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MANA Experience: Music and Dance

Research guide for MANA students.

Oceanic music and dance

The music and dance traditions of the indigenous peoples of Oceania, particularly Melanesia, Micronesia, Polynesia, New Zealand, and Australia, are known as Oceanic music and dance. Oceania's and the Pacific Islands' traditional music genres are completely in sync with the natural environment. The percussion on the Pacific is furious and full, rushing ahead like a looming storm. Some vocalists, such as those who do the magnificent Maori haka, chant, stomp, and grunt like animals, while others, such as Hawaiian slack key guitarists, sing beautifully as the wind dances through the trees. 

The Sources of Hawaiian Music

Music has always been much more than just entertainment in Hawaii. The culture of Hawaii has always been shaped by music. The documentary explores the evolution of tradition, from the earliest chants to influences of the gospel from the 19th century, to the 1920s. 

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The Samoan Music

Samoan culture is shaped by music, which uses resonant lyrics spoken in their own tongue, song, and dance to reflect their daily lives and values.

The Music Rarotonga: Cook Islands

The Cook Islands Christian Church will share the pleasure of the gospel, and the Akirata Cultural Dance Troupe will dance to the beat of traditional drums.

Hula and Warrior Stories

Hula dance is carried out sitting or standing, with undulating gestures to instruments and chants.  A religious dance was carried out by skilled dancers earlier than the king or everyday human beings to honor the gods. The hula dramatizes or portrays the phrases of the oli or mele in a visible dance form. In ancient Hawaii'i, guys have been the primary to dance it, and the great dancers have been even selected to come to be warriors.

Papua New Guinea Music (PNG)

PNG islanders have been singing for the last fifty thousand years of their existence in that land.

The Music & Dance of Tahiti

There is something unique about Tahiti's music and dance, which is not just like Hawaiian hula. Their arts are lively and colorful, dancers tell stories, and provide information about the ancestry and lineage of the dancers. Tahitians are also known for having elaborate tattoos.