Taualuga; The Last Dance

Taualuga; The Last Dance

The taualuga is the most prestigious form of Sāmoan dance. Usually performed by a taupou (a village maiden, often the daughter of a high chief), the taualuga marks the end of ceremonies and the formal conclusion of a gathering or celebration. Yuki Kihara’s Taualuga: The last dance re-codes the dance to reflect on an encounter of a very different kind.

First performed for the Asia Pacific Triennial in 2004, this recording documents a performance of Taualuga: The last dance at Linden St Kilda Centre for Contemporary Art in Melbourne in 2006. The performance responds to early colonial photographs produced during Great Britain and New Zealand’s colonial administration of Sāmoa. Many of these images catered to colonial tastes, depicting Sāmoan women undressed. One image, Thomas Andrews’s 1866 photograph marked ‘Samoan Half Cast’, uncharacteristically presents a woman staring confidently at the camera in full Victorian clothing. While the image refutes the dusky maiden stereotypes that dominated colonial photography, it nonetheless signals pervasive imperial influences.

Here, Kihara performs the taualuga as Salome, a persona inspired by the unnamed woman in Andrew’s photograph. The assimilation indicated by the figure’s dress is amplified by Kihara’s choice of a full Victorian mourning gown. Wearing this signifier of colonisation and mourning, Kihara-as-Salome performs a lament for Sāmoa. Despite the restraint of the dress, Kihara retains the exquisite elegance of the taualuga’s refined and composed movements. Taualuga: The last dance couples together grief and resilience, reflecting on the ongoing influence of colonisation through a Sāmoan artform already primed to narrate the story of encounters.

–– Ioana Gordon-Smith, 2023