Singing And Dancing On The Volcano

...Continued from yesterday:
     So we had a good look at the inner craters of Kilauea - which I could appreciate now that I understood the geography of the Kilauea Caldera (see yesterday's post) - though at this volcano I was scared to death not by the smoking crater, but by all the young   selfie-tourists standing,

​...and sitting,

...on the guard wall above the precipice.

     A little before noon we left the inner crater and headed over to the Kilauea Visitor Center,

...because that morning at breakfast I'd read in the local paper about The Merrie Monarch Festival taking place this week throughout the Islands (see yesterday's post) and that as part of the local festivities there would be music and crafts programs on the lanai (veranda) of the Visitor Center.
     As I'd become enamored of Hawaiian music, after having heard some live music in Honolulu along with lots of recorded music pumped into every public venue we entered there,  I wanted to check out the performance at the Visitor Center.
     For me this turned out to be the high point of our trip.
    The performer was recording artist Kenneth Makuakāne, composer and producer of traditional Hawaiian music.

     His songs were so beautiful, as was his voice, a soulful tenor that now and then broke into a Hawaiian-style falsetto.
       At one point a group of eight Japanese ladies in the audience took to the floor and began dancing the hula to the music.

      Their moves were  graceful,

​...and lovely.

​     We learned that  they were   members of a hula class in Japan who'd come to Hawaii with their teacher, the lady in red.

     I wondered if perhaps they'd come to The Big Island to watch the nightly hula competitions at the Merrie Monarch Festival in Hilo.    
    After their dance Kenneth Makuakāne and the rest of us in the audience prevailed upon them to dance some more, but they shyly deferred until Mr. Makuakāne began singing "Hawaiian Lullaby," my favorite Hawaiian song and apparently theirs, too, because they couldn't resist getting back up and dancing  - and singing -  to the music.

     After the Japanese ladies returned to their seats three other ladies got up and began dancing.

​     They were so good,

​...I wondered if they were hula-competition contestant who were out doing some volcano sight-seeing during the day.

     After they finished another lady got up and began dancing to the music.  She was an older lady,

...and her movements were so fluid and natural,

...that one could conclude that she's been dancing the hula her whole life.

     Her dance looked like a prayer.

     Afterwards I asked her if I were too old to learn the hula, to which she replied, "You're never too old."
     Mayhaps if I can find a hula teacher in Columbus, Ohio I'll find out.