The Taotao Tasi (meaning “People of the Sea” in Chamorro) Beach Barbecue Dinner Show is a pleasant and highly popular two-hour food and dancing extravaganza that takes place on the beaches of Guam near the hotels where tourism is primarily based on the island close to the airport in the north center of the island. The logistics of getting to and from the show are pretty revealing in themselves, starting with a bus ride from various hotels to the Beach Bar which is next to the dinner theater. Most of the people in our group who went to the show last night were Korean with a smattering of Japanese and other groups of people. Once we checked in we were given a couple of tickets for surf and turf (I enjoyed the turf but not the surf myself) as well as a card that showed table we were to sit at for the eating and viewing of the show.

The first hour of the evening, from 6:05PM to 7:05PM, was set aside for eating and drinking. Drinks were not included with the dinner show but they had plenty of options and I ended up having two bottles of water and a fruit tea which was sweet and enjoyable. They also had plenty of beers and mixed drink options as well as an open bar fee if you wanted more to drink. The food itself was a buffet with a wide variety of options, including salads, fruit, rice and pasta dishes, soups, and the like. If you left hungry it was really your own fault, because the food was plentiful with lots of tasty options to suit nearly every palette. From the spicy vegetarian pasta primavera to a tasty chamorro beef dish to red velvet cookies, there was a lot to enjoy as far as the food was concerned.

The show itself took the second part of the evening and provided a lot of food for thought. I have already written some reflections on the theme of the oneness of humanity that the show was organized around but it is worth commentating that this unity of humanity was expressed through a diversity of dances and costumes from across the Oceania region, including Hawaiian grass skirts and Fijian costumes. There were segregated dances and choreographed fighting for the female and male dancers respectively, couple dances, solo dances, singing, and some powerful tribal drumming as well. The mixture of lovely power ballads and more muscular Polynesian and related indigenous musical sounds made for a fascinating blend as the same dancers changed costumes and hats and props and danced numerous numbers over the course of an hour. Twice people were called on stage–five guys competed as partners of five ladies to copy their dance routines, and at the end of the show a great many of us (my mother and I included) ended up on stage mimicking the dancers as well in the farewell dance. And after all of that, it was time to return back to the hotels again after a lovely evening.