Hula Kahiko (Group) Competition: What It Is, Where It’s Run and How It’s Judged

The group class for hula kahiko, the ancient style of Hawaiian hula performed to chant and percussion, entered by a halau as a team and placed separately for women and men.

Hula kahiko is the ancient, chant-based form of Hawaiian hula. Instead of a melody, the dancers are accompanied by the voice of a chanter and by traditional percussion, and the movements carry the words of the chant. In a competition it is one half of a pair: the other half is hula auana, the modern style danced to song and stringed instruments. The group Kahiko class is where a school of hula, known as a halau, enters a team to be placed against other teams.

The festival the template is built from runs the class as a division grid rather than a single list. Group Kahiko is held separately for wahine (women) and kane (men), so a halau may send a women’s team, a men’s team, or both, and each is placed against teams of the same division. The template mirrors that: one Team item, filed once under Wahine and once under Kane, in the Hawaiian language, with a score out of 100 as a working scale.

The source publishes no scoring rubric, point scale, criteria list or eligibility rules, so none of those is asserted here. The template’s 10-minute limit and 100-mark scale are working defaults for an organiser’s own event, not the festival’s rules. Anyone running a hula competition should agree the time limit, the number of dancers and the judging sheet with their panel and publish them with the entry rules.

Placings in the source go beyond a simple top three. In the most recent results the template draws on, five places were awarded in the women’s Kahiko class and four in the men’s, varying with the number of entries, and a combined Overall award spanning Kahiko and Auana is also printed for each division. The template therefore leaves the number of places to the organiser instead of fixing it.

This page describes how the class is organised for people who run events. The chants, their meanings and the protocols around them belong to the communities and halau who carry them, and they are not explained here.

Where Hula Kahiko (Group) is run

On eTalenter this item is used in one template, the Hawaiian hula festival template, as two Team assignments: Wahine (women) and Kane (men). The template is built from the results published by a long-running annual hula competition in Hawaii, United States. Elsewhere, hula competitions and halau showcases run their own classes and rules, so read an organiser’s notice before assuming the same arrangement.

• Hawaii, United States (the competition the template is built from)

Key facts

• A Team item: one halau team is entered and placed as a unit
• Held in two divisions, Wahine (women) and Kane (men), each placed separately
• Danced to chant and traditional percussion, the ancient style, as opposed to the modern Auana class
• Language on the template is Hawaiian; score is a working 100-mark scale
• The source prints no judging rubric, age rule or time limit, so the 10-minute limit is a template default only
• The number of places varies with entries, so the organiser decides and publishes it

On eTalenter, Hula Kahiko (Group) is filed under On Stage and typically scored with Rating out of 10. It appears in 1 ready-made event templates — each one can adjust its time limit, age-group assignment and scoring setup independently.

Across the templates that use it, Hula Kahiko (Group) is most often entered as an Team competition, commonly run for Male, typically scored out of 100, commonly time-limited to around 10 minutes where a limit is set.

What judges look at in Hula Kahiko (Group)

What a Hula Kahiko (Group) panel is actually weighing up, and where the marks are usually won or lost:

• The source publishes no judging sheet, so what follows is organiser guidance for agreeing yardsticks with a panel, not rules from the source
• Chant and movement together: whether the dancers’ gestures match the words and phrasing of the chant, rather than moving independently of it
• Unity of the team: dancers starting, turning and finishing together, with the same posture, height of gesture and foot placement across the line
• Accuracy of traditional technique: stance, hand and arm positions and the steady, grounded footwork that distinguishes the ancient style
• Voice and percussion: where the chanter and percussionists are part of the entry, whether the chant is clear, steady and well projected, and the rhythm stays even
• Dress and presentation: adornments and attire that suit the style and the chosen piece, worn neatly, with nothing distracting from the dance
• Time discipline: finishing inside the agreed time limit so one halau’s piece does not squeeze the programme

Treat these as the judging focus, not a fixed rubric: publish your own weighted criteria for Hula Kahiko (Group) under Scoring Setup, or start from judge scoring and tabulation software.

How to prepare for Hula Kahiko (Group)

How entrants and their teachers usually get Hula Kahiko (Group) right on the day:

• Settle the rules before registration opens: the number of dancers, the time limit, who may chant, and how many places will be awarded, then publish them
• Register each team under its halau name with a named contact, and enter women’s and men’s teams separately, since each is placed in its own division
• Rehearse the chant as carefully as the dance: dancers who know the words well move more confidently and stay in time with the chanter
• Practise starts, entrances and exits in the actual performance space, so the line forms cleanly and nobody is rushed on or off
• Drill uniformity: film a run-through and check that posture, gesture height and footwork match along the whole line
• Check adornments and attire the day before, with spares for anything that can break, so nothing needs repairing in front of the judges
• Time every rehearsal against the agreed limit and plan a cut if the piece runs long
• After a loss, ask the panel for comments and rework the weakest section, usually timing between the chant and the movement

Frequently asked questions

Is Hula Kahiko (Group) judged individually or as a team?

Across eTalenter’s templates it’s most often run as an Team entry, commonly for Male, though an organiser can set either participation type when assigning the item to an age group.

What is the difference between hula kahiko and hula auana?

Kahiko is the ancient style, danced to chant and traditional percussion. Auana is the modern style, danced to song with stringed instruments. In the festival the template follows, each has its own group class.

Is Hula Kahiko (Group) open to men and women?

Yes, in separate divisions. The template files the item once under Wahine (women) and once under Kane (men), and each division is placed on its own.

How long is the performance and how is it scored?

The source publishes no time limit or scoring rubric. The template uses a 10-minute limit and a 100-mark scale as working defaults, and an organiser should set and publish their own.

How many places are awarded?

It varies. In the most recent results the template draws on, five places were awarded in the women’s class and four in the men’s, depending on entries, so the template fixes no number.

Is there an overall award across Kahiko and Auana?

The source prints a combined Overall award for each division, spanning both styles. The template does not model it as a separate item, so an organiser who wants one should define how the two classes are combined and publish that with the rules.

Want the full judging picture? Read judge scoring and tabulation software, or browse every on stage competition item.