Le Taupou Manaia (LTM) dance school officially celebrated their 20 years anniversary recently at the EFKS Hall with a corporate fundraising event.

The Samoan dance school's celebration revolved around the theme "Siapo" which was their main dance for the evening. 

LTM chairperson for Samoa, Palepa Swanney Solaese, said another reason behind the celebration was the launching of their New Zealand branch.

"This is our only fund raising that were having for our show and main reason for this is to celebrate our 20^th anniversary and also to launch our other branch that will be end of this month.

"And also showcase the girls talents and our new uniforms. And to mainly stress the importance of how a taupou should perform, mainly 'siva fa’ataupou' and one of our main dance will be the siapo, which is more or less our theme for tonight," she told this newspaper.

LTM dance group will be travelling to New Zealand on March 21 with their dancers' age ranging from 3-18.

"This is our only local fundraising; it will pay for all of our costs, where we are going to stay because we are all going to stay together and all our expenses in New Zealand," said Palepa.

LTM was established in 1999 with a mission: “promoting Fa’aSamoa preservation through the next generation”. Since its formation it has taught over 5,000 young tama’itai Samoa on the Siva-Fa’a-Taupou.