Hula

Hula dancers

Hula is a type of dancing from Hawaii.

Hula is a word in the Hawaiian language. Male dancers and female dancers can both dance hula. A long time ago, hula dance was used only in special ceremonies. Now, hula dance is mainly for entertainment.

A hula dancer usually wears a grass skirt or a leaf skirt, a flower necklace (called "lei" in Hawaiian), and sometimes a flower in the hair.

Traditionally, the hula dancer dances to a chant (a poem that is sung to a rhythm). The chanter beats his or her hand on a gourd (dried, empty squash) to create the rhythm.

There are many kinds of hula dance. For example, the Hawaiian hula dance style is slow and the Tahitian hula dance style is fast.

Hula Media

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  Hula kahiko performance in Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park

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  Hula in Hawaii. Kumu hula Frank Kawaikapuokalani Hewett performs during a ceremony transferring control over the island of Kahoʻolawe from the U.S. Navy to the state.

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  In the 1890s and early 1900s, hula dancers and Hawaiian musicians toured the U.S. mainland. This advertisement appeared in an Ohio newspaper in 1921.

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  Hula dance researcher Joann Kealiinohomoku with hula implements Puʻili and ʻuliʻuli

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  Hula dancers at a luau in Lahaina, in traditional kī leaf skirts.

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  Hula practitioners in 2020 at the opening of Kaua‘i Ocean Discovery, a visitor center for the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary in Lihue on Kauai.

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  Dancer (Hula ʻauana), Merrie Monarch Festival

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  Kealiʻi Reichel Hula Hālau