Erin Does the Hula

Starting position.

The past 2 days have been a whirlwind of travel and activity. I am going to try and get some pictures up now! I think we had the kids up for 24 hours straight by the time we got to our hotel. Minimum sleep on the plane but they did really, really well.

When I asked each of the kids what they wanted to do on our trip, Erin repeatedly said she wanted to go to "hula dance class". I was going to try and figure that out once we got to the Big Island but our hotel in Oahu happened to have a free, one hour hula class the morning after we arrived. Making an 8am class is not a big deal when you are up at 5!

So off Erin and I went and she was so excited! There were three women and Erin, she didn't mind a bit. She wanted to learn her hula and she did. She had no problems keeping up with the grown ups. The dance she learned was a story of the world. The instructor taught her Hawaiian words and meanings. Each movement told part of the story and by the end of the hour she had learned an entire dance.

Here are a couple of pictures. Paige video taped the final dance and as soon as I have time I will post that too.

Her ballet footwork came in handy! She was able to put her arm motions with the foot steps easily. Here is the motion for "tree".

Getting in position for the dance to be done to the music beat.

The instructor shows Erin the gourd after class. Depending on how much it is hollowed out determines the sound.