Sunday, October 31, 2010

Oahu - Polinesian Cultural Center

Visiting the PCC was a fun experience for the whole family. The shows were entertaining and the staff was very polite and helpful.

The center has eight villages each representing a different island nation of Polynesia. Every village hosts interactive presentations about their culture. Our favorite was he Samoan village.

Emilia was really excited to see a young man climb a 40 ft coconut tree with just a strip of cloth wrapped around his ankles. My favorite aspect of Samoan life is that the men do all of the major cooking and that it is the young men's responsibility and honor to serve the family the meal before helping themselves.

The dancing both during the canoe ride performance and during HA Breath of Life was incredible. I kept thinking that over 80% of the staff at the PCC are BYU Hawaii college students majoring in all types of degrees that have nothing to do with dance. The best part is that the proceeds from the ticket sales all go to pay for student scholarships.

During the evening performance they danced on top of fire, they threw fire spears across the stage to other performers who caught them in mid-dance, they sang in foreign languages... it was awesome!

I was even lucky enough to get a picture with the two main characters of the show, Mana and his father. What a blast.