Merrie Monarch
Our take
Aloha mai!
I'm from the Philippines and I first saw videos of the Merrie Monarch while I was scrolling through folk dances during my elementary summer break on my mother's office laptop. I was watching East Asian fan dances back then and had a rigid structure of what folk dances were. The first performance I watched was the 2013 auana of Halau o Kamuela with their O'ahu Medley. The first kahiko performance I saw was Halau o Hokulani then Halau Hula Olana both from 2009 [videos since deleted during the pandemic]. The first livestream I caught was 2021's as I was given my first laptop for school purposes. Hula is what inspired me to pursuit Anthropology and History.
With all that said I've noticed a change in both beats and melody compared to a decade ago, moreso compared to older verions of the festival. This change became quite prominent to meat at least since 2022. I love the modern costumes and the even more detailed ornaments (I greately pray the Ohia death shall subside) but I feel like the auana music sounds more jazzy, sounds similar to what my country's modern OPM band music. Regards to Kahiko, the main difference for me is on Hula Pahu, I noticed that a lot of hula this year had two hands instead of having the smaller drum. Why is that?
Thank you for reading through my long post! I greately await on everyone's opinion on this. Mahalo nui!
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