I miss Polynesia...it's a feeling that is more subtle now as I get older and also because I have visited Hawai'i every Summer for the past 2 years. But I do miss the beauty of the islands, the food, the fun people..so I'm getting ready to start "Hot Hula" today from youtube....it's such a fun way to aerobicise and thought I would drop some costume ideas on my blog.
Not typically a fan of contemporary samoan taupo (chieftainess) look...but I find this one pays a lot of respect to the traditional look. Love it! The Western eye might not see this as attractive (why? considering most of the weirdness folks put on themselves today) but it is a beautiful nod to the past. The lauhala fine mat dress and tapa bark belt. The ulafala (red seed collar) with the ula nifo (pig's teeth necklace). The kuiga (queen) crown with mother of pearl shell, feathers and false bleached hair wig (sooo Tina Turner) what's not to like? Lady GAGA could take a lesson in meatless all vegetal haberdashery. I guess it also takes a cute teine samoa to be wearing it.
The very best Taupo are coconut oiled, move slowly with grace, keep themselves emotionally separate from the action on stage while performing just a beat slower than the music to punctuate their regal importance over the exuberance of those dancing around them. They should smile throughout the performance with a calm detachment from the commoners as they are royal and in charge. If you dance this you had better know and love who you are.
The fa'alolo (male lead dancer) has to be the most talented, coordinated and hilarious character, able to rouse the crowd, give orders to the dancers and exert discipline over how the spectacle plays out. The best fa'alolo is always athletic.
The Ai'lao is a spear dance that is never seen anymore. I remember seeing it when I was a kid. I suspect it is similar to the Tongan Kai'lao which is still done by the Tongans and my FAVORITE Tongan number. It requires a lot of stamping in unison, crouching low, high springs, twisting and spinning the kai'lao short spear. When the men wear seed anklets the sound is amazing, brings tears to the true Poly eyes.
Vintage Samoa: no fast food in Samoa in these days...everyone is super lean. Oh probably after this number, these guys had to walk home, set out in the canoe to catch fish, grate coconut, and cook it all up with taro for dinner. That would keep me lean and mean and hungry! Hey, but isn't that the definition of a Samoan?
Nifo oti knife dance. Really anyone can do it (just kidding). It isn't easy. Both men and women dance it. It is not an ancient dance with the fire aspect. Traditional knife dancing was without fire. Fire is an element in all of Polynesian dancing that has been added for the tourist value. But it is now acceptable and the only form practiced. My dad was an old school knife dancer...he had nothing good to say about fire knife...eow..I guess that's why I'm a purist in theory about costuming.
KAP TAFITI TEO!!! #1 knife dancer. He's the best and a grandpa?? I just saw him at PCC's 50th last year and hid behind a coconut tree so I wouldn't have to say hi, intense he scares me. How does he keep that 6 pack? Oh yeah, I forgot, he took mine, and yours, and all of ours.....haha. KAP is the best, just explodes off the stage...if there are knife dancers in Waikiki then he is better and he's all LDS!!! Okay don't take that "I'm bad" look seriously every Samoan can pull that look out of their ie lavalava in a second. When we're born, we have that look on our face like, "you better get me something to eat and FAST or I will take you out!"
SASA my fave. No really, anyone can do this, just keep up. The seated hand dance telling the story of everyday life combined with a vigorous running siva and lots of yelling. Must know the running step, clap hands, run, run, kick, run, run, alternate kick....cheehoo bloodcurdling screaming and don't fall over (keep that lavalava tied!) and make SURE and wear your shorts underneath. Immodesty shows a lack of "ma" or self respect.
A note on what we wore or didn't wear pre-European times: Modesty was still a vital aspect of our people even tho they wore very little. This fine point is little understood by Western thinking and even modern anthropologists. Dress standards were what they were...but there were rules governing the thinking and behavior of folks to be modest. There was a time after the islands became fully Christianized when these were the MOST modestly dressed and religious behaving of people outside of Utah. When the missionaries taught us to be righteous our parents dressed modestly and became enlightened. But now the young generation of Polynesians are turning back to the old ways. The old wicked ways and justifying this as a move to authenticity. Now I am saddened when I see our younger generations being as immodest as the most loose creatures to be found on a cheap Hollywood video. Makes you just want to fusu the head of the offender. So if you hear an old Samoan grandma say, "oe auoi she haf no ma?" you know what's up. Don't even get me started on tattoos! Well okay I have to say since YOU brought tattoos up...haha...just because we invented this intricate art form, since we know the prophets have counseled us to not mark our bodies... why do LDS youth of Poly extraction cover themselves like graffiti? Do they not know it is forbidden? Oooh I know if my Grandma was alive she would already be removing her shoe if any one of us grandkids were to do such a disgraceful thing. Tattooing is like a pox of disobedience spreading over the world. Ok, but I warned you not to get me started.
A final note...
The Samoan canoe at PCC what a beautiful example of modest young LDS men and women. I love watching canoe pageant in Hawai'i, I know my eyes will not be assaulted by any sights I don't wish to see. Ha! Yeah, right over there where those folks are sitting I got an awful sunburn from sitting out for 2 hours...with my hair up. I didn't think it was possible but my Samoan genes failed me.
Chocolate Haupia (Coconut) Cream Pie ala Ted's Bakery in Hale'iwa, Hawai'i...
Can I just say that I had been dreaming about hitting up Ted's long before our tickets were bought for the PCC 50th alumni anniversary last year. Oh yeah, dreaming about a coconut cream pie. Now I had never been to Ted's but I had seen it on the Food Channel and every tourist and their dog goes there. So this was high on my list. My poor boys could have cared less. But one beautiful morning we set out before our PCC schedule hit, I planned to get there early, get my pie and holo holo back to La'ie.
Didn't happen. After driving from Sunset to Hale'iwa for the 3rd time and seeing nothing that looked like a bakery, I asked several locals...oh they had directions all right...directions that lead exactly NOWHERE!!! What were they drinking? What??? I was seriously frustrated. It was getting late...the boys were hungry for lunch, missing their daily surf fix at Pounders beach...oooh I could tell things were going downhill when that inner voice of mine, the stubborn one, said "what? you not even gonna get taste of da kine worl' famous pie? you come all da way from da mainland, work all year in da salt mines for miss out dis?" Oh no, I di'int. I drove again to the tip of the island, Wailua town (this is a good 40 mile trip x 4 by now and the gas gauge had gone from full to half) found an old lady who looked responsible raking leaves and got the real GPS. Because this time I was not playin...I didn't want to hear "jes go down dea, den turn, den keep goin....."
I found TED's...got in line behind a busload of tourists...got me a bag of goodies, cinnamon rolls terrific, brownies great...CHOCOLATE HAUPIA CREAM PIE. Yeah we were hungry, it was past lunch time. 4 hours on this mission. The boys really wanted Garlic Chicken from Papa Ole's in Hau'ula down the side of the island...and I wanted them to have a real lunch...not these starch dreams I had treasured for so long...only a winding drive around craggy north shore coastline on narrow Kam highway separated us from the chicken...I looked at the pie on the passenger seat...hmmm...no spoon..no fork...no utensil of any kind...but the Samoan in me knew this was a no brainer. "hey....just use your 2 finkers like a sipungi..." and so I did...and by the time we came into Kahuku that humongous pie was half gone and I was feeling good tho a little stuffed.
Trying not to crash looking at this...
and this..
and this...
but...the Samoan genes pulled through...I was sure handed and steady with the haupia pie on the right and the wheel on the left! I DO come from a long line of fire knife dancers! Fa'afetai tele lava DAD!!!
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