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The ula (dance) is an ancient Tongan group dance, already reported by early European navigators like Captain Cook. It is also known as fahaʻi-ula (split dance), which may be degenerated to fahaʻiula. Traditionally, it is performed after an ʻotuhaka. [1] It is still danced nowadays, although less popular than its descendant the tauʻolunga.
The second row on a low bench, the next row on a higher bench, and so forth. The last row usually stands, or if that is still not enough, they may stand on benches and tables. If the dance is an effort of a local community, young and old perform. The youngest children then cutely sit at the ends of the rows.
The ʻotuhaka (ʻotu-haka: row-of-dancemovements) is a traditional Tongan group dance with prominent Samoan influence wherein the performers are seated and make gestures with their arms only, with some accentuation from head and body. [1] Originally the ʻotuhaka was performed by older, chiefly ladies only, who were supposed to be too old to stand.
The Maulu'ulu [a] is an indigenous dance performed by the Samoan people.Contemporary ma'ulu'ulu compositions and choreographies are generally performed by female dancers, although some villages have a tradition of men and women dancing together.
The Taualuga (unlike the Tongan Tau'olunga) is a solo performance. The dance was accompanied by choral music and simple percussion such as the slit gong or rolled mats that were beaten with sticks. Singers, directed by a conductor known as "fuataimi" or "fa'aluma," generally sat in rows or concentric semicircles around the dance area.
A similar Rotuman dance, also derived from the 'Uvean original, is similarly called the ka'loa. Tonga College students performing a kailao for the King's 70th birthday (1988) The 'Ikale Tahi , the Tongan national rugby union team, used to perform the kailao with kailao clubs or sticks, as they did against Wales in 1974.
Any description of Tongan culture that limits itself to what Tongans see as anga fakatonga would give a seriously distorted view of what people actually do, in Tonga, or in diaspora, because accommodations are so often made to anga fakapālangi. The following account tries to give both the idealized and the on-the-ground versions of Tongan culture.
The group of people performing a haka is referred to as a kapa haka (kapa meaning group or team, and also rank or row). [14] The Māori word haka has cognates in other Polynesian languages, for example: Samoan saʻa (), Tokelauan haka, Rarotongan ʻaka, Hawaiian haʻa, Marquesan haka, meaning 'to be short-legged' or 'dance'; all from Proto-Polynesian saka, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian sakaŋ ...