Shall We Dance?

Hola, mi amigos...coma esta...here's a post dedicated to Fia Fia Night...which was this past saturday at Tafuna High School..."fia fia" means entertainment in samoan...all the classes (freshman, sophomore, etc.) put on traditional and non-traditional dances for the audience...and, boy, was it a huge audience...our PTA raised over $30,000...the kids worked tremendously hard on their dances and everything turned out wonderful...listen to me, i sound like a proud parent or something...anyways, ill tell you a little bit about the night, and maybe ill have a few musings on the love and respect for dance and music here in Samoa...its a pretty important cultural thing for the samoans...and maybe ill write about their notions of male and female that is presented in their dances...but im gonna try not to write a lot...ill let the videos speak for themselves...yes, i have vidoes for all you high speed users...but ill get to that later...

for now, the above picture is of me and some of my students...miss tafuna, pualani, is in the middle...i, of course, look like a palagi dork...

this is just a boring picture of the background for the show...its really pretty, but we use the same background for all our special events...and just change the title...but i suppose we dont have the money for new backgrounds for every show..."the warrior nation" is fiscal...

this picture kind of shows the enormous amount of people at the celebration...though it doesnt even show half of them...those are the sophomores dancing in red...it kinda sucked because the teachers had to help the students get ready and everything...i kinda wanted to just sit back, relax, and enjoy the show...but i had to aid the freshman (because im a freshman advisor) in preparing for their big dance routine...i kept sneaking over to the juniors though because thats who i teach...and the juniors rock!...the classes did show their dances during an assembly at school one day, so i did get to see them all...they were all amazingly enjoyable to watch...

just a pic of the boys doing the huka (spelling?)...thats this male form of samoan dance where they grunt and stomp their feet and pound their chests...and yell things in samoan...if you ever see a samoan soccer game, the team begins with this dance...anyways, i do have video of it...thats coming soon, folks...hold on to your horses...

another pic of the kids doing their dance...this is the freshman...i actually had to stand in the back of the stage and dance and clap...its called the siva...thats a samoan way of dancing...kind of hard to explain...anyways, it was extremely embarassing...i didnt even really try...i just did the two-step and clapped my hands to the music...the palagi did his best...

here's a pic of two of my students...theyre obviously in their traditional samoan wear...acting all tough and manly...just like their male dances, the men in this culture are very masculine and alpha-male-like...theyre brutish and rough and manly...and they are proud to be a man...a warrior who hunts with no remorse...just pure MAN...i dont know how else to explain it...i think in america, many boys and men are discouraged from being proud of being a man...a man in the alpha-male sense...theyre inspired and forced to act androgenous, or even more female-like (be caring, gentle, quiet, humble, dont hunt, etc.)...of course this isnt always true...men still act like men in america...but what does "acting like men" really mean?...im not gonna go through that here...thats for my future master's program thesis...but i will say that there is a "war against boys" in america...where boys are not proud of and motivated to be boys...maybe thats an after effect of feminism in america...or maybe its just my own personal opinion...as i said, im not getting into it here....

a pic of some of my students in my freshman SAT tutoring class...good kids...

not only do i look heavenly in this picture (halo and all), but i also look kinda creepy...whats up with that smile?...and that fat?!...

another picture of the boys acting caveman-like...they think theyre so mean...k, here's a link to a video of the junior boys doing their "dance"...its not quite a "dance"...its more of a bunch of guys acting like gorillas or apes...but its cool...and very powerful...full of strength and brawn and muscle...what i find kinda interesting is that as manly as the dance is, its still a "dance" in a sense...in other words, i dont think youd find very many guys doing this in america...i think itd be seen as weird or even "girly"...or foolish...afterall, guys shouldnt be stomping around acting like cavemen...we americans are way too sophisticated, educated, and refined for that...(by the way, i dont know if this video will work...lets just try it...i know i could just post the video but i kinda wanted to write about the videos and all that...you may have to make a youtube account...if it doesnt work, ill post the vids on the blog tomorrow...just let me know...oh, and try not to view the other vids until i get to them...thats cheating if you do)...k, watch the video and see some samoan culture for yourself....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoMZVkLe4Xo

i dont know if its samoan teenagers or if its all teenagers...but teens are damn vain...bring out a camera and a whole hoard of them will stampede over and smile...and show their guns...

not that this is important or anything, but the girl to the left (ours) of the girl in the middle with the decorative hair piece is a fafafina...a boy/girl...i usually refer to her as a female...her name is tweety...and she's a student of mine...

speaking of fafafinas, ill show you my next video...its of the junior girls doing their fia fia dance...its beautiful...theres a fafafina in the middle of the group...she's the only one in a dark brown top...really skinny...and she, like all fafafinas, was the star of the dance...why is the gay community so excellent at the performing arts?...discuss...anyways, i dont know how these kids remembered all their dance steps...dana and shawn know that remembering dance steps is a lot harder than it seems...but these girls do it naturally...and gorgeously...you'll see people walking up to the dancers...theyre giving them money...its a samoan tradition to slap cash on the dancers bodies...its kind of a neat tradition because it makes the performance interactive...i mean, its fun to go up to your dancing family members and stick some dead presidents on them...but its also kind of annoying because they ruin the show...its hard to see the performance and the dancers get messed up when theres a bunch of people on the dance floor...but whatever...its not my culture...so ill butt out and just admire the dance...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwVW3o1yOCA

remember this kid?...this is the kid that was sleeping in my class...little punk...as you can tell from this pic, he thinks he's the shiznit...

this next video is of the REALLY traditional samoan dance...and song...miss tafuna, my student, is the one all the other dancers are focusing on...she's wearing the big, stunning head dress...she also has a samoan weapon in her hand...and is sort of doing a ballet with it...its very calm and wonderful to watch...the kids' heads kind of look like the ocean's waves...many of their dances deal with the ocean or waves or boating or fishing...i guess the island life in general...you can also see the boys get up and dance in appreciation of miss tafuna...i kinda like this aspect of their dancing culture as well...the feminine is praised and respected and admired...once again, in america (because of those fricken feminists!), girls are supposed to or encouraged to act androgenous...essentially, to act like men...get jobs...wear pants...go to the gym...be good at sports...be tough...being dainty or delicate or elegant is sort of, i think, looked down upon...but here, to be a graceful, feminine woman is exquisite...i know america being androgenous is a good thing (then boys and girls can have whatever traits they want to), but a reverence for the conventional male/female traits can be special and virtuous...again, you can see a person put money on miss tafuna's body...thats baby oil that its sticking to...i think in the olden days it was just their sweat...or something...and yes, that is another fafafina at the end wearing a white halter top thingy...man, theyre everywhere!...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDrLdjAxxAc

strike a pose, ladies!...okay, this final video is of the big grand finale dance for the juniors...this dance truly rocked the house...as you can see from the vid, a fafafina is the star of the show again...she (he?) is actually in my class..her name is veteran...but his fafa name is Queen V...youll notice women trying to put money on her...but the tina turner wannabe doesnt have any of that, and swings her hair in their faces...its hilarious...and then the dance ends off with a very funny, and embarassing, bang...remember, this is an island of strict, pious christians and mormans...and here they are laughing, celebrating, and cheering for a transgendered, gay man (woman?)...its sooooo crazy...of course, you could also say the audience was laughing AT the fafafina, not WITH her...but, in my humble belief, the fafafina brought happiness and smiles to the crowd...and entertained theyre asses off...see, christians can have a good time :-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKGfy1PMsiw

no, this is not a picture of a tribe of wild, cannabalistic, lord of the flies boys...these are my students...be afraid...be very afraid...oh, and i quickly wanted to mention that i keep talking about the androgenousness of america...but look at american samoa, where you're either majorly feminine or totally masculine, and youll see the most transgendered people ever...maybe there's so many transgendered people because theres no real in-between for males and females...i dont know if theres a connection at all...its just interesting that the least androgenous society has the most androgenous people...especially men...discuss...

alright, you guys...thats it for tonight...i hope the vids worked for ya...sorry to all the people with dial up...i dont know how good theyre gonna work...i tried to make the videos short so theyd play for people...and i apologize for the unorganization and messy writing...i know i try to write profoundly on these posts, but tonight i decided to let the pics and vids speak for themselves...let me know what you think of this part of the samoan culture...its fascinating...and if i was actually speaking to you all, id probably have something more intelligent to say about it...

k, bye...love ya and miss ya...

-JOE

p.s...i also posted a video of tavita jumping in the waterfall...its short...really short...i used it as a test run...to see if itd work...so heres that if you wanna watch it...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52j4oU3aJck

"I'm more interested in what I discover than what I invent."

-Paul Simon