Most competitive-arts festivals hand a coordinator two axes to build around: age group, then competition item. A hula competition in the Merrie Monarch tradition hands you a different grid entirely — two hula styles, split by gender, plus a solo event that only one of those genders can enter, and a combined award that spans styles a scoring system doesn’t normally let you add together. This guide explains that structure from the festival’s own published awards and results, and what it takes to run a hula competition scoring system that reproduces it correctly — useful groundwork whether you’re planning a hula competition abroad, at a cultural festival, or searching for hula competition software.
The real structure: two styles, two genders, one solo event
The festival’s own published results describe a division grid rather than a flat list of items. Group hula runs in two styles — Hula Kahiko (traditional/ancient style) and Hula Auana (modern style) — and each style is judged separately for Wahine (women’s) halau and Kane (men’s) halau. Alongside the group competitions sits Miss Aloha Hula, a solo competition open only to Wahine, judged across several rounds of oli (chant), hula kahiko and hula auana performed by one dancer.
| Competition | Entered as | Division |
|---|---|---|
| Hula Kahiko | Team (halau) | Wahine |
| Hula Auana | Team (halau) | Wahine |
| Hula Kahiko | Team (halau) | Kane |
| Hula Auana | Team (halau) | Kane |
| Miss Aloha Hula | Individual | Wahine only |
In eTalenter this is one clean pass through Competition Items and Assign Competitions to Groups: two competitions (Kahiko, Auana) each entered as a Team, assigned separately to a Wahine group and a Kane group, plus Miss Aloha Hula entered as an Individual and assigned only to Wahine. Four rows for the group grid, one row for the solo — instead of one coordinator’s spreadsheet trying to remember by hand which gender each style is open to.
No published age rule — and that’s a real finding, not a gap
Unlike a school kalolsavam or a youth eisteddfod, this festival’s own site publishes no age brackets, no eligibility age range and no junior/senior split for its divisions. Wahine and Kane halau compete as full troupes regardless of the age spread inside them. A committee running its own hula competition, at a school, cultural association or diaspora event, still has to decide and publish its own age policy for its dancers — that’s organiser judgement, not a rule copied from Merrie Monarch, and it’s worth stating clearly in your own entry rules rather than assuming a hula competition has to have age bands at all.
The same discipline applies to scoring. The festival publishes no scoring rubric, point scale or criteria list — the specific criteria commonly repeated online (technique, interpretation, costume and so on) come from news coverage and interviews, not from any primary rules document. What the results DO confirm is the scoring format: a rating out of 10 is the scale used by the panel, not a 100-point rubric. A committee building its own hula competition should treat the rating scale as verified and build its own weighted criteria on top of it, publishing that rubric to competitors and judges well before the event — see our judging and tabulation guide for how to structure a fair rubric a panel can actually apply consistently.
Placements, and the combined “Overall” award
The festival’s most recently published results awarded five placements in Wahine Kahiko, Wahine Auana and Miss Aloha Hula, and four in Kane (placement counts can vary year to year with the number of entries) — a first-through-fifth order of merit, not a percentage grade band. On top of the per-style placements, the results also print a combined “Overall” award spanning both Kahiko and Auana — “1st Place Wahine Overall” and “1st Place Kane Overall” — awarded to the halau with the strongest combined showing across both styles, plus a Hawaiian Language Award within Miss Aloha Hula.
| Award | Spans | Awarded to |
|---|---|---|
| 1st–5th (or 4th) Place | One style, one gender | Halau / soloist |
| Overall (Wahine / Kane) | Kahiko + Auana combined | Halau |
| Hawaiian Language Award | Miss Aloha Hula | Soloist |
That combined award is the structural insight worth building around. Most competition software treats every item as scored independently, with results tabulated and published item by item. An “Overall” award that adds a halau’s Kahiko result to its Auana result — two separately judged, separately scored competitions — and ranks THAT combined total is a genuinely different tabulation step, closer to a championship points table than a single result sheet. eTalenter’s Awards configuration supports awards calculated across multiple competitions for the same participant, which is exactly what an Overall-style prize needs; our championship points table guide covers the same “combine several results into one ranking” mechanic from the house-points side.
Preparing a halau or a hula program for competition
Whether you’re coaching one halau or coordinating an entire schools or community hula competition, the same planning items matter regardless of the scoring system behind them:
- Decide your divisions early. Wahine/Kane, Kahiko/Auana, group versus solo — publish which of these your event actually runs, since not every hula competition needs all five.
- Set an age policy if you want one. The reference event doesn’t publish age bands; your own event should still decide and publish whatever policy suits your dancers (open, adult-only, youth divisions, or a mixed halau).
- Publish the rating scale and rubric in advance. A 1–10 rating per judge, with named criteria (authenticity to style, precision, presentation, language/oli where relevant) agreed and shared with the panel before the first performance.
- Decide whether an Overall award applies. If a halau competes in both Kahiko and Auana, will their two scores combine into a cross-style ranking, or does every style stand alone?
- Plan the stage program. Group items typically run long (multiple dancers, chant, costume changes); build a realistic running order and buffer time rather than a tight back-to-back schedule.
Setting a hula competition up in eTalenter
- Age Groups Setup — Wahine and Kane as the two groups (open age, unless your own event sets bands).
- Event Levels — a single-venue competition needs one level; a multi-round or qualifying structure builds a level per stage.
- Competition Items — Hula Kahiko, Hula Auana and Miss Aloha Hula, each tagged with a rating-out-of-10 score format.
- Assign Competitions to Groups — Kahiko and Auana as Team entries to both Wahine and Kane; Miss Aloha Hula as an Individual entry to Wahine only.
- Scoring Setup — the 1–10 rating scale, first-through-fifth placements, and an Overall award combining a halau’s Kahiko and Auana scores if your event runs one.
- Registration and rosters — halau entries built as Teams with full dancer rosters for the group items via registration.
- Judging and tabulation — independent judge scoring per the judging panel guide, with per-style and Overall results tabulated automatically.
- Results and publishing — publish results online by style, by gender, and the Overall award separately.
The same platform that models a Kahiko/Auana/Miss Aloha Hula grid also runs a youth eisteddfod, a feis and a school kalolsavam — different division structures, different award models, one flexible scoring engine underneath.
Frequently asked questions
What are the divisions in a hula competition like Merrie Monarch?
Group hula runs in two styles, Hula Kahiko and Hula Auana, each judged separately for Wahine (women’s) and Kane (men’s) halau. Alongside these sits Miss Aloha Hula, a solo competition open only to Wahine dancers across several performance rounds.
Is there a published scoring rubric for judging hula?
The reference festival publishes no scoring rubric, point scale or criteria list — only the scoring format, a rating out of 10. Criteria commonly quoted online come from interviews and commentary, not a primary rules document. Organisers running their own hula competition should publish their own rubric built on that rating scale.
What is the “Overall” award in a hula competition?
An Overall award combines a halau’s results across both Kahiko and Auana into a single cross-style ranking, awarded separately for Wahine and Kane, on top of the individual placements each style already earns.
Running a hula competition, cultural festival, or any judged dance program?
If your event needs a division grid by style and gender, a solo category with its own rules, and an Overall award that spans two separately judged competitions, eTalenter sets the whole structure up as one scoring system instead of separate spreadsheets per style. Talk to us on WhatsApp or email support@etalenter.com.
The division structure, placement counts, the Overall award and the Hawaiian Language Award described in this article are drawn from the Merrie Monarch Festival’s own published awards and results pages. The festival publishes no age brackets or scoring rubric; those details above are explicitly flagged as organiser decisions, not asserted as any festival’s rule. Rules and results are set and owned by the festival itself, not by eTalenter, and are revised each year — always check the current year’s own published results for specifics.
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