Tuesday, January 31, 2017

Two Dancers in Fiji

Two Dancers in Fiji

Two figures on stage wait for the cue.
One with limbs shining with coconut oil,
and  his feet firmly anchored.
Fibre bands wrap his muscled arms,
he is bare-chested but with an ochre fibre skirt,
 And the musical beat is from a small Fijian drum.
The slender girl is bejewelled, wrapped in silks
with a sun-gold skirt like a bell,
as she lightly imitates a peacock stance,
then pauses holding the Indian pose.
When the slit drum starts up a regular beat
he leaps forward in a warlike challenge
the wooden club raised in defiance.
The dholak shifts to triplet beats,
she moves delicately, handed curved,
bending. Lifting her arms to the air
as the silks flutter and silver anklets shimmer.
With a shift in sound he prances forward,
threatening, the club swinging aloft,
then pauses watching for a reaction.
Her response is still a metaphor
of being feminine, softly inviting,
but confident of her own grace.
Then shift now is different, the club drops,
as he moves to stand behind the girl,
both now stepping to the same beat,
the lali and dhola drum in sync.
No more circling and disquiet,
difference is now a celebration.
The tourist audience clap like thunder
but the message does not reach
the local people, only invited visitors
at a cultural expo, only sunburnt foreigners.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Zh25VUczSE&sns=fb
Fijian Tourism Expo 2015 - Opening ceremony Indian versus Fijian dance!


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