Dance’s steps retraced

When, exactly, did the hula become legitimate in the eyes of world culture? After a century or so of being lampooned, caricatured and bowdlerized, can the date be established with certainty?

You can make a good case for 1982. That’s when Jerry Hopkins’ seminal "The Hula" was published, a grand and serious and reverent coffee-table book that examined Hawaii’s indigenous dance. Pop music historian and journalist Hopkins had a solid team backing him up: designer Hans Johannes Hoefer, producer Leonard Lueras and researcher Rebecca Crockett-Hopkins, at the time Hopkins’ wife. It was published by Apa Productions of, ironically, Singapore.

In Hawaii it became a best-seller and a touchstone of cultural legitimacy. Elsewhere, it introduced Hawaiian arts as something other than obscure and quaint native practices.

And then, over the years, "The Hula" disappeared from bookshelves. Discounted, backlisted, remaindered and then finally out of print.

Until this month. "The Hula" is back, and just in time for the Merrie Monarch Festival, the world-famous competition that ended Saturday.

It was republished and updated by Bess Press. Editor Amy Ku‘u­lei­aloha Stillman says in the preface that "‘The Hula’ had its genesis in the late 1970s. Journalistic in language and tone, the book made no pretense to academic rigor or encyclopedic authority. It was, however, the first book to offer readers a comprehensive introduction to hula’s history. Astonishingly, three decades later, this book has not yet been superceded. The reissue of this book thus makes its overview available once again to new generations of hula dancers and fans alike."

Publisher Buddy Bess told the Star-Advertiser that "people would ask about hula books, and invariably I pointed them toward this one. Jerry Hopkins is one of the better book writers out there, and he always does his research, and it was simply the best hula book ever. It seemed like a no-brainer to redo this one than build a new book from scratch."

Author Hopkins moved to Thailand in the ’90s, continuing to write about pop culture. We tracked him down there and asked, via email, about the new edition.

"I thought it was a great story, by the way. How, I wondered, did a dance with such deep religious roots over time come to be thought of in much of the world as a kooch dance, something to be giggled or leered at, then, with the upsurge of interest in Hawaiian roots and rights in the 1970s, reverse and regain respect? That’s the story I tried to tell," Hopkins responded.

"When I arrived in Hawaii in 1976, the ‘Hawaiian Renaissance’ had taken flight but had not yet gained full altitude," added Hopkins, then riding on the success of his Elvis biography. "With a background in pop-music journalism, it wasn’t difficult for me to shift from rock guitars to steel guitars."

Intrigued, Hopkins penned an essay about hula for the alternative news publication Hawaii Observer, and then, building on that knowledge, he wrote the music and hula section of travelers’ guides to Hawaii and essays for the Encyclopedia of Hawaiian Music and also edited the Hawaiian Music Foundation’s monthly newsmagazine.

Hans Hoefer, who ran Apa, asked Hopkins to do a book about the hula. Hopkins dived into the archives and began interviewing kumu hula. "Several of the people I met, notably Auntie Nona Beamer, took me under their wings and made my job a lot easier," he recalls.

"The Hula" was published to an enthusiastic reaction.

"A couple of the kumu hula made it seem they would’ve been happier if the book hadn’t been written by a haole, but I think the hula community embraced the book warmly. The printing sold out quickly, and that original edition is now an expensive collector’s item. Take a look at eBay and Amazon; you’ll be surprised."

Actually, we looked at abebooks.com, which scours used bookstores. Prices ranged from $12 to more than $100. There’s value there, so why has the book been out of print for so long?

"I don’t know why someone didn’t revive it sooner," mused Hopkins. "Hoefer sold his company, and dozens of good books about Pacific and Asian culture went out of print as the new owner focused on guidebooks.

"I shared the copyright with my then-wife Rebecca Kamili‘ia (Hopkins) Erickson, and we had subsequently divorced, so the book occasioned a sort of reunion, which was nice. Her Hawaiian name was given to her by Auntie Nona, by the way."

Publisher Bess, who calls the book a "classic," wanted it to help launch a series of other out-of-print texts.

"Apa let the copyright lapse, and so that took some time to sort out," said Bess. "Although Jerry’s narrative text is complete, we took out some supplementary materials, such as a roster of active kumu hula. It was just impossible to get a complete list, and it changes all the time."

Editor Stillman instead placed such information, footnotes and bibliography into www.sitemaker.umich.edu/hawn.music, an online site that can be continually updated. Hawaiian words, italicized in the original publication, have been mainstreamed enough so that they join the plain-text English. The layout has been modernized as well.

Hopkins is happy to see "The Hula" back in print.

"Because I’m still learning and writing about Thai and Asian culture, I really haven’t been able to follow events in Hawaii. I do want to say that when I come back to the islands, as I have several times, I hear damned little Hawaiian music and see only a little hula being performed. That’s a tragedy."

His long-distance view on Hawaiian culture from Thailand?

"Keep your eyes on the hands. That was always good advice."