Online registration required for new dancers, open now!
Feel free to share this post with friends and family as we invite them to our month of free classes! Note: no practice Wednesday, January 3. Now thru November 2018, visit the Wing Luke Museum and be transported from traditional museum galleries into a space that is very personal. Very vulnerable. Very warm and comforting. Step into this living room-style exhibit space featuring art installations of four different Pacific Islander artists. Perhaps the living room transports you to another world. Perhaps it reminds you of home, the way you remember it, as it was. This is Visions of Pasifika: Light from Another World.
I am so honored to have had the opportunity to participate in creating this exhibit and weaving together lei to be shared with all who walk into the space. I feel what's most rewarding, is when I am able to give lei. To give lei to someone to celebrate them, to thank them, to love them. And the lei lives its purpose. To carry the aloha spirit, happiness, and mana from myself to someone else. I ask myself, how can I continue my indigeneity outside of the land to which I'm indigenous. Of my lei, though the pua and lau, the flowers and leaves, are of plants not native to Hawai'i, they still represent a Hawaiian tradition. And they speak of the land where I live, now. The Pacific Northwest. It is a sign of traditions adapting. It is a sign that the aloha spirit can live in many forms. It is indigenous to Hawai'i and transcends across all lands and people. And it continues to connect us all. My visions for Pasifika? That all our huraiti, dancers, teachers, and artists, will in our own way perpetuate traditions and create new ones as we are each stakeholders in our communities. Like the keiki I teach and learn from. All mixed. All different faces and eyes and complexions, but all right, all true, all pono. The faces of our future express the growing, shifting, expanding expressions of our selves. Our people. And I’m not afraid anymore. I’m not afraid that my traditions will look slightly different than that of my ancestors. Because I am slightly different. Pasifika will always be changing. But the people of Pasifika will be stakeholders in commanding, nurturing, growing and weaving a positive change. It will no longer be that others alone will change us. We have the righteous belonging to our culture, our people, our language, and our ways of life. Join in this conversation and ask yourself, what do you envision for the future of our Pacific Island communities? Mauruuru roa to all who joined us for our January 2017 free trial classes. Please enjoy $10 off your future monthly membership dues through June 2017! Family and friends are more than welcome to try out their first class, free, and join.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at huraitimana@gmail.com. E manava! We are now offering a combined Tahitian & Hula Dance Class in Seattle. We currently offer traditionally women's-style dance (all are welcome). If you're looking for a great workout, a chance to learn more about Tahitian and Hula, an opportunity to perform and compete, or all of the above, we welcome you. For the month of January, all classes will be FREE. No experience necessary. Everyone is welcome to register below, come to practices, and learn more about Huraiti Mana.
Location: 1225 S Weller Street, Seattle, WA 98144 (secure bldg. access)
If you have any questions, feel free to contact us at huraitimana@gmail.com. Culture is more than the performance of song and dance. Culture is about the relationships you build with one another, from the studio to the stage. We hope join us in that journey! Mauruuru roa. International Examiner (IE) is Seattle's Asian Pacific Islander newspaper established in 1974 and is based out of the Chinatown-International District. IE is the country's only nonprofit Pan-Asian American media establishment with a mission to provide accurate and wide-range coverage of the sensitive issues that affect our otherwise underrepresented communities. Following our performance at the ICHS 2016 Bloom Gala (another close community partner), IE contributors Lexi Potter and Rhea Panela approached Huraiti Mana for a news article to cover our emerging group. We are so grateful to have had this opportunity to be featured and further connected to the communities we strive to serve. Rhea so graciously shared our short history and introduced our significant mission to address controversial issues surrounding entertainment and cultural appropriation:
"The line that I walk is culture versus entertainment, or how can those two be together? Commercializing or monetizing a cultural tradition..." Find the whole article at the International Examiner's online publication. Huraiti Mana gathered together on Alki on a beautiful, crisp May morning for our first professional photo shoot with Kyle Kotani Photography. As a Seattle-based group, we thought it was fitting to dance with the famous skyline as a our backdrop. Kyle is a photographer specializing in portraiture, event documentation, journalistic, travel, and fine art photography. View his amazing work and book him for your next special occasion; he can be reached at kylekotaniphoto@gmail.com. Mauruuru roa and mahalo nui e Kyle! Sincerely appreciate your ability to capture our vision at Huraiti Mana and enjoyed this photo shoot experience.
|
CATEGORIES
All
ARCHIVES
March 2021
Organizations we love |