Drums Add Excitement to the Dance
Old Samoan traditions indicate the 'ailao or knife dance
was originally done to rhythmic chants or songs, but today vigorous
drumming on a variety of ancient and modern instruments accompanies
each Samoan fire knife dance and adds to the overall excitement.
For
many centuries Polynesians created slit-log drums — that is,
a trench is gouged out of a section of tree branch — ranging
from the small Samoan pate that may only be a foot or two in length
and can easily be carried by hand, to huge Fijian lali created
from sections of tree trunks: The smaller the drum, the higher the
pitch. Depending on the size of the drum, the drum sticks, which
are usually carved from very hard wood, range in size from about
a foot-long and thin, to heavy mallets and even small tree branches
for the larger lali.
More
modern innovations might also include using bass and other musical
drums, metal cracker tins, empty natural gas cylinders and even
55-gallon drums.
Anciently
there were traditional rhythms for various types of dances and activities,
but today’s fire knife dancers use a variety of rapid beats
that might even show Tahitian and other island influence.
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