Some claim hula originates on the Hawaiian Islands and others believe it existed before the voyagers discovery them and belonged to pan-polynesian culture hero Laka/La’a/Lata Hula represents the divine goddess embodied. Hawaiians kept strict geneological purity in many of the the royal families. This purity is a store house of mana, or spiritual power. Some believe this system of purity called kapu is because these royal families are more closely related to the gods, much like orthodox Jews, Muslims and European royalty. Christian Missionaries in Hawaii in the 1800s were successful in converting queen regent Ka’ahumanu who issued an edict banning public hula performances but it was ignored by nearly everyone on the islands. Hula brings spiritual power to the Hawaiians. Now by understanding Hula and its significance among the Hawaiian's cultures, consider the essence of the documentary "Dance and Human History." It's a study of how indigenous groups globally expressed the complexity of the tools they've crafted through their dance. Almost as if the use of those tools produced a body movement that became a hard wired mandala or mudra (Vedic term for hand or body postures) of the entire body. Indigenous groups with wooden tools had to push those tools straight to carve grooves or start fire and thus had quite one dimensional and directional movement. Those with stone tools used more chopping motions which include the transverse plane and this is where human movement began experiencing more dynamically but as a social craft. The third and most intricate use of the body comes from those indigenous who were around waterways that create vortices like river bends. This group allowed for the hips and lower body to move independently (seemingly) from the upper half. 3 Dimensional movements were often expressed in the dances of Asian and Islander groups. The leap is less logical because water flows nearly everywhere so I think there's another factor. I believe these groups were the most advanced in embodying the paradox. This is what I teach in LIMITLESS Lifestyle Coaching. Ways of bringing inner obstacles (trauma, confusion, fatigue) into a physical expression (dance) in order to let the subconscious forces that bind our patterns into our anatomy work themselves out through the discipline and play (paradoxical pair) of dance. Hula is a beautiful and powerful force to be reckoned with. Just watch the end of that video above one more time and feel the ferocity of Aloha. Sincerely, Dahli