All songs
copyrighted
by David Rood
except as noted.
'A'a i ka Hula
Story
In an attempt to lure students to his project, a professor at a geophysics summer camp told of this Hawai'ian phrase, which he rendered as "Dare to dance." He explained that he gave his daughter a locket with the phrase upon her graduation (or a similar event, memory fails me), which was really rather sweet.Anyway, he urged us to try something new, most of us having never heard of magnetotellurics. As a reward for taking part in MT studies, I spent several weeks hiking over mountains and slogging through swampy fields laying cable and got ambiguous results for my trouble.
Personally, I render the phrase as "Dare to dance the dance of life." The true Hula dance is a lot more than grass skirts and belly-shaking; it is an ancient ritual, highly symbolic. Whatever your life may be, you can trudge through it, or you can dance. As Lee Ann Womack sings, I hope you dance.
Lyrics
[D open] There's no eye contact on the sidewalk[A] Keep your gaze upon the ground
[G] Because what's really [D] [f#min] important [bmin]
[emin] Is how the feet are moving [A] around
[emin/D] Well we walked right past each other
[D] And I never knew who you [A] were
[G] But in the night in the light of a [D] friend's [f#min] new [bmin] song
[emin] We see that we've been lifelong [A] partners [Asus4]
[G] 'A'a i ka Hula
[D] Dare to dance the dance of life
[A] Exercise the best part of [D] yourself to [emin/D] raise a [D] smile
Well [G] I don't know your dance, and you [D] don't [f#min] know [bmin] mine
But as [emin] long as the music's playing, we [Asus4] all have a [A] chance to [D open] shine
There's the guy who's always laughing
The lady with a smile on her lips
There are always the obvious ones
Their dance compels; why should they resist?
Well it's hard to see the quiet stars
Drowning in the noise of the bright
There's special magic in their subtlety
They're the ones I want to see tonight
'A'a i ka Hula
Dare to dance the dance of life
Exercise the best part of yourself to raise a smile
Well I don't know your dance, and you don't know mine
But as long as the music's playing, we all have a chance to shine
Twenty, [G] thirty, forty miles per hour
[D] The young couple [A] waltzes
[A] In the outer loop around their parents' [D] Virginia [emin/D] [D]Reel
[N.C.] At the one end of the field, the young guns do a step-show stomp
[A] At the other end, their grandparent Jitterbug and Charleston [A7] [G#7/A] [A7]
Well all these people at the top of their game
From basketball player to the master of Kung Fu
To the secretary's flying filing fingers
Everybody's got a dance to do
The window washer and the astronaut hang in the air
The waitress balances a four foot disk of food
Some people dance and never move a muscle
Programmer and poet come together, and it's all good
'A'a i ka Hula
Dare to dance the dance of life
Exercise the best part of yourself to raise a smile
Well I don't know your dance, and you don't know mine
But as long as the music's playing, we all have a chance to shine
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