A crowd of over three thousand gathered at Veterans Memorial Stadium in American Samoa last Friday evening to witness a “Dance Extravaganza” performed by a cast of a thousand youth, ages 12-18, from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The enthusiastic audience sat in the stands while dancers and singers from each of American Samoa’s five stakes performed on the grassy athletic field in front of them. Each stake was given a particular decade – the 50s, 60s, 80s, 90s and 2000s – to portray in its performance and allocated 30 minutes in which to do it.
Usually each congregation from a stake would perform a different dance, often singing as they did so, and accompanied by live or pre-recorded music. Each “decade” ended with a finale in which the youth from all the stake’s congregations performed together.
The show included a traditional Samoan dance, the jitterbug, some country western and included numbers from “Footloose” and “Thriller” and other famous shows. All the dancers wore colorful costumes; one group dressed as cowboys and cowgirls with western hats, bandannas and dungarees; another wore white shirts, bowties and yellow, green and blue vests.
The dance troupes waited their turns to perform under five large red-and-yellow striped tents arranged in an arc that formed a colorful backdrop for the performance area. A sixth tent housed musicians and equipment. They enthusiastically cheered and applauded each performance.
“The atmosphere was wonderful,” said Dennis Jordan after seeing the show. “The enthusiasm and the sheer joy on the faces of the young performers were amazing.” He added, “I would pay to see this show again. I have seen many professional shows that were not nearly as entertaining as this one.”
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The night’s entertainment ended with all the dancers performing together in a grand finale that earned a tremendous ovation from the crowd.
The show was given free of charge and was open to the public. Many of the performers were members of other faiths and who had been invited to join the dance groups by friends who were.
One member of the audience later remarked, “Usually people are in a hurry to leave after a show is over. This time people stayed around after it was over, as if they did not want the evening to end.”
Many of the audience helped clean up after the event. One of the policemen who were there for crowd control commented the audience was “…so well-behaved and orderly that we were not really needed.”
The dancers were well prepared and exhibited their skills in both group and solo performances. Most had been practicing for two months or more. Youth leaders showed their talents as choreographers, script writers, music historians, and stage managers. Many of the dances were choreographed by the youth themselves.
The Dance Extravaganza fulfilled many purposes. Over several months, the youth had increased opportunities to interact in a positive way with other youth. It was a time of unity and sharing. And it gave youth experiences in the performing arts.
The event was covered by local media and was featured on the news broadcast of the local television station.
This event has been held annually for several years. Initially it was held in local church meetinghouses, but as the number of performers and the size of the audience grew it was moved to the American Samoa Community College and finally this year to the Veterans Memorial Stadium.
Hats off to all stake presidents, stake youth leaders, bishops, ward youth leaders and over a 1,000 youth for pulling off a joyful event that showed their talents and energy and the hard work and patience of their leaders.
