Kent Dance Association's Hula Masterclass

This past Saturday, October 30th, the Kent Dance Association held a Hula Masterclass taught by Vicki Hartkopf. Vicki is the President/C.E.O. of Perrysburg Academy of the Performing Arts, Inc. I found this class to be very challenging but I enjoyed every minute of it. It was wonderful learning a new style of dance. The key to Hula, as Vicki told us, "Is to always keep the knees bent." This allows the dancer to have more mobility through the hips.

We learned a series of five different combinations. Each and every hula dance had a story line with hand gestures that mimicked the words. In Hula the hands tell the story. One of my favorite combinations was called "keep your eyes on the hands." This hula dance was rather humorous. The story was, whenever you're watching a hula girl dance, don't keep your eyes on her hips, just keep your eyes on her hands.

In hula there are names for every step. The main one is the Kaholo, which is: step together, then step together to the right and left with swaying of the hips. Another one is Ami, which is rotation of the hips from the right, to the back, to the left and back to the right or vis versa. The main hula movement is a Kaholo with one arm straight and the other bent. Both hands move like you are petting a very tiny kitten. The motion is very gentle and soft. If you are moving to the right, the right arm is straight and if moving to the left, the left arm is straight. The head always followed the hands in the direction you are moving.

This class was an amazing experience, and I don't know when the next time will be when I can take a hula class. Vicki made the class fun and very interesting to learn about. We had a great time and I would recommend taking new styles of dance to everyone because it gives you more variety and makes you a better dancer!



-- Amanda Black (BFA Dance Major/KDA President)