By Greg Dixon
The time is 1965. The place is Hula Town, a "scurrilous" nightspot in Apia, Samoa, and in the darkness the knives are about to come out.
However it's not in the audience that the action happens but up on stage, as this night's entertainers brandish their razor-sharp weapons. Nobody says a word.
But the cops were never called. As it turned out, the comically named Hula Town was one of Pacific tradition's more bizarre birthplaces. This is where Samoa's Siva Nifo Oti, the knife dance, was unsheathed for the first time.
While it had long been Samoan custom to celebrate the tattooing of a chief's son with knife twirling, it wasn't a traditional party piece - nor did it immediately become so after those first cutting-edge shows at Hula Town.
This first performance of Siva Nifo Oti was greeted with absolute silence by those gathered, according to Dr Richard Moyle, an ethnomusicologist who "accidentally and innocently" used to frequent the establishment.
"But it soon caught on as soon as people started to recognise the skill involved. Knives were eventually replaced by flaming torches. Essentially it is the same thing. I was teaching in Hawaii in the 70s and it had reached there, and it was being adopted by groups outside Samoa and even outside the Pacific."
And it will be there this Saturday among scores of performances lined up for Pasifika '99, the seventh annual celebration of Pacific cultures and lifestyles, organised by the Auckland City Council and the South Pacific Islands Nations Development Association.
While Pasifika '99 will be awash with some of the best of contemporary sounds - the day-long festival features Pacific funk, reggae, soul and hip-hop acts including rapper Che Fu - tradition has its own stage.
That tradition comes in two shapes, the new and the old, says Moyle, a University of Auckland lecturer and director of the Archive of Maori and Pacific Music.
The old words, music and dance is brought out, dusted off and performed on particular occasions. The new has an ever-expanding repertoire and audience as it embraces novelty and cross-cultural influence.
"One of the strengths of several Polynesian groups - I think of Tonga, Samoa and French Polynesia - is they are eclectic," says Moyle. "They see something in someone else's performance, they'll take that element and incorporate it into their own routine, and after a while that becomes a kind of new tradition."
But Pacific music and dance traditions are divided in another way, too - between east and west.
While all island groups in the west, including Tonga, Samoa, Tokelau and Tuvalu, obviously have cultural differences, their styles are broadly homogeneous, with an emphasis on harmony and accelerating tempos, says Moyle.
They have dances in common. In Tonga the Tauolunga, called Taualunga in Samoa where it originates, is a relatively slow, tightly synchronised dance performed by two or more unmarried women, usually teenagers.
The two Pacific Island groups also share the Ma'ulu'ulu, which started in Samoa in the 1870s. This is a seated dance, normally performed by women accompanied by two or more skin drums.
"There's drumming, just sheer virtuoso drumming, then a period of silent dance action accompanied by the drums and only then, after that is finished, does the singing start," says Moyle.
In the eastern Pacific - a vast area marked out by Hawaii in the north, Easter Island in the east - you see rapid hip movements and men and women dancing face to face, which is a "no-no" in the west.
In the centre of the east are the Cook Islands and French Polynesia. The constant two-way traffic and trade between the two island clusters over the centuries means their traditions and cultures have a lot in common. At Pasifika that should equal plenty of flesh.
"Tamarii Ai Rui, the Tahitian Culture Group, is crowd-pleasing stuff because you've got scantily dressed women swivelling their hips, you've got very muscular young men, also very vigorous.
"These two elements are gradually expanding. Tongans and Samoans, in particular, realise that there are audiences to be gathered and reputations to be established by exploiting those two things."
And if the staging is the same as in past years, you'll be close enough to smell coconut oil used to grease their bodies, says Moyle.
For cultural outsiders - the diverse ethnic audience is one of the great strengths of Pasifika, he says - the important thing to remember with all Polynesian song and dance is the words.
"The emphasis in song is not the beauty of the voice or the skill of a trained voice, but the communication of the words. As far as dance goes, the movements - they stop short of pantomime - reflect to varying extents the contents of words.
"I grew up thinking that song accompanied dance but in Polynesia it is the other way around."
And whatever you do, don't just sit there and listen quietly, says Moyle.
"In many of these cultures the audience is expected to be active and participatory rather than passive. A passive silent audience is the worst possible scenario [for performers].
"So if you appreciate it, show your appreciation. That stimulates the dancers and their performance standard rises. You've got this kind of mutual stimulation going."
What: Pasifika '99
When: Today, 9 am to 6 pm
Where: Western Springs Lakeside, Auckland.
Pictured: A Tahitian cultural group performing the traditional dance, the Tamure.
Getting down to Pacifics
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.