A Little Aloha

After Aurora's busy fall soccer season, our family was ready for a break. Well, maybe Aurora would have been happy to keep playing soccer, but the rest of us were a bit burned out! I guess our family just doesn't have the patience for consecutive sports seasons. We still planned on signing Aurora up for soccer when her league began again in the fall. However, we thought it might be nice for her to have a lower-pressure activity for the winter, to help her recharge her batteries.

Interestingly enough, that "low-pressure activity" ended up being a youth hula dancing class, taught by a local woman named Ki'iani. We found out about the class through some friends. Several of Aurora's good buddies were enrolled in the class in the fall, while Aurora was playing soccer. Aurora chanced to see a picture of them at a performance, and said she felt "left out." The class came recommended by several friends; it is low-cost, low-pressure, and lots of fun. It was an easy decision to sign Aurora up, and she was very excited to start.

Ki'i (her preferred nickname) is a native Hawaiian, and she has been teaching hula classes from her home for many years now, for a variety of age groups. She teaches the hula classes year-round, but has several large performances that her classes participate in during the spring. One of the performances would be at the Aloha Fest, a large Polynesian festival held yearly in Tempe (the Phoenix area). Other performances would be held in both Tucson and Sahuarita in early April.

It was a bit of a rush for Aurora, who entered the class in December/January, to get fitted for her costumes and learn all the dance moves in time to perform. But she was eager to learn and she worked hard, pushing herself to learn not only the dance steps, but the lyrics to all the performance songs as well. I was especially impressed that Aurora learned the lyrics to many songs that were sung in Hawaiian! She was very dedicated.

Ki'i held a dress rehearsal in early March for the Aloha Fest, and invited all the parents to come watch. This was the first time I'd seen all the dancers in their costumes, and they were so cute I wanted to squeal. I managed to hold my tongue, though (barely). After a few seasons of Celeste's lovely, Sahuarita Dance-sponsored outfits, these hula dresses were a fun change. They were homemade, mostly by Ki'i herself (have I mentioned yet that she's a pretty amazing woman?), and they were more elaborate (and larger!) than the Sahuarita Dance costumes. This is probably because hula dancing is relatively slow-moving and doesn't require as much leg movement as ballet or jazz dancing. Either way, I thought the dresses were just lovely and I loved all the numbers they performed as well.

Just a week after that, it was time to head for the Aloha Fest in Tempe!  Due to another conflict in schedule, this ended up being a trip for just Aurora and myself. It was kind of weird to be in a car so long with only Aurora...usually, her sisters are in the car too talking up a storm! Aurora doesn't talk much in cars, but it was fun to have some one-on-one chat time with her before the performance.

Parking for the Aloha Fest was very hard to find. We were late arriving, and I ended up parking in the vendor parking, for which I was reprimanded afterwards (sorry, event organizers!! I will do better next time). I was not prepared for just how big the Aloha Fest was; there were thousands of people there, and several performance stages. After some worried wandering around, we managed to find the rest of our group, and got Aurora settled just in time.

 

It was a longer program than I'd expected...the dancers performed about 15 numbers and the performance lasted about 40-45 minutes. But I loved watching it. This winter, I have discovered that I really enjoy watching hula dance; it is remarkably soothing, peaceful, and even inspiring! The music is beautiful, and the dancing is graceful and elegant. I found it calming to watch, somehow.

I was impressed by how well Aurora performed, considering she hadn't had as much time as the other kids to learn the dances and the music. She was singing along to most of the songs, and kept up with all the steps and arm movements fairly well too. She had such a beautiful expression during the performance, too...even when she wasn't smiling, I could tell she was filled with joy & satisfaction as she danced. It was neat to see her commit herself to this!

There were several numbers performed, by different combinations of dancers. I liked seeing all the different size, ability, and costume combos. Aurora's first outfit was a simple "rainbow"-themed skirt & bracelet. It was cute, but I really liked her blue mermaid outfit. All the girls looked completely adorable in it.

The "Little Aloha" song was their closing number, and it was the perfect way to finish off the performance. The videos don't show the entire song, but show most of the last half of the song.

Afterwards, Aurora and I were tired but before we headed home, we decided to indulge a bit, and picked up a huge cup of shaved ice to munch on in the hot afternoon sun! It was, we felt, an appropriate reward for a job well done. The Aloha Fest was a great outing, and I am so happy I was able to share it with Aurora. Maybe next year, we will be able to bring the rest of the family along!

Besides Aloha Fest, Aurora had three more performances this spring, each for a slightly different audience. One night, the dancers performed for a dinner at a country club in Green Valley. A couple of weeks later, the group had a double-header; two performances in one day! The first was in the morning in Tucson, at a festival supporting cystic fibrosis patients. That same evening, it was back to Sahuarita, and back to our LDS church building! Our stake (region) had decided to throw a huge "luau," complete with pulled pork for dinner, and live entertainment!

For these last two performances, Aurora and her fellow dancers had prepared a new, exciting dance...

 

 

...from the island of Tahiti! This dance was faster and more energetic than most of the hula dances. Of course, the girls had a great time performing it. The Tahitian dance always got a good reaction from the audience.

And, of course, the outfits were absolutely adorable.

We are so grateful we got to keep the dresses after the performances were done!

Hula classes were put on hold in early May, since Ki'i had some new grandbabies to take care of. But Aurora had such a fun few months being part of this dancing group. We might attend a few classes in the summer; we haven't quite decided yet. However, we are most likely taking a break from hula in the fall, when soccer season begins again. Perhaps Aurora can be a "sports in the fall, dance in the winter" kind of girl for the next little while? We will see. Either way, I am so glad that this last school year, she got the opportunity to do both sports and dance. She is a driven, competitive girl, but she also has a lot of love for beauty and music, and hula dancing was a great way to explore that.

Until then...ALOHA! We can't wait to see the next performance.