The fierce and acrobatic art of fireknife dancing returns to the Polynesian Cultural Center for the 16th Annual World Fireknife Championships in Hawai’i. LOUISA TE’I reports exclusively to SPASIFIKmag.com.
The fierce and acrobatic art of fireknife dancing returns to the Polynesian Cultural Center in May for the 16th Annual World Fireknife Championships in Hawai’i. 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, 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, Hawai‘i 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, Guam and 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 Hawai’i 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 the 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.
