We begin with the oli that center us as kanaka and prepare us to accomplish the tasks before us and to enter space and acknowledge elemental energy. We then move to hula that celebrate our understanding and relationship with the elements and how we are all interdependent upon each other. We will explore the symbolism of the kuahu, of our kinship to all living things, and the special bonds between dancers and kinolau. We will practice hana noʻeau, crafting our own ʻaʻahu and other accoutrements, perpetuating the skills of our kūpuna. And we will engage in ʻaha, the rituals and ceremonies where all of these dances, chants, skills, and knowledge are used to acknowledge the changes in our landscape and the exchange that is always taking place between kanaka and honua.
We begin with the oli that center us as kanaka and prepare us to accomplish the tasks before us and to enter space and acknowledge elemental energy. We then move to hula that celebrate our understanding and relationship with the elements and how we are all interdependent upon each other. We will explore the symbolism of the kuahu, of our kinship to all living things, and the special bonds between dancers and kinolau. We will practice hana noʻeau, crafting our own ʻaʻahu and other accoutrements, perpetuating the skills of our kūpuna. And we will engage in ʻaha, the rituals and ceremonies where all of these dances, chants, skills, and knowledge are used to acknowledge the changes in our landscape and the exchange that is always taking place between kanaka and honua.
