Heiva San Diego 2019
Originally published in September 2019
It’s been over a month, and the hype is still real! Heiva San Diego was my very first (and hopefully not the last) international Tahitian Dance competition experience. It was the first time that dancers from opposite ends of the earth, from Mexico City, Mexico, and Sydney, Australia, from the Nāpua dance school, came together to compete in the Mehura category at Heiva San Diego 2019.
Nāpua Mexico and Nāpua Australia together for Heiva San Diego 2019
What is the Heiva San Diego?
Heiva comes from the Tahitian words hei (to assemble) and va (community places) – with the most significant festival taking place in Tahiti during the month of July. The festival has become a symbol of Polynesian culture, encompassing Tahitian dance, music, ceremonial performances, and sports competitions. The celebration of Tahitian culture has spread across the globe, with many other cities hosting their own Heiva competitions, including Honolulu, Paris, Tokyo, San Diego, and more!
Here’s a summary of our whirlwind journey:
Day one: Thursday - Australia and Mexico come together
Nāpua Australia girls at Sydney Airport en route to San Diego
For us Aussies, it was a 17-hour journey (a 14-hour flight across the Pacific Ocean from Sydney to Los Angeles, followed by a 3-hour drive to San Diego). We were exhausted, spaced out, and jet-lagged when we arrived at the accommodation, but we were still excited to meet our Mexican counterparts for the first time.
Excitement was also met with anxiety. We had been practising in our respective cities for months, only knowing each other by name on a piece of paper and from Instagram profile pictures. In our first rehearsal, we diligently ran through our positions, formation changes and choreography. We practised our singing, facial expressions and storytelling through our dance and emotions. Soon enough, we started to feel like one cohesive group.
Day two: Friday - Making fresh costumes is no joke
We started the morning with our final rehearsal together. Nothing says commitment like dancing and drilling choreography in the San Diego desert summer sun. Luckily, we had a couple of hours to relax, grab some lunch, and chill by the resort pool before embarking on our fresh costume-making journey into the morning sunrise.
After a slight delay (thank you, L.A. traffic), we got our fresh plants to make our costumes! Now, for us Aussies, this was the first time that we’ve ever had to make a costume out of fresh plants (not for lack of desire – Sydney plants are just way too expensive!). We split up in groups, each with a Mexican Mother Hen to teach us the ins and outs of making a fresh costume.
And what an experience that was. We started at 5pm, enthusiastic and excited. But some of us were up until 7 am the next morning, still trying to finish our costumes (and still weren't finished by then)! We had to make:
Headpieces from ginger petals and tuberose flowers
Neckpieces and chokers from ginger petals, leaves and tuberose flowers
Tuberose flower chains hanging from the skirt and down our backs
There was a lot of sewing, threading, gluing, with bloodshot eyes, sweaty palms, and inhaling glue fumes. There was a fine line you had to tread - you couldn’t make your sew too tight or you’d break the flowers, but leave them too loose and they’d fall away. Every step was a new challenge, and with each challenge came a lot of stress and delirium. The saving grace was having each other to laugh (or cry) with!
Day three: Saturday – Competition Day
It was D-Day. Some had a couple of hours’ sleep, and others none at all. Our Mexican teammates were competing in the morning in the heats of the solo competition. In both the beginner and advanced categories, there was so much talent spanning all ages. It was both inspiring (and intimidating) to watch all these talented dancers give it their all on stage.
After the tech run, lunch, finishing our costumes, hair, and make-up, it was time to make our way to the green room. Much to our surprise, the program was running much earlier than expected, so what followed was 20 minutes of stress, panic, last-minute sewing, jabbing clips onto each other’s heads to fasten our headpieces on, asking those around us, “DO YOU HAVE SCISSORS? DO YOU HAVE A NEEDLE? WHERE’S MY THREAD? DO YOU HAVE A MIRROR? WHO HAS RED LIPSTICK?” In my years of dance performance experience, I have not experienced chaos like this. There were tears, there was yelling, and everyone had gone into panic mode – there was no time to warm up, stretch or have a group pep-talk to prep us for our one chance on stage.
But we made it. In the minutes before stepping out on stage, I had to compose myself and remind myself that I had been preparing for months, having made a significant investment of time and money to fly to the other side of the world to dance on this stage. I made sure that none of the pre-performance chaos would get to me. We just had to get on stage, be in the moment, and express our performance while telling our story.
The months of preparation led to those five minutes on stage, which were over in a flash! Our performance was met with applause and a positive reception from the crowd. As one of the last performances of the evening, we couldn’t watch the other groups, so we had no idea how our performance ranked among the rest. I’m proud to say that we came 3rd in our category – an amazing feat, considering how talented and well-respected our competitors were.
Day four: Sunday – Immersing in all the ‘ori Tahiti energy
Post-competition dance jam
It was a surreal experience seeing ‘ori Tahiti solo competitions live for the first time. We spent the entire day engrossed by the incredible talent of all these dancers, many of whom I had watched on YouTube and Instagram. It was inspiring to see their beautiful technique, ability to catch the pehe (drum beats), and, most importantly, to emote and perform at another level. Once all the finals were complete, two of our Nāpua crew placed in their categories. Massive congrats to Erika and Lari!
The competition wrapped up, and for most of the group, it was our last night together - and my final night in the U.S. before flying back home to Sydney. We shared dinner, drinks and many laughs and ended our stay in San Diego with a spontaneous dance showcase. Everyone showing the group dance routines in a range of styles – hip hop, dancehall, Afro, Bollywood, hula and, of course, ‘ori Tahiti. It was a beautiful symbol of dance, bringing people from all over the world.
