The Dances of Tahiti by Le Polynesia
The Tahitian peoples have a long history of performing dances, from pre-colonial times when men and women traveled from village to village, island to island performing music in exchange for hospitality. Modern Tahitian percussion ensembles accompanying the drum dance (ote'a) like the one performed here with large double ended bass drum (pahu or tariparau), more single ended drums (to'ere), several slit gongs (tokere), and the fa'atete drum.This series of dances tells the legend of Pipirima, which is a creation myth describing how the northern stars of Ursa Minor came to be. The story follows twins, a brother and sister, who leave their home after they are neglected by their parents during a time of great famine in Tahiti.When they flee, the parents call for them: "Pipirima, come home! Come back!" But they ignore their parents and set off to find their own food. They decide to go fishing by moonlight for the elusive flying fish of Tahiti. As they search, they twins encounter the call of Varua Ino, the evil spirits, who convince the twins to run away high into the mountains. High in the mountains the twins see a large vessel with a long tail in the sky. They grab the tail and are swept up in the bright night sky. There they become two bright stars that can still be seen to this day in Tahiti.