Description
Tala faasolo. Many of Samoa’s stories are told through music, dance, and tattooing and are the dominant art forms in Samoa.
Visiting the tufuga (tattoo artist) is considered a rite of passage for young males.
Sāsā is a sitting dance often performed mainly through arm movements and the ula where two groups alternate between singing and dancing.
The siva is a graceful, fluid, storytelling dance that is traditionally performed by a young woman while the fast and energetic fa’ataupati is performed by men wearing traditional lava lava and women wearing puletasi. The siva afi is a particularly spectacular fire knife dance where young boys or men twirl a large knife with burning flames around their bodies to the beat of a wooden drum.