Get Yo' Dance On!


CRAZY, CRAZY, CRAZY

That is the best way to sum up the last week. On Friday, my school had it's annual Samoan Arts Festival. FUN, FUN, FUN. That is what it was, but it required a lot of WORK, WORK, WORK, energy, patience, and humor. My class has been working hard for the past couple of months to prepare for it.


I might've mentioned before that I am with my students all day everyday. Amy Grant once sang, "Why do I have to wear so many things on my hear? Hats!" I can feel the ache of her muscles and tiredness in her bones. I teach everything. Everything. Not only that, but I'm the PE coach (Go ahead, laugh. Ok. Stop now.), I'm the lunchroom attendant (Lunch is in the classroom.), and most recently I became the dance instructor. I'll laugh with you here: Ha! Ha! Ha! I do what I have to do. Early March, I knew nothing at all about Samoan dance. Middle of May, I've coached my class through three dances, arranged for costumes to be made, located props, and avoided comitting any serious cultural faux pas that offended the Samoan audience.

Samoa is a place for experienctial learning. Read Fay Calkin's book, My Samoan Chief. Many things are different today, but some things will probably never change in Samoa. Why should they? Why make the place any less special. People sometimes just assume that you just know things. Now I know that is not a purely Samoa trait (read The Devil Wears Prada), but trial by fire seems to be the rule rather than the exception on our little island. You'd think I'd finally learn and get used to it, but it just comes as a shock when you think you've done everything correctly and a parent approaches you with a look of horror oh her face an tells you that you are about to make a huge mistake that will offend the real Samoan members of the audience. I give my sincere gratitude to people watching out for me and who have my back. My humble request is to warn me about potential critical errors sooner than immediately before I make them. HEART ATTACK. This past year, I have really fine tuned my "think-on-your-toes" ability. A problem comes along, and I just pull a solution out of my rear. I'm amazed at what is up there. As I mentioned before, I survived the program with no major cultural faux pas.

On Friday night, not only did my students do well, they were f-a-b-u-l-o-u-s!

We were number 2 on the program. Zack tried to give me a real heart attack by showing up 20 minutes late with an essential prop for our perfomance: a kava bowl.


The kava bowl was the center piece for our ava ceremony. The ava ceremony is a very important part of Samoan culture. Davalynn played the role of Taupou to prepare the ava for the chiefs.

After the Guppies (pre-school class) performed their tauluga,


my kids were up again for the final two dances of their program. I'm not sure how we lucked up to have all of our performances so early in the program, but that allowed me to enjoy the rest of the show. When one of my hyper-active students was acting up, I could say to myself, "Let it go. His mother's here. He's her responsibility tonight." The second of our three dances was our group performance. It was a quick tempo dance that included both the boys and girls.

Aren't their lava lavas and puletasis fantastic? Thanks Caroline for you contributions!

Kimberley was so graceful, and Quinn was right on.

Teresa was our class taupou, and Kirstan was her manaia. The Adventurers class gave the tauluga performance of the night. They were so into it. Teresa became a star on the stage and gave her best perfomance yet.

Thanks again, Caroline, for saving me again.


Maybe I'm a little biased, but doesn't Kirstan make the cutest manaia you've ever seen. Are manaias supposed to be cute. I think so. (I cannot believe I'm throwing around the word cute so easily, like it's not a word that evokes nausea. Sorry.)

Every class had a performance, and this led to a long program, but not as long as you might expect. I was a little disappointed in the parents who bailed after their child's performance. Inappropriate.

Finishing off the evening were the female teachers.


I was not allowed to perform. It was not descrimination. They were just afraid that my mad dancing skills would make them look bad by comparison. I understand that. It's hard to be on stage with a superstar when you're only a dim flash light.

A special shout-out

Leti, the graceful miracle worker.
Isn't she hot, y'all?

Friday night would have sucked big time if it were not for Leti. She pulled off a miracle for Pacific Horizons School. Leti was was my classes choreographer. She also choreographed almost all of the other dances that were perfomed that night. She is amazing. Creative and patient. She also served as our cultural advisor and creative consultant. Creative and knowledgeable. She whipped my girls into shape, taught me everything I know, found our music, trained our special dances, and managed to teach her pre-school class. Amazing.


Bye y'all!