Vienna, October 19, 2015
Amazing, only one week ago Kjell and I were still up in our house at the Mamalahoa Highway, all the excitement still ahead of us.
It became almost a routine already that our small team gathers on Monday after the race when the nerves have cooled down and most of us have some free days lying ahead.
For me it became a passion to define projects that bring the Hawaiian culture closer into our lives. This triathlon competition feels like located in a parallel world only scarcely embedded into the Hawaiian way of living. We want to contribute something, even though it’s very little what we can do, to fill the gap between two cultures.
I was not able to organize our event from home which caused me some bouts of nerviness. But once on the Island all gates seemed to open and thanks to Carl Koomoa and Ka’imi Aina things came together so easily, all reflecting the Hawaiian spirit of aloha (which means love in a much broader sense than we use the word).
Kjell unfolded all his abilities as chef de cuisine and prepared with me as kitchen assistant a marvelous variety of dishes. The brunch could only be spoiled by its guests 😉 …
The idea
I think it was around May this year when we first had the idea to try to find Hula dancers for our Hawaiian Brunch. Hula is a very athletic way of moving and needs an extremely subtle body perception. To know how to move each muscle of your body, to move fluidly in time and space is high art and not just hard training. Hula is telling stories with your body. Each movement has a meaning.
It is exactly this feeling for our body we have lost in many ways in our Western societies. I personally think that we can learn a lot from Hula and that it would make sense to integrate the principle of Hula movements in the training of for example triathletes. Watching the IRONMAN® world championship in Kona tells a rather sad story of a lack of body perception.
Hula can contribute to improve performance. Noelani, the Hula dancer, is teaching Hula as cardio training and as completion to Asian martial arts. We often refer to it as fluffy and esoteric, it isn’t at all, even though the spirit behind is strange to us.
On this morning in our house on the Mamalahoa Highway all of us got caught by the spirit of the dancers and the music. It was a wonderful performance opening doors to another way of thinking.
Thank you to: Karl Koomoa, Ka’imi Aina, Noelani Kalili-Canon, Eke Kekauoha, Mana and last but not Sammé Fo for their dedication and willingness to let us foreigners become a part of their way of being. Thanks to Chad Chapbell made it possible to have it all on video. And once and again thank you Kjell for being with me this year!
