Lakalaka

The lakalaka (walking briskly) is a Tongan group dance where the performers are largely standing still and make gestures with their arms only. It is considered as the national dance of Tonga and part of the intangible human heritage. It is the ideal dance at formal occasions, like the birthday of the king or the opening of a church.

The lakalaka is a living dance in the sense that new compositions are still daily made. Often when a celebration is coming up, a punake (poet) will write the lyrics to the occasion, assign music to the stanzas from a pool of typical tunes and then choreograph the haka (dance movements). Nevertheless, there are lakalaka which have become so famous that they can generally be used at any occasion. Among them several made by Queen Sālote, like Takafalu, Nailasikau, Sāngone, ʻOtu langi, Tuaikaepau, and so forth.

The dance movements of men and women are different. Most of the time the women make small steps to the left and right only, and their arm movements are small and fluid. Nevertheless, the arm movements are farther away from the body (laufola, outstretched arms) than for example with the māʻuluʻulu. The movements of the men are wilder and more vigorous. In addition to small steps, they may at times turn around, sit down or even lie down. In any case, how different their haka on first glance may be, both men and women interpret the words of the songs, but in a symbolic, allusive way as so typical for Tongan dance.

The dancers are standing in one or more rows, depending on the number of participants. 2 dozen per row is about fine. The men to the right, the women to the left as seen from the public. Behind them the chorus; the lakalaka is a sung dance, there is none or very little instrumental accompaniment. Sometimes in the middle of some lakalaka there are stanzas with a different type of lyrics and music than the rest, called the sipa. During the sipa the men move to the left, the women to the right, the two groups passing through each other, until their order is reversed. At the next stanza they move back to their original positions.

The dance normally starts with the singing of the first stanza by both dancers and chorus, which is a deference to the god, the king and the chiefs of the country. On the next stanza dancing starts. First calmly and subdued, but toward the end becoming wilder and wilder, while the tempo of the beat goes up as well. Everybody gets excited, both the performers and the public.

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Wikipedia