Dance, Dance, Dance

Joseph Campbell believed that everything begins with a story, so we begin this series with one of his favorites. He was in Japan for a conference on religion, and he overheard another American delegate, a social philosopher from New York, say to a Shinto priest, "We've been now to a great many ceremonies and have seen quite a few of your shrines. But I don't get your ideology. I don't get your theology."

The Japanese paused as though in deep thought, and then slowly shook his head. "I think we don't have ideology," he said. "We don't have theology. We dance."

Over the weekend I was reminded of this from The Power of Myth class I took this winter. What I have loved so much about Hawaii is how responsive people are to dance. That, and the way that people can just have a good time. There have been numerous times where I have gone into something here with Danny and Jess thinking, "Eh, I don't know" that just have ended up being these really enjoyable experiences.

For example, Saturday Danny took us to what he heard was going to be a "gypsy stomp" of some sort. I was pretty stoked for the idea of dancing with gypsies. We got there though to find out it was some flamenco performance. Danny was quite embarrassed as we sat down and watched this middle-age Flamenco band play.


I kind of enjoyed it and I was shocked to find everyone else around me digging it too. It was such a diverse group of people though. Like these older people on vacation to these young locals in the back. Danny and I had an especially good time laughing about this guy...



I guess he thought it was his job to make his facial expressions as intense as the dancers. I don't know. But then towards the end the band demanded everyone kick back their chairs and dance. While at most places I am used to people being pretty hesitant about something like this, here everyone immediately moved chairs and started dancing. Mojo (the owner of the hostel) especially had some moves.


But what really made me think to the Myth class was this local event they have here called Ecstatic Dance. It occurs every Sunday morning (I guess in replace of regular church service for some) at this center by the beach. They tell me that like 300 people gather with the craziest energy on these mornings. Last Sunday though the place was rented out so Ecstatic Dance was canceled. I guess this really didn't stop people because as we were driving down the road we see this small group of people dancing on a street facing the ocean (pictured above). Like most things here it looked a bit odd. Danny asked squinting his eyes, "Should we do this?" and before he finished I ran down taking pictures.


We joined them and danced for 3 hours on end. The waves would crash in front of us and there would be intermittent periods of light rain. It was truly incredible. Such an eclectic bunch just moving to whatever the old dude in the PT Cruiser played. And I think the fact that this was really impromptu made it that much cooler. By the end there were so many cars parked around us and people joining in.


Later, I had this discussion with Christian, Danny, and Jess about how powerful dance is. Danny mentioned how it was one of the first things the Colonists banned when taking over the tribes in Africa. I can definitely see why. Just the collective experience can make you so close with so many people. The whole dance you are not allowed to speak, but still I felt this sort of connection. In fact, I saw a girl at this other event who was at ecstatic dance (dressed up as a tiger woman) and immediately her eyes lit up as she said "Hi! How are you?" as if we had already been introduced. How awesome is that? I am definitely excited for this upcoming Sunday where Ecstatic Dance will be held in it's normal center (I'll be sure to take pictures).