the show
Hawaiʻi, New Zealand and Tahiti: the dances in the show
What each part of the Pacific contributes to the evening's hula-led programme.
Reserve your table at Gilligan's ↗Two faces of hula
| Style | How it's performed |
|---|---|
| Hula kahiko | Chanted, with drums and gourd instruments |
| Hula ʻauana | Sung, with guitar, ukulele and bass |
Where hula comes from
Hula is a Hawaiian dance form built around mele, or song, developed by Native Hawaiians and traditionally taught in a hālau, a dance school, under a kumu hula, a teacher. Dancers train for years in the hand movements that stand in for nature, emotion and story.
Kahiko, the older style
Hula kahiko is the style performed before Western contact, danced to chant rather than song and accompanied by drums and gourd instruments. It was, and still is, treated as a serious, often ceremonial art form rather than pure entertainment.
ʻAuana, the newer style
Hula ʻauana developed during the 19th and 20th centuries once Western instruments arrived in the islands. The word means roughly “to wander,” and the style is sung in major scales over guitar, ukulele and bass.
The show's opening act
A luau programme like Gilligan's typically opens with hula, often moving from a kahiko-style number into ʻauana, so the first part of the evening carries both the older and newer sides of the tradition.
Crossing to New Zealand
From Hawaiʻi, the show moves to the dance traditions of New Zealand, carried by the same live Hawaiian musicians and drummer who play through the rest of the night.
Tahiti and the pace change
The programme closes its dance section in Tahiti, where the drumming speeds up and the choreography becomes the evening's most physically demanding, setting up the fire-knife finale that follows.