Rock the Lot Island Edition - The Outlet Collection Seattle Tahitian Performance

Keiki and their families join Kalei'okalani for Hawaiian Story Telling with mo'olelo of Puapualenalena, Nānaue, and more at The Outlet Collection Seattle's annual Rock the Lot event - Island Edition!

Ori Tahiti dancers of Huraiti Mana are ready backstage at The Seattle Collection's Rock the Lot event Sunday, July 15, 2018

Huraiti Mana was invited by The Outlet Collection Seattle (formally known as the Auburn Super Mall) to participate in its second annual Rock the Lot event. This year's event was dubbed the "Island Edition" with Hula and Ori Tahiti performances, musicians, food, music, games, and more for a packed family-fun event. It was on record the hottest day of 2018 as we performed onstage in the parking-lot-converted-to-fairgrounds. 

Early in the morning, our Hawaiian Story Telling time was such a sweet and intimate event - right in the middle of the mall! It was a perfect venue - so creative, so original - and we were joined by the cutest young ones and their 'ohana. We discussed what it meant to be kind, and what was the right thing to do through mo'olelo kahiko (stories of old). Then, we moved outdoors for performances on the main stage alongside Jessie Matsui's Mixxed Fit demo, Arden Fujiwara's 'Ukulele performance, and Sunshine from Polynesia's Hawaiian mele performances.

Special Mahalo to the team at The Outlet Collection for creating such an amazing and warm event (no pun intended!). It is not always that Hawai'i events in Washington have such a great turn out from folks in the Polynesian Communities who are able to meet and connect with one another! We met so many amazing leaders in our Ori Tahiti (Tahitian dance) community and were able to talk briefly about our dreams for the future of Ori in the Pacific Northwest. As one of the newest dance groups to the region, Huraiti Mana is so humbled and so blessed to begin contributing to and connecting with this community here in Seattle. During our audience participation section, many friends and family and other groups' dancers joined the stage for laughter and shared love of dance.

A big mauruuru roa to Lara Mae and all who planned this amazingly fun event - your care and sincere devotion to Hawaiian and Ori cultures is so important to our communities.