There isn’t much of a descrip­tion for this show on either the Fringe or the BATS web­site. It rather enig­mat­ic­ally says ““Fatu na toto” (The Planted Seeds).  Expressed through the Lan­guage of Siva Sam­oa. “The sand at our feet will remain, we take pride mov­ing for­ward with every grain”.” Thank­fully the pro­gramme explains that “A pic­ture is painted of a migrant fam­ily liv­ing in sub­ur­bia and the con­trib­ut­ing influ­ences that affect the fam­ily and the impact that they have on the gen­er­a­tion being raised in this envir­on­ment.”  I think this is import­ant because it should­n’t be pigeon­holed as a Sam­oan dance show. It’s stronger than that.

There are 14 in the cast plus a musi­cian (gui­tar and per­cus­sion). Often there are elev­en people on stage at the same time. It could feel crowded yet it describes com­munity. Their move­ments are crisp and coordin­ated. We know that it has mean­ing because of the strength and con­cen­tra­tion the per­formers are expend­ing. The trans­ition in emo­tions is skill­fully presen­ted. While the dance forms are based in tra­di­tion­al Sam­oan style they’ve played with them to embody a col­lect­ive exper­i­ence.

Their pas­sion and pro­fes­sion­al atti­tude shines through. What a treat.

  • Fatu Na Toto by Le Moana Pro­duc­tions on at BATS Theatre, 18–22 Feb­ru­ary 2013.