Heiva

July 3, 2014  Heiva

I first heard about Heiva when Audrey was at school in Hawaii and I have always wanted to go to one so when I realized that we would be in Tahiti at the right time I was delighted.  In fact part of our reason for leaving Mexico later was so that we would not have to leave here too soon.  Heiva is a month long celebration of Polynesian culture wrapped around Bastille Day and Tahiti National Day.  Really just an excuse to take the month off and party.  The centerpiece is the dance competition, 3 groups per night for 8 nights.  Each group perform 3 dances with their whole session lasting almost an hour.  There are very strict rules about the types and styles of dances.  Both the choreography and the costumes must  new, never used before and the costumes must be made by the dancers.  At least one set of costumes must be made completely of plant material, sort of like the rose parade.  Each group has their own band, chorus and instruments.  In addition, there are arts and crafts exhibits at the museums and various sporting events, including an extensive series of canoe races.

So I am determined to go to at least one evenings performance, more if I can schedule it.  The first issue was the transportation issue, solved by renting a car.  Once that was handled it was a matter of getting tickets.  We could order them at the marina but were advised that it was better to go downtown to buy them so that we could pick out the seats.  We headed downtown, negotiated the one way streets, roundabouts and not turn zones and found a parking place only to discover that the ticket office was closed.  This actually turned out to be a lessing in disguise.  While we were trying to find the office we were lake pity on by a woman in the festival office.  She decided that we absolutely must see the National Day performance, which was not part of the Heiva and thus did not have to conform to all of the rules but was an equally good show telling the story of one of the legends of Tahiti.  the show was to be tomorrow night after the parade.  she not only gave us free tickets but provided a parking pass so that we could park in the VIP parking section.   In fact she gave us 4 tickets since we had already planned to attend the parade with another cruising couple. 

The day of the parade, Sunday, we headed into town early to claim our parking spot.  It worked like a charm.  We were parked right next to the arena.  The main street downtown runs along the waterfront.  Between it and the ocean is a lovely park which was filled with families enjoying the day.  The streets were blocked off and eventually the parade started.   The parade consisted of groups of people in matching outfits walking in groups.  A few of them carried paddles or danced but mostly they just walked and waved.  There must have been 50 different groups representing all of the villages on the island and many of the local schools, clubs and civic groups.  There were at least as many people in the parade and there were in the audience.  Halfway through it started to rain, not just a sprinkle but a downpour but people kept marching and the spectators just moved under the trees.  1/2 hours later it quit and everyone moved back to their seats.

Beween the parade and the show we got dinner from the “roulettes”  (lunch wagons)  To our amazement, there was no alcohol sold anywhere We would have to go back into town to a restaurant to get a beer.  It is interesting how tightly controlled the sale of alcohol is but it leads to a very family friendly environment. 

The dance performance was extraordinary.  Probably 100 dancers, along with singers, drummers and other musicians.  Tahitian dance is characterized by super fast hip wiggles on the part of the women and knee shakes by the men.  The show went on for 2 hours.  I was exhausted just watching.  I cannot imagine how tired they must be after a show.  So much energy!!  When we went back to the actual heiva contest performance, there were 3 troups  Each one danced for well over an hour, doing 3 distinct dances in different styles.  The dancing we so energetic that pieces of their costumes were left all over the floor.  They had one dancer whose job was to collect costume pieces and try to reattach them to the performer without breaking character or interrupting the show.  Pretty funny actually.  There must be a video on you tube that shows this.