UC Santa Barbara’s Polynesian dance and drumming club Iaorana Te Otea hosted its annual Winter Lū‘au on Jan. 18, showcasing Hawaiian hula dancing, drumming and solo performances. 

Iaorana Te Otea (ITO) means “greetings from the drum beat” in Hawaiian and was established in 1990 and features 40 dancers today. Wesley Haver / Daily Nexus

A Lū‘au is a traditional Hawaiian celebration significant to Polynesian culture which includes various styles of dancing and drumming. Iaorana Te Otea (ITO) means “greetings from the drumbeat” in Tahitian and was established at UCSB in 1990. Originally started as a Tahitian drumming club, dancing became integrated a few years into ITO’s creation. 

The event was held at the Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall from 5-7 p.m. with roughly 400 attendees and tickets went for $5. The Lū‘au featured 40 ITO dancers from UCSB. There were three types of performances at the event: Hula ‘Auana — a contemporary, Western-influenced style of hula — live drumming sections and Hula Kahiko, a traditional style of hula dancing.

The Winter Lū‘au also featured am Ipu Heke for the first time, which is a drum that accompanies the Kahiko style of dancing. ITO Co-president, dance coordinator and co-costume chair third-year political science and economics double major Hannah Kang expressed that before attending UCSB, her studio heavily practiced Kahiko style which wasn’t prevalent in ITO. She wanted to integrate Ipu Heke into the Winter Lū‘au, with help from third-year microbiology major Elijah Calip and third-year environmental studies and economics double major Christian Dagamac. 

“[Elijah], one of our chanters, and Christian were both super amazing working outside of practice with me on really learning the lyrics and practicing their drumming style to go with the specific dances that I wanted to execute with them. And I think it just adds a lot more authenticity when we have the live drumming. And it’s so much more touching than simply recording,” Kang said. 

Hula ‘Auana dances are meant to “symbolize the wandering nature of hula dancing,” utilizing a more free-flowing approach, according to Kang. Hula Kahiko utilizes more percussion instruments with slower dances accompanied by chanting.

Kang said that ITO began preparing for this event over summer. Co-president and dance coordinator and third-year sociology major Aliya Bennett said ITO had five members as dance coordinators who helped choreograph original dances.

“Each one of us helped choreograph a couple dances this year. So we, coming in as dance coordinators, knew we wanted to sort of create new dances, but we also have had past presidents and past people in the club that have choreographed dances that we keep in the club. Some of them are so old that we don’t even know who choreographed them anymore,” Bennett said.

The performance also included a Kane — Hawaiian for man — dance which incorporated more masculine dancing techniques, according to Bennett. However, anyone is welcome to dance in this style regardless of gender. 

Third-year environmental studies and economics double major Jesu Rosas said she’s been coming to the performances “every single quarter.” 

“I feel like it’s just like such a good show. I always recommend to all my friends, even though they don’t have anyone to particularly come see. It’s just so fun to see this good community,” Rosas said. “I feel like they follow traditions from their families, and they brought it to UCSB to kind of build their own family in here.”

A version of this article appeared on p.7 of the Jan. 23, 2025 edition of the Daily Nexus.

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