Reigning
champions to challenge at Hawaii's hottest event-the 16th Annual
World Fireknife Competition
LAIE, Hawaii
- This May, the fierce and acrobatic art of Samoan fireknife
dancing returns to the Polynesian Cultural Center for the 16th
Annual World Fireknife Championships. At this fiery event, the
last thing you'll notice is what the dancers are wearing.
From May 14 through
May 17, fireknife dancers from all over the World will battle
head-to-head for the supreme title of World Fireknife Champion.
The event is the second cultural event of PCC's 45th anniversary
year and is shaping up to be one of the most exciting years of
the competition.
Expected to return
and defend their titles are the 2005-2006 and 2007 World Fireknife
Champions, Mikaele Oloa and Andrew "Umi" Sexton, respectively.
According to official rules, Oloa was not eligible to compete
after winning back-to-back titles in 2005 and 2006, so this year
these two warriors will duke it out, along with dozens of other
competitors, to be named the best in the world. The preliminary
competition will take place on Thursday, May 15 and the semi-finals
on Friday, May 16 to be held at PCC's Hale Aloha Theater.
The top three
competitors will then have to perform at PCC's Pacific Theater
on Saturday, May 17, during the intermission of the Horizons
night show, which will be held twice that evening. Immediately
following the second show, the winning warrior is named and a
lavish award ceremony is held in their honor.
In addition,
back by popular demand is the Warrior's Duet Fireknife Competition,
which allows tandem teams to perform a coordinated routine. However,
the performance is anything but routine, with amazing throws
and double the danger for thrill seekers. Not to be outdone,
the women's competition, Teine Toa o Samoa (Female Warriors of
Samoa), also returns for a second year and brings new meaning
to femme fatale. Both events will take place on Wednesday, May
14 in the PCC's Hale Aloha Theater.
Sponsored by
Henry S. Mataalii & Company, Hawaiian Airlines, Turtle Bay
Resort, Electric Pencil, Cirque du Soleil, Pepsi, Bank of Hawaii,
Galumalemana Lester W.B. Moore, Hawaii Tourism Authority and
the City & County of Honolulu, the annual World Fireknife
Competition also includes the Pacific Junior Fireknife Competitions
on May 16 where competitors as young as four demonstrate their
own sensational fireknife skills. The young warriors are not
to be taken lightly and demonstrate that they too will be vying
for the World Fireknife crown in the future.
The art of fireknife
dancing is one of the most intense, skillful, but beautiful Samoan
traditions in which dancers twirl a sharp knife with both ends
on fire at high speeds and with acrobatic finesse. The fire is
very real, and dancers often make contact with different parts
of their body with only a short lavalava wrap around their waist.
As any fireknife dancer will tell you, they do get burned, as
dancers use no other form of protection.
"Many of
these competitors began learning the fireknife when they were
just a child, picking up the practice fireknives at first,"
said Logo Apelu, vice president of operations for the Polynesian
Cultural Center. "Unlike most children, though, these young
warriors were encouraged to play with fire."
When the competition
was founded 16 years ago, there were less than 30 competitors.
Last year, more than 65 performers entered the competition with
dancers entering from Japan, New Zealand, Guam and even the continental
U.S.
In addition to
the fireknife competitions, the PCC's Pacific Theater will also
serve as a venue for the annual Samoan Cultural High Schools
Arts Festival where Hawaii high school students demonstrate their
own cultural knowledge of Samoan traditions with exhibitions
in basket weaving, coconut husking as well as fire making among
other events. Visitors are encouraged to stop by festival, which
will be held at the Pacific Theater beginning at 9 a.m. on Saturday,
May 17 prior to the World Fireknife Championship face-off that
evening.
Admission to
the Hale Aloha Theater events and the Samoan Cultural High School
Arts Festival is $8 for adults, ages 12 and up and $6 for keiki
ages three to 11. To join in on the final night of festivities,
visitors must purchase a reserved seating ticket to either of
the two Horizons night shows that evening, as the finals take
place during the intermissions of both. Any full-day ticket
holder can attend any of the special events with their ticket
except for the final night, which will require a Horizons night
show ticket. Ticket prices start at $43.00.
For more information
or to make reservations, please call the Polynesian Cultural
Center ticket office at (800) 367-7060 or visit the PCC Web site
at www.polynesia.com. In Hawaii, call (808)
293-3333.
Founded in 1963
as a non-profit organization, the PCC has entertained more than
33 million visitors while preserving and portraying the culture,
arts, and crafts of Polynesia to the rest of the world. In addition,
the PCC has provided financial assistance to 17,000 young people
from more than 70 different countries while they have attended
Brigham Young University-Hawaii. As a non-profit organization,
all funds generated by the PCC are used for its daily operations
and to support its cultural and educational missions.
© Osini Faleatasi Inc. dba Samoa News reserves
all rights.
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