Learning • Sharing • Restoring • Celebrating
Experience the many ways aloha is shared
Learning • Sharing • Restoring • Celebrating
Experience the many ways aloha is shared
Welcome (E Komo Mai)!
At the heart of this work is Hawaiian hula, a living tradition that teaches us to learn with our minds, move with our bodies, and live with the spirit of aloha. While hula is the foundation, you'll also find opportunities to experience aloha through cultural education, community performances, restorative wellness practices, retreats to Hawai'i, and Hawaiian-inspired weddings.
Whether you're here to learn, share, restore, or celebrate, I invite you to discover the many ways aloha can enrich everyday life. Hula is just one way to share aloha.
- Amanda affectionally known as the Redheaded Hula Girl
Hawaiian Hula
Hawaiian hula forms the heart of this work. Through movement, language, history, and storytelling, we deepen our understanding of the people, places, and traditions of Hawaiʻi while cultivating presence, community, and the spirit of aloha right here, right now.
Classes & Workshops
Cultural Education
Festival Performances
Hula Ministry & Community Outreach
Wellness & Retreats
Restorative practices invite us to slow down, reconnect with ourselves, and deepen our relationship with the natural world. Locally offered Kahi Loa sessions and training create space for focused presence and restorative practice, while retreats to Hawaiʻi offer opportunities for cultural learning, reflection, shared experience, and reverent time in a beautiful place.
Kahi Loa Sessions
Kahi Loa Training
Retreats to Hawaiʻi
Restorative Gatherings
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Hawaiian-Inspired Weddings
Hawaiian-inspired ceremonies offer a meaningful way to celebrate love through values and traditions rooted in aloha. Each ceremony is thoughtfully shaped to honor the couple’s unique story, whether shared privately or with family and friends.
Legal Wedding Ceremonies
Elopements
Vow Renewals
Commitment Ceremonies
learning
Intro Workshop
Best for beginners. Choose a 90-minute introductory workshop offered throughout the year or a 4- or 6-week series offered during the summer months.
Weekly Classes
Ongoing classes for continuing dancers. Beginner, intermediate, and beyond.
September-May
Morehead City, NC
Keiki (kids) Hula
Keiki (kids) Hula
Young dancers discover the joy of Hawaiian hula through movement, music, storytelling, and cultural learning in a fun and welcoming environment.
Hula on the Beach
Keiki (kids) Hula
Close your weekend with movement, ocean breezes, and aloha as we dance together on the sand at sunset.
Private Lesson
Individual or small-group instruction. Learn at your own pace or prepare for a special event.
Talks & Presentations
Bring Hawaiʻi to your group through engaging presentations that explore hula, culture, history, language, and the connections between people and place.
Teaching Philosophy and Hula Lineage
Hula classes are taught by Amanda, also known as the Redheaded Hula Girl. She has studied hula since 2013 and has been teaching and performing since 2016.
Her primary lineage in traditional and modern hula comes through Kumu Kea, Pattye Kealohalani Wright, founder of Nā Puakea O Koʻolaupoko in Oahu. Amanda has permission to share within this lineage and teaches with respect for her teachers before her. She continues learning from other Kumus and understands that hula is more than choreography, it is movement, story, culture, place, and aloha in everyday life.
Sharing
Community Performances
Emerald 'Āina Hula Dancers have been performing at cultural and town festivals since 2017.
We are a group passionate about learning, practicing, and sharing hula with others. We do not see ourselves as entertainers, but more as educators in sharing Hawaiian Hula. We love to get the audience involved!
Hire the Dancers
Emerald 'Āina Hula Dancers have been performing at churches, for cultural arts centers, community Moana film nights, at birthday celebrations, and corporate events since 2017.
There are several packages available for various events and needs.
Hula Ministry
Hula Ministry
If you are associated with an assisted living facility locally looking for activities for the calendar, or if you are associated with hospice and would like to talk, reach out to Amanda. These are free community outreach events we offer as aloha in action.
Restoring
Kahi Loa Sessions
Retreats to Hawai'i
Kahi Loa Sessions
Kahi Loa is an ancient form of energy work with roots in Kauai. Kahi Loa is a wonderful relaxing, energizing, and gentle modality that integrates nature into the sessions for mind-body-spirit wellness. Sessions are held in-person in Morehead City, NC or Jacksonville, NC.
Kahi Loa Training
Retreats to Hawai'i
Kahi Loa Sessions
Kahi Loa is an ancient form of energy work with roots in Kauai. It's also more than energy work! Learn this beautiful practice for yourself, your family, and to provide a calm and loving space for others. And yes, we use seashells, beautiful flowers, and more!
Amanda completed her training in 2009 and has been offering sessions and teaching Kahi Loa since 2012.
Retreats to Hawai'i
Retreats to Hawai'i
Retreats to Hawai'i
A special week-long retreat to Hawai'i for women focusing on relaxation, connection, introspection, and dropping into the heart, plus hula, and adventures. We also engage in some type of service while there and partner with local teachers to offer unique cultural experiences.
A perfect experience to share with mothers, daughters, aunts, sisters, and friends.
Other Credentials
Amanda began her studies in Kahi Loa in 2006 and completed the last level of training in 2009. She's been teaching and providing sessions since 2012.
In 2009 she became an Ordained Interfaith Minister in NC. Around that time, she was also researching rituals and ceremonies that were being performed by individuals and groups at state parks in the Appalachian Mountains. These included weddings, baptisms, and other ceremonies. She completed her Doctorate in Geography in 2010 from UNC-Greensboro with a special concentration in Religious Studies and a dissertation titled "Spiritual Landscapes in the 21st century: the Geography of Power Mountains and Healing Waters of the Southern Appalachian Region."
She has a MA in Geography from Appalachian State University and a Bachelor of Science from North Carolina State University in Natural Resources: Soil and Water Systems with minors in Crop Science and Botany. Her love and appreciation of nature is one of the many reasons she found a connection to hula. Hula tells beautiful stories of landscapes and nature is mimicked in the motions. Hula also encourages the dancer to build a reciprocal relationship with the elements. Being a lover of the natural world and seeing the sacred in everything, hula and the Hawaiian culture resonate deeply with Amanda.
celebrating
Hawaiian Inspired Weddings
As an Ordained interfaith minister, hula teacher, and lifelong student of Hawaiian culture, I offer personalized wedding ceremonies that thoughtfully weave together your love story with the beauty and values of aloha. If that resonates with you, I'd love to connect.