SJSU students keep Pacific Island culture alive at Luau
By: Chris Bausinger
Posted: 4/28/08
The smell of slow roasted pork and the sound of Hawaiian music filled the Student Union Barrett Ballroom on Saturday. Over 400 people turned out for the Pride of the Pacific Islands' 8th Annual Lu'au.
Students, family and community members who entered the ballroom around 5 p.m. were greeted with shell necklaces and Polynesian Lu'au CDs. Once they were, seated club volunteers served Hawaiian-style barbecue catered by L&L Hawaiian BBQ.
The Island Riddim Band covered hits associated with the islands such as, "Still the One" and "Little Grass Shack," while guests ate their meals.
Students from the club demonstrated the culture of several Pacific Islands through dance performances choreographed by volunteers.
Anastasia Doan, a junior kinesiology major and president of the club, said the enthusiasm of club members is always high.
"We always have tons of old members who come and want to be choreographers," she said.
Danielle Lisec, a senior conservation biology major and vice president of the club, said she was pleased with the arrangement of performances.
"We always find different songs and choreographers," she said. "They show up and we ask them to teach us something new."
The dancers performed a variety of traditional and modern dances from Hawaii, Fiji, Samoa, New Zealand, Tonga and Tahiti.
The stage shook and the metal supports rattled as the male performers did the "Haka" from New Zealand. The Haka is a war dance performed by warriors and has multiple meanings such as "ignite the breath" and "fierce words," to energize the body and inspire the spirit within, according to the event program.
The Haka is the same dance that the University of Hawaii Warriors like to perform after their football games. The dance is an intimidating display of grunting, chest beating and stomping. The performers chests were red from hitting themselves several dances after.
Dana Lisec, a graduate student getting her teaching credential and Lu'au chair, said there was a lot of preparation that went into learning the dances.
"We have been practicing since the beginning of the fall semester, she said."
Her sister Danielle said, "We practiced all last week from 7 to 10 p.m., sometimes later - 11 or midnight."
Other dances included traditional and modern types of dance from Hawaii. Performers dressed in attire that reflected the islands' individual cultures.
The dance the club members preformed to represent Fiji was called "Teivovo Teivovo," which is a traditional Fijian fan dance.
To represent the Independent State of Samoa, dancers performed the "Pipa Pipa," which told the story of a young man who fell in a love with a young woman who moved away and returned many years later to see that he had aged and had a family.
After the finale, family members and friends congratulated the performers, offering flowers and taking pictures, commemorating the event.
"This year we had a few difficulties with the administration and restrictions placed on us," Doan said, "but even though we had all that stuff, we still pulled through and it was still a good show. We got a bunch of compliments."
