Chapter Four - Kauhiva: The Dancing Group

Summary

The spectators shout

“How beautiful are Hina and her mother,

how beautiful are Hina and her mother! ”

In the folktale The Tale of the Clam (Chapter One) the shouts of the spectators acclaim the dancers by name and by their status: the wives of Tinilau, and their mothers are dancing. The description highlights how beautiful they are in the dance, how colorful their costume is. Technical features of the dance and music also attract attention, but here I wish to take a cue from the folktale (and from the experience of watching many rehearsals and performances) to examine social features of Tokelau dance.

A Tokelau audience always acknowledges the people who are dancing— the social identification of the dancers is always important. The dance is not primarily a display of technical virtuosity but an expression of community identity. It is not an individual's skill in dancing that aHows him or her to take part in performances (though a skilled person may be sought after), but rather it is membership of the group responsible for the presentation. Tokelau performing groups are not primarily dance groups; they are community groups defined by kinship, residence, church membership or atoll of origin.

This was impressed on me in my study of the fātele soon after I first asked the group at Naenae in the Hutt Valley if I might listen to, and record their music. They spent much of their "rehearsal" time in social and community activities—the group did not exist only to dance. I also soon found that, having associated myself with them, I was expected to join in the dancing, and even to perform in public on various occasions. I protested that I did not know the dance—I hopped about too much, I did not know the movements, I was the wrong shape and color. I wondered if the group was testing my interest, or mocking an intruder. But I came to believe that the situation was simpler: since I was an able-bodied member of the group I should join in any of its social occasions, and fundraising tasks as well as dance and music rehearsals and performances.