[I tried using YouTube for the video clips in this post. I’m finding that while I can view them successfully on a computer and on a smart phone, they mostly fail on an iPad. No idea why…]
This post is a collection of videos of dancing and other performances across the Pacific and Indonesia. A few may have been posted earlier. Unfortunately due to technical difficulties I am unable to post clips of the dancing in the Marquesas. Most of the dancing there was tremendously macho — warriors preparing for battle or reselling tales of conquest. You might enjoy Luc’s YouTube video about the BPO’s visit to the Marquesan island of Ua Po. It is 26 minutes long…the dancing that impressed me happens around 12 and 22 minutes in, but he shows much more than dancing:  https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bUJM-9FgPfM

Tahiti is also French Polynesia, but much different from the Marquesas. The dancing is much more sensual. Here some of the BPOers give it a try…

Before we left French Polynesia I got my chance, in Bora Bora. Keep your eyes on her, not me!

In Tuvalu we were treated to some wonderful dancing, because we were there during a conference of many nations focusing on tropical cyclone Pam and on climate change. This is a dancing tradition that could soon be washed away by sea level rise. Prime Minister and Mrs Sopoaga sit in the front row (red and white flowers on their heads):

Vanuatu brings a totally different kind of dance:

Actually every village in Vanuatu has its own form of dancing. Here’s another:

And the BPOers join the scrum…

Bring on the costumed Rom dancers (and chief Sekor, going for his third boar tusk and next level of chiefness, with cell phone at hand in his waist band).

Still in Vanuatu, the ladies demonstrate “water music.”

Our welcome to Tual, Indonesia:

Indonesian fabrics are stellar; here is how some are made:

Bau-Bau, Indonesia:

In Selayar we got performances by some young ladies and young men:

Next up, Bali:

At a Chinese temple in East Belitung, Indonesia:

Our welcome to East Belitung:

In addition to the music and dance, we got a demonstration of traditional stick fighting, in which they try to strike the opponent’s back:

Jesse volunteered to get schooled in the sport…

On to the East Belitung before-dinner presentation of terrible-tasting betel nuts…

And wrapping up with a little after-dinner entertainment: