Female Cook Island dancers use moves like fast, hip-swinging uras, and agile hand gestures that describe waves, flowers, or birds. Male dancers stomp and use spearing gestures that mimic warriors.
Cook Island dance groups can be as small as five people, and as large as 50 or more. Men and women perform together or separately, and dance competitions typically draw sell-out crowds.
Dance groups perform a variety of dance styles, including a Fire Dance. Cook Island dance also includes gentle swaying called the hura, where women dancers are judged on how still they keep their shoulders while swaying their hips.
When Cook Islands dance groups portray their primitive ancestors, the Maori cannibals, costumes consist of long, green leaves strung together with twine tied at the waist and neck. For formal events, dancers don elegant woven headdresses laden with ornamental shells and pearls, along with matching long grass skirts and coconut shell bras for women. Males add grass leggings and show bare-chests.
The Aronga Mana, traditional leaders, try to make sure that future generations of Cook Islands Maori enjoy important links to their cultural past. Thus all children perform in dance groups at their schools.