The Red Road takes you to Kalani Ecstatic Dance.
It’s the road that runs along the coastline between jungly foliage in lower Puna, on the Big Island of Hawai’i. It’s one of the loveliest roads in the world.
When you pull up to Kalani, one of the first things you notice is the large Kamani trees that arch over the Red Road with beauty and grace. To the right is a patch of jungle just before the cliffs down to the ocean, and to your left is the word “Aloha” spelled out in blue and white stones.
You’ve arrived.
You pull into the driveway and go past the little store at the front, Hale Aloha. You drive slowly up the driveway to the folks greeting people at the gate. They have you sign a waiver and take your payment. It seems like no matter who is on staff at Kalani over the years, they are always friendly and warm.
You pull into a parking spot in the gravel lot, walk past the coconut vendor, and up to a building called the Blue Moon Room. It’s a building with a wonderful wooden dance floor and a roof that is like a gigantic greenhouse. Most of the walls are screen, which allows for the ocean breeze to blow through and for the outdoors to be seen.
You walk in the door and in front of you at one end of the building, a few ladies are starting to set up the altar. There’s a woman in her 60’s or 70’s who seems to be spearheading these efforts, regaled in a tie-dyed blue and purple skirt, with her hair pulled up in a matching scarf on top of her head, and a magenta wrap around her waist.
You look across the big, open space to the other end and see a small stage. Behind the stage is a view of the jungle with red and green ti plants and various trees and vines.
You’ve arrived in time for the yoga class before the dance. People are starting to place their yoga mats in a circular formation around the teacher. Your body welcomes the warm up and the music is on point with the energy of the class.
Feeling more centered and relaxed than when you walked in, the class ends and everyone transitions to opening circle. The silence of the yoga class is maintained during the transition, and you quietly settle into a spot on the floor next to an older woman with smiling eyes.
The Voice of the Circle ~ the person who facilitates the opening and closing circles ~ welcomes everyone, and you look around the room and get a sense of the other dancers. People in Hawai’i have the aloha and tend to be kind and welcoming.
What the Voice of the Circle says makes you feel inspired to honor the guidelines of the dance. You can see how it makes sense to uphold the guidelines to create the proper container, like any other ritual or ceremony. They then explain the guidelines, including how there’s no talking, no pictures or video allowed, and how to get non-verbal consent to dance with someone.
After the guidelines, the Voice of the Circle hands it over to someone from the community to do the invocation. It’s different every time, but today they lead you through a short meditation with some breathing. And then the music slowly comes in.
The Dance begins.
For the first ten minutes or so, there’s no beat to the music; it’s slow and gentle, giving the body time to ground in and wake up. People continue to filter in. Some people are on the floor doing yoga, some are stretching, and some are moving or dancing very slowly.
After a bit, the beat comes in, but the beat is still slow, still inviting the body to warm up for the upcoming journey.
Gradually the music builds to faster and higher energy. You look around the room and you notice people of various ages, from an infant wearing protective headphones to people in their 70s. You notice people of various skin tones, various expressions on people’s faces, and all the many different ways people are dancing and moving their bodies.
A few dancers have their eyes closed. One person has a blindfold on. Some folks are dancing with each other, many are dancing by themselves. A few people are smiling, one person is sobbing. There’s an amoeba-like group of 6 dancers in front of you that seems to be communicating telepathically as they seamlessly glide around, over, and in between each other.
The music continues to go to a higher BPM and higher energy. A lot of people are having fun! Suddenly a song comes in with some great bass and your body really starts groovin’!
The DJ ~ or as they’re called at Kalani Ecstatic Dance, “musical facilitator” ~ is up on the small stage. This is not to put the musical facilitators on a pedestal above the dancers, but the stage is already there, and it makes it easier for the sound peeps if they and all the cables are up there. Not to mention, then they can see all the dancers all over the room and stay better connected to everyone. The musical facilitator is bouncing a bit to the beat.
On each side of the stage are two big speakers. You notice a few others around the room. On the floor in front of the stage are two subwoofers. You sit on the ground for a bit right in front of one, with your earplugs in, and let the vibrations of the bass pour over your whole body.
The sun is streaming in through the screen walls. It seems it’s often sunny on Sundays. But on the occasions when there’s a big rain, you generally see a bunch of the dancers go outside and dance in the rain.
The music is starting to peak now. This is where your body really starts rockin’ out. You find yourself jumping, and then thrashing around like a ball of fire! You feel a tingly sensation moving through your whole body, and you feel like you have unleashed a deep part of yourself. You feel so alive!
After a bit, an experience from when you were younger flashes into your mind. The memory has brought up a sharp pain in your chest and some moderate anxiety. You sink deeper into the music and deeper into your dance. Your body automatically starts doing some punching and kicking to the beat, and jumping around while waving your arms. You notice after a bit of this, your body starts to feel lighter, and the anxiety has dissipated. You reflect on the memory again without so much emotion around it.
Eventually, you notice that the music has chilled out just a bit. There’s still a good beat, but the energy is not quite so intense anymore. A song that everyone seems to know from the late ‘90s comes on and you kind of start skipping around, feeling the nostalgia of when you first heard that song.
The music’s energy level and BPM continue to descend. You decide to go sit at the altar. It’s quite a large altar at maybe 15’ by 15’. There’s a wooden cut out of a rainbow hanging just above the altar. There’s also a rainbow pattern in the altar that is not overbearing but quite lovely, with many inspirational images, a few words here and there, and a few decks of cards to play with. You draw a card that says, “First comes enlightenment, then comes the laundry ~ Zen saying.” You chuckle, that is so Zen.
At that point, the music is super slow again, like in the beginning, without any beat. You stretch out on the floor into śavāsana. As you lay there, the music ends, and then there’s a few minutes of silence.
Now to integrate.
The Voice of the Circle breaks the silence by speaking slowly, and invites everyone to join for closing circle.
After a tad more silence and people settling into the space, the facilitator says there will be 3 rounds to closing circle, and that the first round is Shareback. This round is an opportunity for people to share about their experience at the dance that day.
The second round is where everyone goes around and shares their name; although, if anyone does not wish to for any reason, they can pass. The third round is Community Announcements. You’re struck by how beautiful the community offerings are.
After the circle, you head back out to the parking lot, and get a fresh coconut from the coco guy. As you’re drinking the yummy water, you decide to get some Indian food from the lunch vendor as well. Gotta have some sustenance after all that dancing!
Other dancers give you hugs and love as you depart. The community here in Puna is tight knit, but also very welcoming of new people and travelers. The smiles and warmth from community members give you more of those much needed nutrients.
You get in your car to head out for the rest of Sunday Funday. You feel nourished, relaxed, enlivened, and grateful. Yes, this is why you don’t want to miss a Sunday, and you give thanks for this beautiful practice.
