Nearly all of Leone village performed in their pese and siva which concluded the 2016 Flag Day program.
While all of the village groups as well as Faasao Marist High School were crowd pleasers,
exhibiting a new level of entertainment, the last group to perform, Leone, may have received more admiration
because of adopted sons of the village, World Teach volunteers, who were in the massive dance group.
A handful of the adopted sons are said to have expressed their interest in learning the siva and pese and faithfully attended all the evening practices.
And their ability to keep up with the many varied actions of the mauluulu and sasa, and even more impressive, their capacity to memorize the words of the specially composed song to mark the event, with all its many verses, made them the darlings of Leone.
One brave adopted son was so good he was selected to dance with just a handful of men who gyrated, bent, slapped and jumped for one of the dance numbers.
Only the top performers have that honor.
And he didn’t disappoint, in fact he had the people in the grandstand clapping and cheering while he strutted his stuff.
