Photos freeze dancers amid tradition

Though no stranger to the diverse cultures of Oceania, writer-photographer Floyd K. Take­uchi (born and raised in the Marshall Islands) has only recently turned his camera lens to hula. Pursuing a deeper exploration of the discipline and dedication that produced the highest levels of performance, in mid-2011 he began documenting kumu hula Sonny Ching’s Halau Na Mamo o Pu‘u­ana­hulu.

The result of his work is "Halau: A Life in Hula," showing at the Gallery at Ward Centre through Jan. 30.

The public visual representation of hula can be imagined as a spectrum that is not necessarily measured in terms of quality or artistic merit, but by the degree to which a given image directly serves Hawaiian cultural interests. At one end we might find stereotypes and full-blown commercial exploitation, and images curated for Ching’s website at the other. In between is everything else: from the work of Kim Taylor Reece and Francis Haar to the gamut of historic postcards, archival ethnographic images, and the turbulent digital ocean generated by a typical Google image search for "hula dancer."

Takeuchi has emphasized a part of this spectrum that has received little documentation: the "behind the scenes" moments that emphasize preparation rather than performance. Significantly, this was Take­uchi’s first time looking carefully at hula or photographing it. Thus, he began with the eye of the absolute beginner who had to teach himself what to see, for even though he had been given full access, no one was stopping to explain anything.

Informed by his background in journalism, Take­uchi documents interactions, reactions, moments of movement and instants of transition. He likes the architecture created by the dancers in their formations, and framing these scenes with grids and perspective lines formed by ceiling tiles and elongated afternoon shadows.

A photograph titled "Kanoe­lani" exemplifies this approach. In it, teacher Kanoe­lani Rosenberg demonstrates proper positioning of the body to a teenage student. It is a multidimensional moment that shows the experience embodied in Rosenberg’s form clearly contrasting with that of the student, and the nested layers of instruction represented by nearby students who are studying the other two figures. Rosenberg’s lead foot is captured half out of her slipper, adding a dash of cas­ual humor to the image, though she may also be ensuring that the student’s view is not obstructed by the strap.

The entire scene is suffused with light, illuminating skirts, softening shadows, outlining the arch of a foot and the bones of an ankle, drawing a thin glow along the contour of a limb. And it goes on like this day after day, session after session, as the knowledge of broad ideas and tiny details seeps into the minds and bodies of each student.

Takeuchi must have taken dozens of similar images, but this is the one that successfully stands in for all of them, demonstrating how the impact of sacredness, deep tradition and individual brilliance that earns the halau its awards is built on layers of practice deposited one at a time.

Takeuchi also documents the halau’s chapters in Osaka and Tokyo. Already impressed by the dedication that being a part of any halau requires, he was further amazed by Japa­nese students who overcame barriers of culture and language in their pursuit of hula and the Hawaiian values that are imparted with it.

One image featuring a large group of dancers is taken from above. In this moment a large block of dancers has moved away from the rest of the group, which appears to be waiting for a signal. This group is captured in midspin and midclap, skirts flaring, hair swirling, the assembled motion evolving like a breaking wave. Though this is not an image of perfect hula, it is a perfect image of engagement with hula.

To see these students, who range in age from 5 to 75, putting in the hours that it takes to approach perfection, in a light that not only respects them, but has developed its own way of understanding them, is a story worth telling in the forthcoming book that Take­uchi is producing.