Competition drumming up interest in Tahitian dance
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| Nonosina, the overall winner in last year's competition, is returning to defend its title at this year's combination dance competition and cultural exhibition.
Photo courtesy of Tahiti Nui International |
By Vicki Viotti
Advertiser Staff Writer
The narrow, pareu-wrapped hips of the tiny dancer, a girl not much taller than a Tahitian drum, blurred in motion as they matched that drum's rhythm, beat for beat. Her older "sisters," also rehearsing their solo pieces, worked up a head of steam, some of it condensing as perspiration across their brow.
"Put your iraro in the front!" Debra "Auntie Pola" Teriipaia called out to the dancers scattered across the Wahiawa Recreation Center floor. It was all that could be heard above the sound of the drum, but those who know hula terms might make out the word "iraro" as the Tahitian version of "ilalo," referring to a descending sway. The languages are related, after all.
Heiva I Honolulu 2004
Like its Hawaiian cousin did 30 years ago, Tahitian dance is enjoying a renaissance here and across the Mainland. The organizers of the second annual Heiva I Honolulu competition that opens tomorrow are hopeful that its popularity can usher in greater familiarity with other Tahitian cultural facets as well.
The Hawai'i-born Teriipaia directs Manutahi, one of 30 Tahitian schools entered in the three-day event. She remembers when Island dance studios of the '60s taught students a full curriculum of hula as well as Tahitian and Maori dance.
"I think what happened was the renaissance of Hawaiian hula, and the studios really got into depth in that," she said. "They put Tahitian on the side."
Photo courtesy of Tahiti Nui International
But the drums, she said, kept beating and summoned the faithful back to the fold.
Jeannie Case of Nonosina, a Tahitian dance school from Anaheim, Calif., performed in the first Heiva I Honolulu competition last year. This year's event opens tomorrow at the Waikiki Shell.
"I just gravitated to it," Teriipaia said. "My grandmother was a musician, and she really wanted me to do Hawaiian hula. Her mother used to dance for the queen. And here I go off on my own, to Tahiti!"
The interest in Tahitian has blossomed enough that Teriipaia has expanded her teaching from Wahiawa to Makakilo. Merehau Kamai, another teacher entering the competition from Orem, Utah, has witnessed the same flowering nationwide; Kamai is organizing a competition in Utah in June.
In Honolulu, Rose Perreira and the other organizers of Heiva (meaning "celebration") also have seen that wave beginning to crest. The dance has been embraced by every ethnicity; Tahitian performed by a native Tahitian dancer is the exception to the rule, said Etua Tahauri, president of the Heiva board.
"In a group of dancers, maybe one of them is a Tahitian," he said with a laugh.
Everyone, from the Tahitian government on down, has been delighted to see how the art is thriving, Perreira said, but the Heiva board believes the time is ripe for Tahitians to bring their own culture into the spotlight. That's why the first event was staged a year ago, she said, becoming one of the few competitions outside Tahiti to be run by Tahitians.
"I think the objective was to educate people about our culture," Perreira said. "There's so much richness; it's not only about the dance. It's about who we are, about our heritage, our Polynesian identity."
In addition to 16 group entries and 311 solo dancers (to be winnowed over the course of three days to single male and female winners in various age groups), Heiva will feature exhibitions of other Tahitian arts.
Raymond Mariteragi, board vice president, said this year's event will introduce the audience to ute, a humorous form of song; and to himene taraua, or ancient chant.
"A lot of people don't even know we have this," he said.
There's also weaving, coconut husking and "fruit racing," an athletic competition that derives from the days when men would heft 150 pounds of produce from the valley out to their families in the coastal village.
However, the main attraction remains the dance, and Perreira said the contemporary version of the art form has evolved over recent decades. Heiva celebrates innovation, she said, but within certain parameters.
For example, the rules set out that dances must include a set number of traditional rhythms and certain steps; artistic exploration beyond that in a group's eight-minute program is welcome.
Afterward, the eight judges — including the Tahitian government's director of culture, Heremoana Maamaatuaiahutapu — will offer the competitors a friendly critique.
"There have been developments, and we are OK with that," Perreira said. "We don't want to minimize their opportunity to express themselves.
"But we want people to know that there is a beginning," she added. "And a lot of people are hungry for more knowledge."
Reach Vicki Viotti at 525-8053 or vviotti@honoluluadvertiser.com.
