Ula (dance)

The ula (dance) is an ancient Tongan group dance, already reported by early European navigators like Captain Cook. It is also known as fahaʻi-ula (split dance), which may be degenerated to fahaʻiula. Traditionally, it is performed after an ʻotuhaka. It is still danced nowadays, although less popular than its descendant the tauʻolunga. It used to be more popular before the arrival of Christianity and was the main dance, danced by women before the tau'olunga replaced it. The dance used to be fast paced, involved movement in the hips, legs, feet and upper body. However with the arrival of Christianity, the royal family completely altered the dance. Now the movements are more stiff and conservative.

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.