Home Hula

Very exciting day today!  Three of my nieces and my sister came over and we had our first at-home hula session.  We spent about 30 minutes practicing the Tahitian and Hula steps that we know.   For most of our session, we kept moving through the various steps - focusing on a workout vs. choreography.  Most of us broke a sweat!

Looking online for the names of the dance steps, I can't find one list that includes all of them, but here are 2 websites that do mention dance steps:
http://www.huladancehq.com/hula-dance-steps-in-depth.html
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070928110735AABfhSk

The steps we did over and over(with the names I am familiar with listed first):
1 - kapa  (? Tahitian; I can't find this step listed online, so maybe I am spelling it wrong - basic side to side of hips)
2 - hela - Hula, knees bent, weight place on one hip while the opposite leg and foot stretches in front of you
3 - double hela - also hula, foot goes out twice on each side
4 - box - Tahitian, "Afata" - hips hit in the shape of a box
5 - Lele Uwehe - hula
6 - Ami - (ah mee) - hip rotations, hips go around in a circle

We also practiced our pu'ili (bamboo sticks).  And we reviewed the girls choreography from their kids hula class - set to the song from Lilo & Stitch "He Mele No Lilo".

Great first day together!  The studio in the basement worked out well, plenty of space to dance!

Here is our "before" photo - our first day together practicing hula at home ...