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slipry1
Ha`aha`a
USA
1511 Posts |
 Posted - 04/30/2010 : 9:20:45 PM
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| Uncle Keaka's favorite: "There's no delusion like self delusion", or Pogo "We have met the enemy, and he is us!" |
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slipry1
Ha`aha`a
USA
1511 Posts |
Posted - 04/30/2010 : 9:29:31 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by sm80808
How many of you are not "converts"?
Eh, Shawn! I stay HSGA stage tomorrow -12 to 3 or 4. Come see me. Let's jam. - Keaka |
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wcerto
Ahonui
USA
5052 Posts |
Posted - 05/01/2010 : 05:24:45 AM
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| Ainokea if someone calls me zealous. I am. Especially about hula. |
Me ke aloha
Malama pono,
Wanda |
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Retro
Ahonui
USA
2368 Posts |
Posted - 05/01/2010 : 05:27:12 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by sm80808
How many of you are not "converts"?
Exactly my point, and I speak from my own experience as an occasional foolish know-it-all haumana.
Who amongst us is qualified to demand our standards of "purity" in the creative arts of Hawaiian hula and music?
I doubt that even any Island-born-and-raised, full-blooded kanaka maoli here would raise their hand for that.
(Aloha kakahiaka, Auntie Wanda - I still love ya! Now I gotta get offa da lolouila and go do my Hawaiian radio shows. =Gregg=) |
Edited by - Retro on 05/01/2010 05:28:55 AM |
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thumbstruck
Ahonui
USA
2174 Posts |
Posted - 05/01/2010 : 06:05:18 AM
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All human activity is "sacred" if it builds family, friendship, respect for self and others and acknowledges those who have come before and considers those yet to come. Festivals and performances are good and can be enjoyable, but personal participation and interaction are far more valuable. Music / dance / song are communication.
It is good to be passionate about this, it means one is involved and has experienced communication.
Can food be considered communication? (I think that I've heard a Spam musubi call me.) |
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wcerto
Ahonui
USA
5052 Posts |
Posted - 05/01/2010 : 07:09:13 AM
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k-den Retro. I still love you, too. But you, as a haumana hula do you AGREE with the public being able to vote on the Merrie Monarch? Yunz who have responded seem to think that some change or innovation is welcome, even necessary But not one has come out and said, "Yes, I think the public needs to be permitted to vote."
The big complaints are the same old halau win every year (maybe they are good, hmmmm) the mele are boring (well, duh, if you don't know what they are saying, or if you don't know the history of what they are telling you). I do not even know the background of this man who wrote the article. There is nothing dull about Pele traveling around the Big Island, making lightning and thunder and rumbling wherever she goes; or Pele thinking maybe her sister was a bit too interested in the man Pele sent her to fetch and she decided to act out her anger and vengeance. Even a mele so familiar as Kealoha was danced so beautifully, so gracefully, it brought tears to my eyes at this year's Merrie Monarch, by yes, believe it or not, a halau that has won previous awards.
Like I said, I wouldn't dare protest if a consortium of kumu hula got together and decided that certain things needed to be changed, but I do not think they would ever want just the general public, who may or may not have any hula training, vote on who should win any of the awards. Don't forget that many halau are large -- they have a multitude of haumana, but only a select number are chose to dance in the Merrie Monarch competitions, but those left at home would surely vote for their own halau, even if it was not truly the best, just because you always support your hula brothers and sisters (and of course, the kumu).
But I am getting all in a lather just because some guy wrote an article. It probably means nothing that he did so. When I see an article that says that Sonny Ching, or Robert Cazimero or Mapuana de Silva or Vicki Holt Takamine or Keali`i Reichel, et al, are clamoring to get things changed, then I may listen further. |
Me ke aloha
Malama pono,
Wanda |
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Retro
Ahonui
USA
2368 Posts |
Posted - 05/01/2010 : 12:55:47 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by wcerto
But you, as a haumana hula do you AGREE with the public being able to vote on the Merrie Monarch?
Well, let me give two "answers" here. (1) As someone connected to the Hawaiian music/hula world, albeit as a non-Islander/non-local (I think folks here get what that definition means in my case), I could comfortably see the development of a "people's favorite" voting structure that has weight and validity to the competition. It could lead to more of the public making an effort to learn what it is they are judging halau on.
But, since you asked me what I, as haumana hula, would say --- (2) I would state that I am not in a position to pass judgment. I am far from being learned enough to say that an innovative idea is not pono, or to publicly cry "ludicrous," or to complain about "haolefication," or any other similar attitudes. I feel, as haumana hula, that would be inappropriate behavior, possibly reflecting poorly upon my kumu hula, alaka`i, and other teachers. A sense of ha`aha`a should step to the fore in my behavior as haumana hula.
FWIW, when my kumu hula was `uniki-ed (?) from her kumu hula, he told her that part of her charge was to find ways to innovate, to change the teaching of hula on the Mainland - for he knew that incorporating all the pure traditions of hula instruction would drive away students who had not grown up knowing Island ways and attitudes. My kumu's kumu was George Lanakilakeikiahiali`i Na`ope.
I say all this not to scold or shame you in any way, Wanda, but rather to share, as asked between haumana hula, lessons learned that may help you on your own path. And if not helpful, feel free to ignore! |
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wcerto
Ahonui
USA
5052 Posts |
Posted - 05/01/2010 : 2:12:10 PM
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Seems like you said basically what I have obviously been so inept at saying, that being, we do not have the skill, the knowledge, the ability to judge hula. We will be lifetime students of hula and still never know what our kumu know.
quote:
Originally posted by Retro
And if not helpful, feel free to ignore!
Mahalo for your kind permission. |
Me ke aloha
Malama pono,
Wanda |
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A better way to judge Merrie Monarch????
