Dancing With Fire
The Polynesian Tradition
Who doesn't think about luaus and fire dancers when they think about Hawaii? It's pretty safe to say that no matter where you are in the world, you at least know about the famous Hawaiian luau and fire dancers. However, you might not know that Hawaii is part of Polynesia and Polynesia is made up of Samoa, Tahiti, Fiji, Tonga and many others. Fire knife dancing is a tradition in Polynesia and one of the greatest attractions for mainlanders who come to visit Hawaii. In Polynesian culture, fire knife dancers start learning this traditional art as young as 4-years-old. That is pretty impressive and something that a lot of parents wouldn't even consider allowing their children to do these young ages. However, the people of the Polynesian culture take pride in their traditions and who they are. In this, they keep their traditions alive.
2017 World Fire Knife Competition
For the past 25 years, the Polynesian Cultural Center on Oahu has been hosting the World Fire Knife Competition. This year, we attended the competition and were able to capture some awesome video and photos of the competitors. The participants are as young as 6-years-old and yes, they do actually spin fire. The competition is full of energy from beginning to end and is an extraordinary event to watch. This year, our son went with us and watched all three days of the competition and he was inspired to learn how to fire knife dance himself. This is something you don't want to miss and the highlight video above only captures some of the magic that is experienced during the competition.