The dances can be sad or joyous, and often men will leap onto the dance floor to accompany the dancer with evocative movements of their own. Samoan men are famous for their fire dancing and knife dancing, where great acrobatic skill is required and the tension mounts to drum beat accompaniment as the feats become more daring. Craft is also traditional. In their own distinctive Samoan style, women weave mats and baskets, fans and ornaments. Women also make tapa cloth, which is beaten from the bark of the mulberry tree and decorated with geometrical designs unique to Samoa.
Men carve, and are perhaps best known for their decorated kava bowls and animal carvings.
And, as elsewhere in the Pacific, the drink made from the root of a species of pepperbush, kava or 'ava, is an important part of ceremonial occasions - and, increasingly, social occasions. The art of tattooing is a uniquely Samoan speciality, and is accompanied by its own ritual. The process is painful, but seen as empowering, with the belief that if you can take the pain of tattoo, you can overcome any hardship in life. Tattooing is done in a number of places.