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A handful of Mainers escape the increasing cold and head more than 5,000 miles west to a tropical paradise.
For an hour or two a week, anyway.
Credit Mary Beth Hewitt, who has brought Hawaii’s ancient dance, the hula, to central Maine by offering classes in the discipline three times a week at her Frankfort home.
What led her to teach the hula to a region better known for square and contra dancing?
“I want to dance, and I want people to dance with me,” said Hewitt, 53. “The hula is not something you do alone. It’s a cultural event.”
For the past few months, Hewitt has been holding beginner hula classes at her home for seven students, split among sessions from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Mondays, 2 to 3:15 p.m. Fridays and 2 to 3:15 p.m. Sundays. She also is teaching a class from 6 to 7 p.m. Thursdays at the Belfast Dance Studio, and will teach another from 6 to 7 p.m. Wednesdays at the Thomas School of Dance in Bangor starting in January.
On a recent Friday, Hewitt had three students with her: Bonnie Brooks, Karen Witham and her 7-year-old daughter, Hannah. All were garbed in the traditional rehearsal skirt, known as a pau. As they all positioned themselves in front of a wall-size mirror in her foyer, she taught them the Kawika hula, which honors the former Hawaiian King David Kalakaua.
Pounding out the beat on a jug, Hewitt patiently led her trio of students through a series of movements, called in Hawaiian kaholo, hela, ami, uwehe, kawelu, maewe and kao, again and again as they sought the fluidity the dance requires.
“Slow, don’t bounce,” she directed. “Stay with the beat. … Don’t jerk it. It’s not belly dancing.”
“The best thing about the class is the teacher,” said Karen Witham of Monroe. “She is very patient, and will keep going over it until you get the hang of it. She’ll repeat until we get it, then move on.”
Each student has her own reason for taking the class. Witham, who home-schools her daughter, was looking for a way for Hannah to get exercise while also learning about the culture and history of Hawaii, a place that both mother and daughter have visited several times.
Witham added that hula isn’t that difficult to learn.
“I was surprised,” she said. “I thought it would be hard to keep my knees bent all the time. I was sore that first day, but after that, it wasn’t too bad. The hardest part is the coordination. Your mind is thinking about one thing, while your body goes the other way. I’m not very coordinated, so if I can do it, anyone can.”
Brooks, of Stockton Springs, is fulfilling a promise to herself. She recalled going to Hawaii for her 15th anniversary nearly 20 years ago.
“The resort we stayed at offered hula lessons, but I was too shy to take them,” said Brooks, 57. “Afterward, I kicked myself for not taking them. We’re going back to Kauai to celebrate our 35th anniversary in February, so I promised myself that I’d surprise my husband by taking lessons.”
She found out about the lessons after meeting Hewitt at ballet class. Brooks, who also kick-boxes and teaches movement to those over 50 years of age, said hula is good exercise.
“It’s rather demanding,” she said. “It uses muscles in the abdomen, back, thighs and knees. Also it’s very beautiful, a form of healing for me. It’s a form of meditation, as you have to think about what the body is doing, and can’t think about anything else. It’s a great brain trainer, as well. There’s a routine, and you have to think about what is coming next.”
Dance is important to Brooks, as it was to her late daughter.
“I got into ballet after she passed,” she said. “I get to wear her leotard and tights, so I feel connected to my daughter while I’m dancing hula.”
Although she lived in Hawaii briefly as a child while her father was stationed there, Hewitt, who has studied dance all her life, actually began hula six years ago in Portsmouth, N.H. She met a Samoan, Lino Senio, and they formed a dance group with Hawaiian Karen Kawewehi. Since then, she has learned from a series of master teachers during her travels, and still takes lessons from kumu hula (master teacher) Joyce Hunter, who summers in Stonington. Eventually, she hopes to visit the islands for an extended period of study.
Several factors attracted Hewitt to hula.
“There’s the beauty and the spiritual power,” said Hewitt, a Bangor Theological Seminary graduate and an ordained minister. “It’s rooted in ancient rituals, and expresses an especially feminine kind of power. Hawaiians revered Pele, their most powerful deity. She symbolizes the volcano, and is seen as the giver of life and the creator of Hawaii.”
Each of Hewitt’s students takes home a CD to practice to, and keeps notebooks with the techniques written out. Eventually, she would like to start a hula performance troupe.
Hewitt understands that hula is not a dance form for everyone.
“It’s very disciplined, focused and stylized,” she said. “It’s a tribal kind of dance. There’s no spontaneity, almost like a karate class. It can be slow going, as most moves take doing it over and over again.”
She wants her students to appreciate the history of the hula, as well.
“I teach them a reverence for the culture and a respect for Hawaiians’ concepts of aloha and humility, characteristics which they need to learn,” Hewitt said. “I want this to be an antidote to Hollywood’s version of what hula is.”
For more information about hula, call Mary Beth Hewitt at 223-5319.
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