This year, it’s been exactly 20 years since I first started practicing Hula dancing in Hawaii. It also is 30 years ago since I began with Qigong, first for Master Marcus Bongart and then Lee Holden, and about 25 years ago, I began with Yoga for Anette Larjard and a Swiss Mordern dance teacher named Melanie. So, I thought I’d share what this has taught and healed in me.

Qigong has taught me, how to meditate, and how to move with mindful intentions to balance my inner organs and their attached emotions, according to Chinese Medicine. A way to work with energy, and to find center.

Yoga, was a way to become better friends with my body and learn how to move in pace with my breathing. Nowadays, I practice yoga at home, to stretch, and to develop strength and flexibility, as a foundation for dancing.

In 2004, I hadn’t danced anything more than out on clubs, for almost ten years, when I saw an ad in the paper, where I used to go practice, where they offered West African dance. I did this for about two years, and it enabled me to become much more precisely attuned to rhythms, as well as losing up some of my physical (and perhaps mental!) rigidity, while also releasing stress. It was raw, but grounding.

During the fall, I made my first visit to Hawaii (Oahu and a short stop on Big Island), where I saw Hula being performed at the beach at sunset in Waikiki. It totally mesmerized me and I started to feel a longing to grow long hair, wear long dresses, and dare to adorn myself with flowers. I had just had a white lily behind my ear at my mother’s wedding a year earlier, and this became the natural next step. To pause, reflect and grieve after her passing. Thanks to renewed student loan, I went back to study spring semester 2005, and found a small ad with Hula-classes, offered on evenings at University of Hawaii, Center for Hawaiian studies, and went. Here, Kumu Jared Kukaho’omalu Souza, shared how Hula is taught and its Uniki-process, where a historical layer is embedded. It became a meeting with a different culture, but mostly a meeting with my own pretences of wanting to look a certain way, where I learned eventually to become instead. Dancing Hawaiian Hula, enabled me to reclaim the power of my voice through chanting, as well as to move more softly and slowly, letting go of my harsh body language. I also started to walk slower, when I returned to Sweden. At home, I continued to practice by watching a DVD from the Merrie Monarch Festival, did my own choreographic interpretations to Swedish folksongs, and performed a couple of times, as well as led beginner’s workshops.

In 2010, I returned to Hawaii, to finish my Master’s degree, and was able to attend another Halau Hula, with another initiated Kumu; Marian Ka’ipo Park, who has performed at the Merrie Monarch. In this group, we also went on several excursions with ceremonies, and listened to the stories of passed on monarchs, besides learning various choreographies and using implements. And in 2011, I became a member of Unity Church in Honolulu and participated in their group as well, including performing at Christmas and Easter. In Honolulu, I also tried Ecstatic dancing, which I find to be a way to connect back with the tribal motions, we do at clubs, but with more improvisations and variations.

I continued my practice back in Sweden, held some more workshops and a couple of performances, but mostly on my own. Dancing Hula, enables me to step into a Hawaiian feeling for a moment, to float in tune with the ocean’s waves, and to tell stories with my hands. Still learning and still discovering things to improve! I also took classes in Jazz and Modern again, and performed in the dance school’s recitals.

In 2014, I began dancing Isadora Duncan for Kathleen Quinlan in Stockholm, Sweden, which brought me home to myself and my aspirations as a young girl to dance ballet, but with more freedom of movement, more emotions, and more spiritual mysteries, than. In 2019, I continued dancing with workshops and classes on Zoom on occasion, for Lori Belilove and her dance company members. Thanks to dancing Isadora Duncan, I’ve gained more sensuality, as well as gotten a stronger posture and expression, developing my solar plexus into what it was supposed to become, returning to being my true self, and reclaiming my inner child’s joy. But really, becoming more woman.

More about my journey, can be found in my books here.