Hula Gives Sway to Updated Style

While watching the exquisite progressive hula choreographed by Patrick Makuakane on Friday night at California Plaza in downtown L.A., it was easy to think of the best answer to what is my favorite kind of dance: “Good dance, no matter what the genre.”

Of course, it’s easy to admire the soft curves and sharp sways of Hawaiian dance in all its forms; even the glitziest tourist destinations now often feature performers from reputable halaus (hula schools). And traditional hula is evidently alive and well in Southern California, as proved by the locally based Hula Halau O Lilinoe, led by Sissy Kaio, which opened the program with a series of chants about Pele, goddess of the volcano. (Their toddler “apprentice,” who kept up with the big guys with astonishing miniature acumen, nearly stole the show.)

But Makuakane’s 15-year-old San Francisco troupe, Na Lei Hulu I Ka Wekiu, is something else. Most of the movement vocabulary comes from hula auana or “modern hula,” as opposed to kahiko or “ancient style,” which means it tends to float and feature delicate, undulating gestural detail instead of weighted, deep knee-bends and sudden, forceful shifting.

Beyond that, he extends the reach and alters the pace of traditional hula, letting the sheer beauty of design be seen in small pauses, and suggesting an introspective depth and increased emotional resonance. He calls his brand of dance “hula mua.”

Makuakane sang, provided some hula education in entertaining fashion and joined his dancers for a few of the seven works, most of which had taped accompaniment. In stunningly beautiful pieces such as “Odyssey to Anyoona” and a suite to haunting love songs that included Roberta Flack’s “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,” lines of dancers provided an ineffably smooth unison reminiscent of the best corps de ballet moments of classical masterpieces. The lasting aftereffect is something like having seen flowers that breathe and butterflies that think.

With suitable irony, two dances addressed the ever-present Hollywood “hula girl” image, with the women wagging fingers and running in little peppy circles to a vintage tune, and the guys donning grass skirts in a New Age “shake your booty hula.”

Nice to get the cliches out in the open. In other choreography, Makuakane evidently addresses political issues more directly, which he seems well equipped to do. In this program, with the waterfalls of the Water Court providing a suitable backdrop, Na Lei Hulu I Ka Wekiu gave just a glimpse of their particular kind of paradise.