The mention of the word “hula” may call into mind grass skirts, ukuleles, and leis, but according to Poh Tan and Rani Wangsawidjaya, who teach hula at Collingwood Neighbourhood House (CNH), this Indigenous Hawaiʻian dance is not just that, it’s a way to communicate history, stories and a way to connect with each other to the earth.
“Hula is basically the embodied way of communicating aloha and connection to the land. There’s a really, really deep meaning about what aloha means. It’s not just about love and hello and goodbye, but it is a sense of being in place and a sense of understanding our relationship with our family, our hula sisters, and earth, all combined with dance,” said Poh.
In addition to learning about the past and connecting it with the present, hula also gives us guidance for the future, Rani said.
“We are not just there to learn about dance movements or learn how to dance together as a group or, you know, learn how to express things, but it’s also learning about ourselves, learning about the environment and how we can embody or maybe personify the environment because they really are living beings just like us. And hula is one way that we can communicate that to our group,” she said.
Poh and Rani’s hula journeys can be traced back to one person: Josie DeBaat, who started the Wahine South Sea Dancers in the basement of her home in 1971, and taught Polynesian dance for decades until her death in 2022.
Meanwhile, Josie had also been Hula Along instructor Ingrid Guo’s introduction to hula. She was encouraged by her late husband to take Josie’s class after they watched her seniors’ class perform at Renfrew Community Centre.
“I learned not only dance but also her positive way towards life. She experienced a lot of tough events during her life… but she always kept a big smile in the class. She taught us to dance from our hearts,” Ingrid said.
Although Poh and her co-instructor Rani had been dancing with their kumu (teacher) for two and three decades respectively, Josie’s passing became the cusp of them connecting with each other and working to keep the community together. What started out as Zoom gatherings eventually led to a pilot project with Emily Rees, former director of community development at CNH.
“When she passed, there was a sense of not just a significant loss, like the lei broke,” Poh said.
“I always thought that mine and Poh’s thing is just this little seed, this new thing that we’re doing, which is branching off a little bit… but now I really see it as like we have reconnected our lei. With our genealogy, with our lei that Josie braided for us, we’re continuing the same braid. It’s not a new braid. It’s new for us, but it’s the same all these other generations,” added Rani.
Grief was also something that pushed Ingrid to teach hula. After her husband’s passing in 2023, she kept herself busy with teaching and other volunteer work. Through this, she was able to find and foster community within her classes.
“People in the class are very nice and close… by the end of the last class in the season, people will exchange gifts, flowers from their garden, [and more],” she said.
Through their hula classes, not only have Rani and Poh been able to keep their hula community together, they have also been able to deepen their connections through other performance-related activities such as making their own skirts.
“That community feel from wearing something that you made in a dance you just learned just adds to the feels that this is not just another dance class,” Poh said.
Teaching hula at CNH has given all three instructors a sense of belonging, especially for Rani, who also works at the RISE Community Health Centre as a dietitian.
“It’s the way my life has become one where my hula was separate from my career before coming to CNH… and now, people really know who I am fully because they know I’m there on Thursday nights, and they know I’m also at the clinic… you know me because you know the other side of me too,” Rani said.
Additionally, Ingrid feels a lot of fulfillment as a volunteer instructor.
“I am not sure how many [more] years I am able to teach. But every morning when I wake up, I know my life is meaningful; I am helping others and receive joy from others. I am happier now,” she said.
To learn more about hula with Rani and Poh, visit hulahalau.ca. For information on upcoming hula programs at CNH, call 604-435-0323.