MARINE CORPS AIR STATION IWAKUNI, Japan -- A loud “Aloha!” was the first thing station members heard as they walked into the IronWorks Gym here Saturday for a luau presented by Ma’ohi Nui, a Polynesian entertainment group.
Ma’ohi Nui stopped in Iwakuni during a six-day tour of the Asian Pacific for service members serving overseas.
Dancers greeted station members with leis as they entered what seemed to be a tropical paradise.
For the first hour, everyone was welcomed to listen to music provided by the singers and musicians and enjoy the feast of traditional Hawaiian foods, including salmon lomi-lomi, chicken char siu and kalua pork.
As the audience started to wrap up their meals, the lights started to dim.
Hawaiian dancers filled the stage with ornate headdresses and costumes. Sounds of drums and chanting filled the entire gym.
As the performance began, children who at first were bouncing off the walls were now sitting quietly around the stage enthralled by the vibrant colors and energetic dancing.
The performance included singing and dancing from many different islands of Polynesia including the different islands of Hawaii, Tahiti, Samoa and Tonga.
The dances ranged from slow and romantic to fierce and dramatic.
The crowd got more and more excited as the night progressed, but just when everyone thought it was almost over, the lights went out completely and soon all anyone could see was one ball of fire.
Mervyn Lilo, the lead male dancer, took the stage with a flaming wooden pole in hand. Lilo moved the fire from one end of the pole to the other with his bare hand and commenced in the Samoan fire dance. He twirled the fire from one hand to the other back and forth while the audience stared at the circles of flames he had under such control.
As the fire dance ended, dancers grabbed station members from the audience for what they called Hula 101.
Both men and women came to the stage to try to shake their hips like the experienced Polynesian dancers. None could quite pull it off as well as Ma’ohi Nui, but it definitely made for a good show.
As a group, Ma’ohi Nui says their goal is to learn and share the customs and culture of Polynesia through song and dance.
“It is very rewarding for us to be able to share what we love doing with everyone who is serving our country so that we can be free,” said Lilo.
Kea Lili, a musician with the group says that he loves seeing troops get excited and boosting their morale.
“We can jam for one guy or a thousand, it doesn’t matter,” said Lili. “We just love what we do and celebrating our culture.”