128th Heiva I Tahiti - Te Anuanua

The theme of this years' Heiva I Tahiti is - Te Anuanua - The rainbow, the bridge between men and the gods, between heaven and earth. The 128th annual event encompasses both cultural and sporting events throughout French Polynesia. It serves to bring together the islands and its people through song, dance and sport.

Last week marked a cultural and symbolic beginning of the month long festival. Award-winning group O Tahiti E, led by raatira Marguerite Lai, presented a pageant entitled "Vaka Arioi" which reenacted the role that the arioi played in ancient Tahiti. In ancient times the arioi entertained the arii (royalty).

Tomorrow evening, the reigning Heiva Nui awarding-winning group Hei Tahiti, under the direction of Tiare Trompette, will be featured in a program honoring the late Henri Hiro, a noted poet, teacher, filmmaker, pastor, and activist and the founder of l'Office Territorial d'Action Culturelle.

In contrast to last years' dance competition, just one group, Hitireva (Kehaulani Chanquy) will be performing in the Heiva Nui division. The group was last years' Heiva division winner and as such was moved up into the Heiva Nui division. The main division to watch this year will be the Heiva division. Participating groups include: HURA TAHITI NUI, NOHOARII (Xavier Nonoh), TOAKURA (Mateata Legayic), MANAHAU (Jean-Marie BIRET), AVAI'URA NO HUAHINE (Leila Darles-Lai), TOROMIKI AUOROTINI NO RIKITEA (Dany Paheo), and FARE IHI NO HUAHINE (Paul Tehare).

Here is the tentative program for the dance and song competition taking place at Place Toata. Activities will be running from July 5-23 with awards being announced on July 22.

More information at the Heiva Nui event website may be available. The July 2010 edition of Hiroa also has more information and may be downloaded at the publication website as a pdf file. The document is in French.


HEIVA I TAHITI 2010
PROGRAM

Thursday, July 8, 2010
19:00 - NIGHT SPECIAL

Friday, July 9, 2010
19.00 - Dance: Category HEIVA: HURA TAHITI NUI

20:00 - Songs: tarava Tahiti tamarii Matai

20:30 - Songs: tarava Raromatai: NO FANATICS tamarii AABF

21.00 - Dance: Category HEIVA NUI: HITIREVA

Saturday, July 10, 2010
19.00 - Dance: Category HEIVA: NOHOARII

20.00 - Songs: tarava Tahiti Nui VAIARII

20.30 - Songs: tarava Raromatai: VAIHOATAUA

21h00-Dances: Category HEIVA: TOAKURA

Friday, July 16, 2010
19.00 - Dance: Category HEIVA FARE IHI NO HUAHINE

20:00 - Songs: tarava Tahiti tamarii TEAHUPOO

20.30 - Dance: 21:30 - songs: tarava Raromatai: Ateh

22.00 - Dance: Category HEIVA: MANAHAU

Saturday, July 17, 2010
19:00 - Songs: tarava Tahiti tamarii PAPARA

19:30 - Dance HEIVA Category: TAVAI'URA NO HUAHINE

20:30 - Songs: tarava Tahiti: Ass. Tamarii NO Papeari

21:00 - Songs: tarava Raromatai FARE IHI NO HUAHINE

21.30 - Dance: Category HEIVA: TOROMIKI AUOROTINI NO Rikitea

Thursday, July 22, 2010
EVENING OF AWARDS
Friday, July 23, 2010
NIGHT OF THE WINNERS OF HEIVA I TAHITI 2010

Photo Gallery of 2009 Heiva i Tahiti

Here is a large photo gallery of the 2009 Heiva i Tahiti by Life is Love. Photos are divided into dates and groups. All photos are copyrighted by the photographer.

Also, here is a tentative schedule for the remaining dance group performances at Place To'ata. Chanting performances are placed in between major dance performances.

Thursday, July 16
7 pm - Pereaito
9 pm - Hei Tahiti (Tiare Trompette)

Friday, July 17
7 pm - Hura Apetahi
8:30 pm - Tamarii Teahupoo
9:30 pm - Temaeva (Fabien Dinard / Coco Hotahota)

Saturday, July 18
7 pm - Kei Tawhiti (Maire Tuia)
9:30 pm - Tamariki Oparo (Makau Foster)

Thursday, July 23
Awards Ceremonies

Friday, July 24
Closing Ceremonies

International Cultural Farereiraa

Five US Tahitian dance groups and 1 from Japan will compete in the International Cultural Farereiraa (gathering) in Papeete, Tahiti. The groups competing include Nemenzo (San Francisco), Ote'a Api (Freemont), Hitia O Te Ra (Los Angeles), Here Tama Nui and Manutahi (Hawaii). Mahana O Te Ra is coming from Japan. Events will take place July 18-20 at Place To'ata.

Te Fare Tauhiti Nui and Coco Hotahota organizated the event to share the passion of Tahitian dance with foreign groups. Both soloists and groups will compete. Approximately 600 dancers are reported to be participating.

More reporting at La Depeche de Tahiti

Ahutoru Nui and O Tahiti E perform at Heiva i Tahiti

Ahutoru Nui and O Tahiti E performed on the third day (July 13) of competition in the 127th Annual Heiva i Tahiti. Performances took place at Place To'ata at the Papeete waterfront. Both groups have been grande champions of the event in past years and both showed why they earned their titles.

Anthony Tirao, ra'atira of Ahutoru Nui and Marguerite Lai & Moanaura Teheiura of O Tahiti E created their performances based on themes and stories. The large groups sported extravagant costumes and exhibited some of the most creative and vivid dance numbers sure to make judging very difficult.

More information and photos at La Depeche de Tahiti

Heiva I Tahiti begins today

Tahiti Presse

The 125th Heiva I Tahiti, or Tahiti Festival, the biggest celebration of the year throughout Tahiti and Her Islands, opens on Friday and continues through July 21, offering a nearly month-long program of traditional, cultural and entertaining events.

Some 30 traditional dancing and singing groups will compete this year in competition that will be held nightly from July 1-July 8 at Place To'ata in downtown Papeete. All performances will be held from 7-11 pm.

After seven nights of competition there will be an awards ceremony on the night of July 19 and a special dance show orchestrated by Coco Hotahota entitled "Once upon a time . . . "

A special evening featuring all of this year's winning groups will be held the next night, July 20, from 7-10:30 pm.

A camera show presenting many of the competing groups will be held on July 21 at the Museum of Tahiti and Her Islands, where there also will be a demonstration of traditional Tahitian sports.

The ticket prices for the first seven nights of dancing and singing competition from July 1-8 are 2,500 French Pacific francs (US$29/€21), 1,500 francs (US$17/€13) and 1,000 francs (US$12/€8). Ticket prices for the July 20 performance by this year's winning groups are 3,000 French Pacific francs (US$35/€25), 2,500 francs and 1,500 francs. Tickets for the camera show on July 21 cost 2,000 French Pacific francs (US$23/€17).

Another one of the most popular Tahiti Festival events is always the outrigger canoe racing in Papeete Harbor. There will be two days of races this year, starting at 8 am each day. There will be races of three- and six-paddler canoes on June 29 and one- and 16-paddler canoes on June 30.
There also will be two days of outrigger canoe ocean racing. A race for junior men will start at 9 am on July 6 from Papeete, going to the Tahara'a Point and returning to Papeete. A race for senior women will start at 1 pm the same day and cover the same course.

The next day, July 7, outrigger canoes will leave in front of Place To'ata at 8 am and paddle to Moorea and back.

Other Tahiti Festival events include:

A regatta of sailing outrigger canoes from 10 am to 4 pm at Venus Point on July 6 and July 7;
At the Museum of Tahiti and Her Islands, stone-lifting competition for women, a fruit carriers' race for women and individual javelin-throwing on July 14 from 1-4:30 pm; stone-lifting for men, a fruit carriers' race for men and javelin-throwing by teams on July 15 from 4:30 pm;
Javelin-throwing, stone-lifting for all categories and copra preparation contests for men and women individuals and teams on July 17 at the Museum of Tahiti and Her Islands from 4:30-8:30 pm.