Flag Day Dance

April 17 is Flag Day in American Samoa. Although it is a bit like the 4th of July in the U.S., unfortunately there are no fireworks. Another big difference between the two holidays is well the U.S. celebrates its independence, American Samoa seems to celebrate its dependence. April 17 is the day that American Samoa became a U.S. territory.

As with most Samoan celebrations, dancing plays a big role in the Flag Day holiday. Emma's dance group, Siva Maia, performed last night. For the past month, Emma has been attending dance practice 3 days a week to learn a new dance. The dance was a traditional Samoan dance, performed with clapping two halves of coconut shells together. Here are Emma and her Swedish friend, Agnes.

Emma has become known as quite the helper among the moms here. She is always lending a hand, and is counting the days until she is old enough to babysit.

I videotaped the dance performance, but with Paul off-island on a research trip, there was only one parent to manage the electronics. I tried, but couldn't hold the video camera and take pictures with the still camera at the same time! I did get pictures of some of the other dancers, though.

Throughout the group dance performances, there was a competition for the solo dancers. Traditional Samoan dances always have a solo dance number. The dancer is called the taupou. They dress in either a tapa cloth, which is made from mulberry bark and covered with traditonal designs or a woven fine mat (the taupou here is dancing in a mat). The taupou also wears a very ornate headpiece, with fake hair made from the husks of coconuts. I can't imagine that it would be very comfortable to dance with a mat wrapped around your body, while trying to balance that headpiece!