KAILUA-KONA — Twenty-five students will debut their skills in the Samoan art of fire knife dancing this weekend in Kailua-Kona.
They’ve honed their craft over the past 10 weeks at the recently formed Le Afi O Motutele, a school that teaches fire knife dancing on the Big Island. They will perform 4-7 p.m. Saturday on the Kona Inn Shopping Village lawn. Admission is $10 and supports a Kealakehe High School Polynesian Club scholarship.
Afa Tualaulelei and Jerome Slade opened the school after years of performing fire knife dancing themselves. Tualaulelei, 25, started fire dancing when he was 5 years old.
“I learned it from a young age,” he said. “It taught me how to be more disciplined.”
Slade said he was “born into this.” Fire knife dancing is something he practiced every day growing up before sharing the art with the world, performing for audiences who otherwise might not have any exposure to Samoa.
“I just love putting on a performance,” he said. “I love teaching my culture to people.”
Fire knife dancing has its roots in ailao, a Samoan war dance that means “the spinning of the stick,” said Tualaulelei. It grew into a performance art with Freddie Letuli, who adapted the dance by adding the fire element, rendering it an entertainment spectacle.
Along with instructors Chiyo Brown and Pa’a Damaso, Tualaulelei and Slade are bringing fire knife dancing to a new generation of performers through Le Afi O Motutele. It’s a project years in the making, Slade said, noting he’d thought about opening up such a school over the years, but knew he didn’t have the patience for teaching.
“Now it’s time,” he said. “Now I’m ready to actually teach.”
Being the teacher has its own rewards, he said, specifically when students “get it down” and he can see “how pumped they are” about fire knife dancing.
The inaugural class has 25 students, all but two of which are under 18. The youngest student, said Tualaulelei, is 4 years old. Just two of the 25 had any experience with fire knife dancing.
“The rest had no idea what fire knife dancing was,” Tualaulelei said. “All of them can spin now.”
The class also exposed students to Samoan culture beyond dancing, said Tualaulelei. They learned to count to 10 in Samoan and immersed themselves in the culture, which is something everyone can benefit from, because “every culture has something to learn from,” he said.
And those cultural connections are especially important in a time where people are getting caught up in social media, Tualaulelei said.
“Culture keeps us centered,” he said. “We go back to culture to see who we are and where we’re from.”
In addition to the cultural element, fire knife dancing also instills important lessons and values. Primarily, it teaches respect, discipline and courage, Tualaulelei said.
“Fire’s a dangerous thing,” he said. “Once a child conquers fire, it teaches them a lot of things.”
That courage, said Tualaulelei, is something kids can carry with them through the rest of their life.
“You’re gonna get burned in life,” he said. “There’s gonna come a time you have to fight and push through adversity.”