Applying learning

Dance: 'The Hula'

Creative arts

﻿Hello everyone, my name's Lynn. Welcome to dance, today we're going to learn the hula dance. The hula dance is from Hawaii. First, we will warm our bodies up. Then we will hula and then we will cool down. For this lesson, you will need a large mirror you can go and look into check your moves. Space to move your arms up high and to the sides in front and behind. So you can take a few steps to each side, wear bare feet if you can and comfortable clothes that you can move in. If you want to, you could get yourself some hula music so you can practise without the video. Press pause while you get ready, let's warm up our bodies. Take care of your body and move in a way that is right for you. When you move your neck, be slow and careful, do not roll your head backwards. It's time to look, listen and learn. Let's warm my bodies up. I want you to imagine that you're looking in the mirror. So if I lift this hand, you lift your right hand. All our bodies are different so if I do something and that doesn't suit your body, you can make up your own move. So if I move my leg and that doesn't suit you, then you could move your arm. You can sway your body, you can move your head, whatever you like is fine. Okay, let's get dancing, warming up with our music. Marching, get those knees up. Turn your head, side, centre, side, centre, side, centre, side, centre. Into your shoulder, centre, shoulder, centre, shoulder, centre, shoulder, and down and up. Down, centre, look up, centre, down, centre, up, centre, shug your shoulders. Lovely big circles, circle your arm. Look at your arm if you want to. Stretch your arms up, up, up, up, stretch those hands as well. stretch to the side, side, side, side. Circle your hips, other way. Step and lift your knee, step, lift, step, lift, step, lift. Try and touch your knee with your other hand, otherwise just carry on step lifting, speed that up. Roll your head down and roll your body down so that you curl up on the floor, and roll up again. Down again, and up. Stretch to the side and lift, other side and lift. Side, and lift, and side and lift. Well done. In this lesson, we will learn some hula steps, the lewa, the ami, the kahola and the hela. We'll learn some hula movements and the close. let's learn the lewa. Put our hands on our hips, we bend our knees. In hula, the knees are always bent. Going to start by stepping and touch, step and touch, step to the side and touch, side and touch, side and touch, side and touch. If you can let your hips sway, that's great. If they don't sway yet, it doesn't matter. Don't worry about them. They will gently, gradually start to naturally sway as you practise. Step, touch, step, touch. I'm trying to keep my head lifted on my shoulders level. If you're sitting down at the moment, you can do it with your hands. Okay, pause your video if you want to practise and do it again. The ami is a circle of the hips. Want you to imagine a circle turned on its side. And all we do is circle our hips to the side, the back, the side, the front, side, back, side, front. So we're going right, back, left, front, right, back, left, front. Let's go the opposite direction. Left, back, right, front, left, back, right, front, left, back, right, front, left, back, right, front. If you're sitting down, you can carry on doing that with your hands if you want to. I'm going to put my circle down. We'll do once in each direction. So we'll bend our knees, we'll go to the right, back, left, front, change, left, back, right, front. Change, right, back, left, front, change, left, back, right, front. I would like you to pause if you want to practise. Also then, I want you to look in the mirror and check your technique. Are you ending your knees? Are you making a circle with your hips? Also, is your head up and are you keeping your shoulders quite level? Pause and rewind if you want to practise and then check your technique in the mirror if you have one. Keep your head up, bend your knees and circle your hips. The kahola step is one of the most common hula steps there are. We'll start with bending our knees, hands on my hips. And all we're going to do is step, together, step, tap. Step, together, step, tap. Step, together, step, tap. Step, together, step, tap. If your hips will sway, that's great. Keep those knees bent. Keep your shoulders level, keep your head up. And if you can add a smile, that would be beautiful. Let's see if we can speed it up a little bit. Step, together, step, tap, step, together, step, tap. Step, together, step, tap, step, together, step, tap. You're sitting in your chair at the moment, you can do it with your hands. step, together, step, tap, step, together, step, tap. Step, together, step, tap. Or you can keep your hands on your hips. Okay, you can pause your video and practise as much as you like. And then look in the mirror and check your technique. Knees bent, hips swaying, shoulders still, head up and smile. The kahola arms, go with the kahola step. So, start by lifting your arms to the side, just level with your shoulders or slightly lower. Bend one arm in to the centre of your chest. Then change, and change, and change, and change. And change, and change. Notice, my arms stay level, they don't do this. No, they stay level. And then look at my hand as I stretch it out. Let's add the kahola arms to the kahola step. Are you ready? We're going to go to our right to start with, towards our stretched out arm. Here we go, step, together, step, tap, change. Step, together, step, tap, change. Step, together, step, tap, change. step, together, step, tap, step, together, step, tap. Step, together, step, tap, ,step, together, step, tap. step, together, step, let's go a bit faster. Step, together, step, tap. Step, together, step, tap, step, together, step, tap, step, together, step, tap, step, together, step, tap, step, together, step, tap. Okay, pause your video and practise as much as you'd like to and then look in the mirror, check, are you keeping your shoulders level? Are you looking at your hand? Are you smiling, are your knees bent? And are you swaying your hips? Pause and rewind if you want to practise, then check your technique in the mirror if you have one. Start your video again once you've finished. The hula warrior dances, they perform the hula with very strong, straight arms. They do lots of very strong moves. Some of the hula dancers do the lovely hula hands. And that's what we're going to learn now. So, put your hands in front of you and lift your wrists, let your arms, fingers drop, and lower the wrist, the fingers follow, lift and lower, lift and lower, lift and lower. So it's the wrists that do the moving. We try not to move our arms too much. Hands are gentle, the wrists lead the movement. Try and stroke your hair now. So we stroke and stroke. So we're smoothing our hair. lovely hula hands. Gentle hands, wrists leading. Let's add them to the kahola step. Remember if you want to keep your arms strong, you can. If you want to, you can add hula hands, here we go. Step, together, step, tap, step, together, step, tap, step, together, step, tap, step, together, step, tap, step, together, step, tap, step, together, step, tap, step, together, step, tap, step, together, step, tap. Step, together, step, tap, step, together, step, tap. You can pause your video if you want to practise. And then again, look in the mirror and check. Knees bent, hips sway, lovely hula hands. Head up and smile. Pause and rewind if you want to practise, then check your technique in the mirror if you have one. Start your video again once you've finished. The hula hands tell the story of the song. So let's learn some hula hand movements. If you can, do the lewa while we work. Okay, so those lovely hula hands. This is the silvery moon and the house. Do that again, the silvery moon and the house. The mountains, showing the slope of the mountain, the mountain, the rain, the rain flows into the sea and onto the shore. The shore, on the beach, the winds blow, the wind is blowing and the palm trees are swaying. Okay, pause your video and practise that as many times as you like, and remember, keep your hands beautiful and soft. Let's learn the hela step and then the close to finish our dance. So for the hela step, we step and we put our foot on the floor about a diagonal and then back. Step, touch, step, touch. Step, touch, we can move our hips if we can. Step, touch, step, touch, step, touch, step, touch. To finish, all we do is up our right foot out, our palms are facing upwards, put then in front of our foot and we gently, just very little bit, bow our head. So we're going to do the hela with the close. So we're going to go step touch, step, touch, step, touch, step and close. Let's do that again. Step, touch, step, touch, step, touch, step and close. Okay, so you can pause your video, practise as much as you like, look in the mirror and check. Can you sway your hips, are your knees nice and bent? Are you putting your foot flat on the floor, is your head up until the end and are you smiling? Pause and rewind if you want to practise, then check your technique in the mirror if you have one. Start your video again once you've finished. Let's put all the steps together to make her own hula dance. Remember when we do the kahola, you can choose strong straight arms like the warriors or you can choose lovely hula hands. Okay, are you ready, here we go. Bend your knees, head up and smile, eight lewas. Two amis. Kahola, add the hands if you want to. Let's try kahola a bit faster. Ami, ami, back to the lewa. Let's add our hands, the silvery moon, the silvery moon and the house. The mountain, the mountain and the rain, the rain flows into the sea. The sea and onto the shore. The shore and beach and the winds blow, the winds blow and the palm trees sway. Ready for the hela, here we go. Step, touch, step, touch, step, touch, step and close. So well done, you can practise your hula dance as much as you want to, look in the mirror and have a check your performance every time. So, are your knees bent, is your head up? Have you got a lovely smile on your face? Do your hips move and have you got lovely hula hands? You might have been doing your hula dance sitting down. I'm going to get my chair. And it's great if you do the hula sitting down, you can still do as lovely hula hands, and you are allowed to sway your bodies as much as you want to while you're sitting down because it's your hula dance and you do it the way it suits your body. Well done everybody. Pause your video and rewind as many times as you want to to practise, and check your technique in the mirror. Remember, head up, bend your knees, sway your hips, lovely hula hands and smile, start again once you've finished. After all that work, it's time to cool our bodies down and have a lovely stretch, so follow me. Stretch your arm over to one side, and back to centre, and the other side, stretch along the side and centre, again, side and centre, side and centre. Hold onto the side of your chair if you want to and just twist your back round, twist your shoulders so you can just look over your shoulder. Don't twist your neck. The other side, so twist the back, shoulders round, look round and back, change sides again. Twist your back and shoulders round. One more time, okay. Put your hands on your knees and we're going to, if we can, let our head drop down and our body follows, we're curving our back down, have a lovely stretch, press on your hands as you lift your back up, your head is the last thing to come up. Let's do that two more times. Head goes down, body curves over. Down, push on your hands. Roll back up and your head is the last thing up. One more time, head, shoulders, and back. Push on your hands. And roll up, stretch your shoulders. Stretch your head to look up to the ceiling, stretching your chest and back to the front again, up into the ceiling and back to the front. Okay, if you need some time to get out of your chair to get onto the floor, you can pause your video now and get yourself onto the floor. Otherwise, stay with me, we'll move our chair out of the way. And we're going to lay down on the floor. So, stretch our arms up over our head stretch our fingertips and feet away from each other, big stretch and then the back, arms by the sides again, and big stretch. And arms by our sides. Bring your feet in one at a time, so your feet flat on the floor, one knee up to your chest and stretch, feel stretch along the back of your leg. If that's comfortable and you want to, you can stretch the other leg along the floor so you've got a bit more stretch there. Bring that leg in, put this one down, lift up the other leg, stretch it into your chest. If you want to, stretch out the other leg, stretch. Bring it in again, and stretch both legs up to your chest. Gently roll your body onto your side and gently sit up. Now, if you want to, you can put your back against the wall or a chair or ask someone to support you. Or if not, you can sit up on your own. Your legs can be straight out in front. They can be like this or you can cross them if you want to. Let's just lift our arms up, touch our head, down to the side. One last time to finish, stretch those arms out and up, touch your head, out and down. We have a finished, well done. Here are some ways to make it easier, make it harder. And other ideas that you might like to try. Well done, you've done really well learning and performing the hula. It takes a lot of practise to become really good at dancing. So you might want to practise this lesson over days or even weeks, so keep going. You will get better and better each time. Professional dancers practise a lot. So have fun practising and I'll see you again, bye. If you'd like to share your work, please ask your parent or carer to share your work on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter, tagging @OakNational and #LearnWithOak.

Dance: 'The Hula'

Dance: 'The Hula'

These resources will be removed by the end of the Spring Term 2026.

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