“Disney’s Moana Live-to-Film Concert” is making its way to IU Auditorium on Oct. 24 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are on sale now, starting at $20, and can be bought online on the IU Auditorium website or in person at the box office.
An hour before the show begins, Amber Racoma, who is Hawaiian, and members of IU’s Pacific Islander Student Association will host a pre-show talk and activity. Racoma will perform traditional hula and teach some moves to attendees. The Pacific Islander Student Association will then lead a lei-making table where guests can make their own paper leis.
Juniyah Nazaire, a senior studying accounting and finance at IU and the president of PISA said the pre-show activities will be a fun opportunity to get more cultural context for “Moana.”
“The process of making a lei and giving a lei is about spreading aloha,” Nazaire said. “So, it really gives context to ‘Moana’ in a way that it shows how to spread aloha and in what ways we can do that.”
This concert sets out to bring “Moana” to life by performing the accompanying score and songs live with a musical ensemble of top Hollywood studio musicians, including Polynesian percussionists and vocalists.
Ryan Keau Kalama is a singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and educator who will be playing bass and singing lead vocals in the concert. Because most of the band is Polynesian, Kalama said, the music represents Polynesian culture well. He said that matters for proper pronunciation and representation on stage.
Kalama said the percussion within the concert in particular brings the music and culture within the film to life. There are five percussionists in the show who each have authentic Polynesian percussion instruments like a pahu and a to'ere, he said, all built by Anthony Stanley, one of the band members. In the concert, the percussion is a big focal point of the show, not just sonically, but visually as well.
“When you come to the show and see it live, it really makes the music just come alive. It has a pulse, you know. It becomes organic,” Kalama said. “Especially, again, some of the percussion parts really just pop when you see it live.”
Before joining the show, Kalama was concerned about the difficulties he’d face with the music — he doesn’t read musical notation. That meant extra challenges for him to learn the entire score.
“I liken it to the story of Moana, where she heard the call of the ocean. She always wanted to go out on the ocean and also for me that was going on tour,” Kalama said. “But then Moana has all these challenges, and I had challenges learning the music, you know, areas of time where I didn’t even know if I could do it, if I was the right person for the job. But just like Moana, she persevered and after the experience, she had grown.”
Apart from the thrill of hearing the music from “Moana” live, this live-to-film concert is also a great opportunity to experience Polynesian culture and learn more about it.
Racoma said that in Hawaiian culture, there is something called “mana,” which is a spiritual power and energy that brings people together and promotes respect with love and sharing traditions. She said that this concept is very present throughout “Moana,” but that it’s also an important consideration for audiences to keep in mind while watching the film.
“A lot of people, you know, when they see hula dancing, they’re kind of like, ‘Oh wow, it’s so beautiful,’” Amber said. “But then to really embrace the hula dancing and to understand what the music is about and what they’re talking about, that mana is there, it’s very strong.”
