WHAT’S NEW Venues & shops
KA PA HULA O MANOA
HAWAIIAN DANCE STUDIO OPENS IN THE PLACE Call for class times. L418A, The Place, 9 Guanghua Lu, Chaoyang District (6701 7790) 朝阳区光华路甲9号世贸天阶 900m northwest of Yong'anli station (Line 1)
W
50
floor-to-ceiling mirrors even though all of my classmates were studying theirs, making adjustments to their outfits and practicing dance steps. When the class kicked off, everyone dove right in to the dances whose moves most participants had nearly mastered – the hip sway key to the ka’o and the knee-bending kupe, for instance – while Mai made small adjustments to postures. It was their fluttering hands that told a story, but it was their core doing all the work. By the end, my muscles ached. Sure, the hula isn’t a common dance floor move, but it’s hard to argue with the fact it makes a good party trick. More importantly though, this type of wiggling your middle is a fitness opportunity oceans away from a gym membership. I know what some of you will be saying: hula-lujah to that. Jessica Rapp Also try: Phoenix Dance Studio, Beijing Tango
August 2014
photo: james lindesay
hen I rocked up to Ka Pa Hula O Manoa (a hula studio better known in English as “My Dance Life Club”) in spandex leggings and a loose t-shirt, I knew I was going to stand out among the other dancers in Mandy Mai’s weekly class. See, I was lacking a sarong and an faux plumeria to pin in my hair. Occupying The Place’s newest studio is what must be Beijing’s only group of hula dancers. Led by Mai, an experienced gymnast, the group works out via a form of ancient dance developed by the Polynesians in Hawaii. Some members of the class hula all the way down to the island of Oahu itself as every year Mai takes a group to participate in the World Invitational Hula Festival. Luckily, my instructor, or the kumu hula, was looking out for me. She had a collection of floral sarongs on hand for dancers who didn’t have their own. I tied mine snuggly around my hips, trying not to catch my reflection in the