by | March 19th, 2008
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Every year, a major dance event is held on the “Big Island” of Hawaii in the town of Hilo – the Merrie Monarch Festival hula competition, featuring both modern (‘Auana) and ancient (Kahiko) forms of hula.
King David Kalakaua was the “merrie monarch” who revitalized Hawaiian ethnic language, arts and dance during his reign 1874-1891.
This year’s Merrie Monarch Festival is scheduled for March 30 – April 5, 2008. The video below features Halau I Ka Wekiu in the Kahiko kane (men’s) division.
For anyone reading this post via RSS or other feed mechanism, click here to go to the hula video on YouTube.
For more like this, plus Tahitian dance, see teriimataha on YouTube.
Related post: Get Some Family Aloha When You Travel to Hawaii
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I love how the commentary is like big game commentary. Love that. Also, every time I see hula, I think, NO WONDER THE MISSIONARIES OUTLAWED IT. The way those guys can swing their hips, my oh my. Those repressed missionaries must have thought they were gong to explode.
Hi Pam,
Yeah, that’s some fairly cheesy background stuff on the lead-in.
While looking for hula video, I watched a couple of Tahitian dance ones – now THAT is some serious hip gyration. Can you imagine a missionary in, what, 1831, getting an eyeful of that?
I also liked that particular hula video because it shows that men wear grass skirts, too.
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