The Significance of the Poi

Radio Record, Volume IV, Issue 48, 12 June 1931, Page 3

The Significance of the Poi

By

SIR APIRANA

NGATA

The poi, the Maori dance of welcome, is one of the most graceful of native dances. The gently swaying bodies of the performers, moving in time with the clicking poi balls, have a beauty and grace all of their own. The dance is a strong favourite with European audiences and never fails to please. Hence the appear: ance of a special party of poi dancers at the Wellington Radio » Exhibition must be regarded as one of the attractions of the ghow. In the accompanying article Sir A. Ngata describes j the two poi dances in a vivid and entertaining manner. |

"y S the visitors halt, and stand \, at ease, expectant, the poi ranks bow to the knee, while the mass of wartiors behind, with one stentorian shout, raise » their spears and taiahas aloft, then sink crouching to the ground. As the vibrating sounds of the tuku die away, and the soft murmurs of welcome are hushed, the women advance in two ranks to dance the poi, their two leaders, both men, slightly ahead, one on each wing. The right leader opens with a chant, and ere he pauses to take breath, the left leader catches the measure, and so the song alternates, from ‘right to left and back again. Between them the ranks, in perfect time, quickening as the measure hurries on, accompanied the song with the poi, the poi of which the Maoris sing: Taku.aroha ki te rau o te pot WTo putiputi patie, piri\ki te-wmas ra! ‘How my heart longs for the poi leaf! How beautiful a flower tt is ¥o grace Thy breast, my love! The poi balls commence to spin, the deft hands twirling them, move up and down, sideways, backward and forward, hovering now over the shoulder, now over and across the knees, the whirling balls appearing to surround, as with a network of gossamer, the bodies of the dancers as they sway ‘from side to side, lifting alternate feet and throw(ing. one across gently forward with a lilting #motion, giving the general effect of a waltz step. . ‘The women are handsome and shapely; they wave with grace; they sing soft words of welcome with musical notes in exact accord of time, in a_ strangely attractive monotone. With flashing teeth and smiling

pois twirling and swaying with daintiest play of arm and wrist, and rhythmic swaying of bodies from side to side.. ‘ lips, and beaming great eyes, they keep their Sometimes the song speaks of welcome; sometimes it grows sad and. slows down to a weird lament; now it quickens with a note of triumph, the maidens bow in salute to the visiting rangitiras. Anon it wanders gracefully over many appropriate themes. The whole effect is entrancing. The . deliciously soft voices, the perfectly ordered motion, the bright colours of dress, and mat and piupiu, moving with brilliant beauty, together with the white kotuku feather against the dark hair, complete a singularly graceful and delicate example of the poetry of motion. At length it comes to an end, like the finale of some admired composition, the approach of which gives the absorbed listener a pang of regret.. As the pois flash overhead, the command rings out suddenly. The poetry and the motion cease at once. The flashing colours are still; the infinite variety of the faces give place to a settled gravity, and at the same

instant each poi ball glides down over the right breast of its owner, and is caught firmly in her left hand. Then the fluttering ranks bow once more to the knee, a long, steady, courteous salute. The single poi dance is over. S this group of dancers filg off with dainty precisiony there is disclosed a second group of dusky wahines, some. dressed in the plain, light-. coloured koroai, others in the kahu-kiwi, the sombre, yet valuable kiwi feather mat. They, come lightly tripping into line, with three little maids in front. to marshal and lead. And these they do right well, with little voices firmly raised in command-they are high-born damsels and command is natural to them. The poi is picturesque, as graceful and beautiful as the first, but much more intricate and bewildering. It opens with a quick schottische measure that causes the poi balls to beat and spin and twirl with amazing rapidity, Every now and then (Concluded on page 8),

Poi Dancing (Continued from page 3.)

the ranks, which stand slightly extended, two deep, wheel by sections to the right, forming fours, to the accompaniment of the plaintive ditties and the weird notes of the flute or koauau. Then one realises in a flash the ingenuity of the colour arrangement, dark and white. As the poi faces the visitors, two deep, white alternates with black; as they form fours, white and black are grouped in sections, apart, and on returning to line the two colours come together again with powerful effect. The whole is set off by the solid batkground of the crouching warriors, with spears aslant, dug lightly into the earth. Presently the accompanying music seems to glide into a seductive waltz. And was there ever a stranger dance set, to music than this? Before the second bar is reached there is a change in the ranks, which are now in quincunx formation, the white in front, the black in the rear, showing between, The rhythm having changed, the motion is subdued to a slow gliding swing, the faces of the dancers half turned to the right, in their hands they now grasp two pois, one in each hand, and with these they bewitch all who gaze upon them. One whirls in a half-circle from shdéulder to head, while the other sinks from:head to breast to linger a brief moment ere both flash upward and circle down to meet at the knee. With bodies swaying forward, the dancers step lightly and bring the pois

up, merrily playing round each other until level with the breast, then, with a half-turn the right poi glances upward and touches the next dancer on the shoulder, while the left poi lingers

twirling at an angle to the left of the head. And ever the black and white change places, mingle or draw up into one long rank of alternating light and shade, or wheel to right or left in fours, to no other command than the unwearying strains of the quaint Maori music and song. At length it ceases. The poi

rests under the armpits of the dancers, who stand with folded arms, and bow. while the long-pent-up sigh of the erchanted spectators bursts into a loud clamour of applause. ‘HE old Maoris say that the poi dances of their time were even more effective, the strings used with the poi balls being far longer, some six feet, and extending the picturesque gossamer effect of the twirling balls, the dancers being necessarily in extended order and the display more imposing.- The old dance was slower and allowed more time for the display of grace and the elaboration of gesture. The ostensible object of the poi from the first was to give graceful welcome to strangers (manuhiri), visiting tribes, kino rangatiras, and other persons of distinction. But gradually there grew up another object, which was to attract the fighting men from other tribes, and invariably the best chosen dancers and the best ordered pois kept the ranks of the tanas up to their full strength. To-day, of course, these pois. are no more than what they were originally intended to be, the women’s portion of the ceremonial welcome of a hospitable, artistic, and punctilious people.