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,
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.
Fijian Tourism Expo 2015 - Opening ceremony Indian versus Fijian dance!
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