Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Happy Hula

cclick on photos to enlarge!
The Happy Hula of Kumu Hula Mapuana de Silva & Halau Mohala Ilima
"Kumu" means "Source."
She is a source of hula to her dancers and to us. . .


























































"How can we know the dancer from the dance? ~William Butler Yeats

Never trust spiritual leader who cannot dance. ~Mr. Miyagi, The Next Karate Kid, 1994

Dancing is like dreaming with your feet! ~Constanze

The truest expression of a people is in its dance and in its music. Bodies never lie. ~Agnes de Mille

Dancing faces you towards Heaven, whichever direction you turn. ~Sweetpea Tyler

Dancers are the messengers of the gods. ~Martha Graham
You can dance anywhere, even if only in your heart. ~Author Unknown

There are short-cuts to happiness, and dancing is one of them. ~Vicki Baum

To dance is to be out of yourself. Larger, more beautiful, more powerful. ~Agnes De Mille

Dancing with the feet is one thing, but dancing with the heart is another. ~Author Unknown

It is of course possible to dance a prayer. ~Glade Byron Addams

Stifling an urge to dance is bad for your health - it rusts your spirit and your hips. ~Adabella Radici

One becomes in some area an athlete of God. ~Martha Graham, c.1953

Let us dance in the sun, wearing wild flowers in our hair... ~Susan Polis Shutz

Dancing is the poetry of the foot. ~John Dryden

Dancing is the loftiest, the most moving, the most beautiful of the arts, because it is not mere translation or abstraction from life; it is life itself. ~Havelock Ellis

Dance is the hidden language of the soul. ~Martha Graham

Movement never lies. It is a barometer telling the state of the soul's weather to all who can read it. ~Martha Graham

Dance is a song of the body. Either of joy or pain. ~Martha Graham

The dance is a poem of which each movement is a word. ~Mata Hari
We ought to dance with rapture that we might be alive... and part of the living, incarnate cosmos. ~D.H. Lawrence

And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music. ~Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

I see dance being used as communication between body and soul, to express what it too deep to find for words. ~Ruth St. Denis

Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but your living room. ~Kurt Vonnegut

Poetry is to prose as dancing is to walking. ~John Wain

To watch us dance is to hear our hearts speak. ~Hopi Indian Saying
Socrates learned to dance when he was seventy because he felt that an essential part of himself had been neglected. ~Source Unknown

Anyone who says sunshine brings happiness has never danced in the rain. ~Author Unknown

Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humor is just common sense, dancing. ~William James "
A L O H A! Cloudia



17 comments:

The Grandpa said...

Aloha, Cloudia. May your holidays be filled with dancing.

Cloudia said...

Grandpa: Back at YOU, my friend!!

Anonymous said...

Hula is not easy. I got a B when I took it one summer at UH. Not surprising as I was so nervous during my final exam, my knees trembled and my hands quivered. You have to have nerves of steel but still be graceful when dancing before a group of people.

DeniseinVA said...

Hello Cloudia, I am trying to catch up while having a quiet moment in the hotel. We were over at the USS Missouri today. Thank you so much for your welcome. It is great coming here and seeing the photos I am now recognizing. Always love visiting your blog. We leave next Wednesday but if by next week I am over the cold completely, I would love to meet up for a cup of coffee somewhere, no pressure of course. Schedules sometimes go in other directions.

lindaballoutalkingtoyou said...

The dance is all there is.

Not sure who said that, but I believe it is true
Linda Ballou
author of Wai-nani, High Chiefess of Hawaii

Maria Verivaki said...

i love your selection of quotes today - and those hula dancers look so happy!

claude said...

I like very much the Hawaïn dances and dancers. We have almost the same in Tahiti.Thanks for all the quotes. MERRY CHRISTIMAS Cloudia !

the walking man said...

Not having done any in depth research but it seems to me that the cultures that dance from the heart have been or are the sanest and most willing to have peace.

NAVAL LANGA said...

MERRY CHRISTMAS---CLICK HERE FOR THE CARD

Anonymous said...

Love your new header.

Brother Tobias said...

In some strange way the rhythm and focus of dancing free the mind from the distractions of the intellect. It's a pity I dance like a chicken. Have a merry Christmas!

Anonymous said...

Hi Cloudia,
I am glad of the opportunity to visit your blog. Amazing writing, beautiful Scenery, beautiful flowers and a beautiful Lady from what I can see.
Its a part of the World I now nothing of and I will, if I may, visit your blog to get a regular vacation of a beautiful Country. Your noticed BMW back on one of the photos. What a machine!.
Roy

Sepiru Chris said...

Liebe Cloudia,

Mele Kalikimaka (or Frohe Weihnachten where I am today)!

It is always fun to join in with your verbal dances, and to see the rhythm of your day through the quotes that you "lei" your faithfull readers with.

May the waves lap you und dein Vegetarisch Mann asleep, and may the Christmas Iwi grant you great powers for the coming year, as, presumably, have been granted to you in previous years... At least, that is what your writings tell me...

All the best from across the waters and the winds and the electronic aether.

Tschüß,
Chris

cheryl said...

Dylans has always been me fave, lovely post. Happy Christmas and may you dance among the stars, Cheryl

Barbara Martin said...

Making a last minute stop to enjoy the tropical paradise photos with the wind blowing outside my windows during another blast of wierd winter weather (freezing rain).

May you have a lovely Christmas Cloudia.

Cloudia said...

Gigi- You are right! Hulas is too hard for me. One try was all it took. sore legs!! Harder than it looks for sure.

Denise- I've gotten such a kick out of your posts. So glad you've met with much aloha while here. I'd love to see you! So get well, and if you go to my profile you will find an e-mail address - use it ;-)

Aloha Linda B- Nice to see your cool comment!

Med. Kiwi- Thanks! I do try to use relevant quotes and I'm glad that you find something in them. Smiling is a key part of much hula, I believe.

Claude, aloha- Yes, Tahitian dancing is also quite exciting to my eye! I'd love to visit French Polynesia. . . Joyeaux Noel!

Walking Man- You have something intriguing to say, as usual. Thank you for saying it here. Aloha!

Happy Christmas, Naval!

Aileni- Oh thank you for that feedback. I wondered what folks think of it. Is the little slogan too much like an advert, you think?

Brother Tobias- Ah, to be free of the intellect! Dr. Johnson also said: My life is one long escape from myself." Perhps that's why our mutual love of live music is so dear to us over-intellectual types. . . A chicken? A FUNKY chicken? LOL Aloha my friend!

Roy- WELCOME! Please visit with us as often as you can get away. Just a low-key island party. Nice bike YOU have there!! Yrs, I love my old BMW. I enjoyed visiting your blog. Happy Holidays!

Sepiru chris- YOU are the poet, my friend! Thanks for joining me in the dance, and catching the most subtle sub-rythmns! Your supportive comments are the wind beneath my fins (eh?)
and I look forward to learning more about the wild-lands of Cuneiform Scratchings, hong kong street food, strangely compelling cats, scary edible spiders & other beasts . . . . Shi Shi, pal!

Dear dear Pondering Cheryl- Mahalo for your sweet and lovely message! You are a most welcome friend.

Barbara- last but certainly NOT least! Thanks for teaching us so much about Canada's beauties, and for encouraging the writing life. Happy Christmas to you, Indeed. . . And may the spirit of Love & Aloha grow among us, and among ALL! Thank you folks!!

Anonymous said...

Thanks Cloudia. Yes my bike - Yamaha FZ6 600. Had to sell recently as I moved home and had nowhere to keep it safe. {:(