Maori Performing traditional Dances Te Puia New Zealand North Island tradition culture arts crafts male female sing singing entertain story telling moka tattoo group performance kapa haka Poi Tubes balls visit
Description
Over four hundred years the first New Zealanders, the Maori, voyaged thousands of miles across the vast unknown Pacific Ocean in small ocean-going canoes. In order to reach New Zealand, these brave adventurers developed their own navigation system using the stars and the currents. Māori culture is a rich and varied one, and includes traditional and contemporary arts. Traditional arts such as carving, weaving, kapa haka (group performance), whaikorero (oratory) and moko (tattoo) are practised throughout the country. Practitioners following in the footsteps of their tipuna (ancestors) replicate the techniques used hundreds of years agoMāori is an oral culture rich with stories and legends. The Māori creation story describes the world being formed by the violent separation of Ranginui, the Sky Father, and Papatuanuku, the Earth Mother, by their children. Many Māori carvings and artworks graphically depict this struggle. Poi is a performance art employing a ball suspended from a length of flexible material, usually a plaited cord, held in the hand and swung in circular patterns. This is usually accompanied by the waiata, to add rhythm and a visual accompaniment, although it is useful for many things such as muscle building exercises and has very good visual entertainment for the audience
Dancers; singing; dancing; street performance; folk dance; folk dancers; folk dancing; Sanfang Qixiang; colourful; ethnic dance; ethnic; Fuzhou; Fujian; PRC; China
Description
Traditional folk dancing performed in Fuzhou. China.