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Hurricane Afa
blasts onto stageAfa's dad once refused to hire him,
Tihati was built on empty stomachs By Rod Ohira
saying he wasn't good enough
Star-BulletinBehind a mask of flames, the smile of the fire-knife dancer is mesmerizing.
It's like looking into the calm and disarming eye of a hurricane.
In fact, the first name of the dancer on the Sheraton Princess Kaiulani stage means hurricane in Samoan.
He is Afatia Thompson, the 5-foot-10, 214-pound University of Hawaii running back, who took up the challenge of fire dancing two years ago.
"My competitiveness makes me strive to be better in football, singing, dancing, whatever I'm doing," he said.
"I look forward to challenges."
Afatia -- known as Afa -- dances for Tihati Productions, which is owned by his parents, Charlene and Jack Thompson.
He had been performing Tahitian, Samoan, Rarotongan, Hawaiian, Fijian and Tongan line dances for a couple of years when he decided to try the fire-knife dance.
After practicing for several months, he auditioned and was told by his father that he wasn't good enough.
The rejection only made him work harder.
Then -- when Afa asked his father to sponsor his entry fee in the prestigious Polynesian Cultural Center's World Fire Dance Competition in May 1998 -- Jack tried to explain it takes years, not months, to perfect fire-knife dancing technique. "I turned him down, so he sent in $100 of his own money," Jack said.The family went to the competition and were surprised when Afa advanced to the second round.
"When he got past the first round, I knew he was good," Jack said. "He finished second (behind two-time winner Pati Levasa) and got $2,000 and a set of fire knives."
The next month, on Afa's 20th birthday, his parents gave him a gold chain with a fire-knife pendant.
"It's special because it came from my parents and I knew what it meant," Afa said.
He was given another audition to be a fire dancer, and this time he was hired.
"Fire-knife dancing is hardest to do," said Cha. "It's a show stopper so you have to be good.
"We have the best knife dancers in the state, but I don't know of any other dancer who has accomplished as much as Afa has in such a short time."
His father also is impressed.
"There are fire dancers who just twirl the knife and there are fire dancers who are showmen," Jack said. "Afa is definitely a showman.
"After the competition, the president of Polynesian Cultural Center talked to me about his smile and how it comes across to the audience.
"When you look at his technique and speed, the difficulty of his throws, stage presence and showmanship -- he's only going to get better."
Afa said he "took to fire" and likes "the excitement of being able to mouth it and control it."
"Half of it is getting over the fear of the fire burning you," he said, noting he uses no oils to protect his body or face. "The fire heats up the blade so you feel it, but adrenalin keeps you going.
"One time I was dancing and the wind blew the fire back and it burned my eyebrows. I couldn't see through one eye, but I just kept smiling and dancing."
He performs about 10 times a week -- at Tihati's "Creation: A Polynesian Odyssey" show or conventions -- but only during the football off-season.
The NCAA permits part-time work for scholarship athletes but sets a limit on earnings.
In Afa's case, that isn't a problem. Jack said his son is definitely underpaid, and when Afa asks why, he tells him "it's because you're my son."
By becoming an accomplished fire-knife dancer, Afa has worked his way up from the lower ranks of performer. It's a course his parents hoped he would take, but never forced on him.
"I'm trying to go to school, educate myself and equip myself to someday take the company to a new level," said Afa, a business major who plans to graduate in spring 2002.
"The business is something my parents started and built up, and we want to keep it in the family."
His two sisters -- Ruana Teo and Misty Tufono -- work full-time for the company, which employs 980 people.
Ruana is in charge of sales while Misty, who is married to former Iolani and University of Washington football player Albert Tufono, manages the production.
Afa, who played a big role on the football field as a sophomore last fall, has otherwise been busy since the Rainbows' Western Athletic Conference and Oahu Bowl championship season ended.
He's been in the recording studio with a six-man vocal group called "Reign," which will release its first CD next month.
"We do rhythm and blues, some Hawaiian," said Afa, who sings regularly at Island Family Christian Church services in Salt Lake.
The big upcoming family event is the July wedding of Afa and his high-school sweetheart, Nicole Maldonado, a lead Tihati dancer.
"His temperament and mannerism is so easy going," Jack said. "He's had so much publicity and it hasn't fazed him."
Nothing has been handed to any of the Thompson children by their parents, something Afa has come to truly appreciate.
"A lot of times, my parents have been hard on us so people wouldn't look at us as spoil brats," Afa said. "That's why I try not to take anything for granted.
"I'm grateful for the way I've been raised and I know all we have is because God has blessed us. After God, the most important thing is a strong family."
Parents recall
By Rod Ohira
humility, struggle
of early years
Star-BulletinTihati Productions is in its 31st year and has the longest-running Polynesian show in Waikiki.
But Jack Eli Thompson and his wife, the former Charlene Ortiz, have never forgotten that their multimillion-dollar business was built on empty stomachs.
"The only thing I wish our kids could experience is knowing what being poor is like," Thompson said.
Raised in Kalihi, they were high school sweethearts at Farrington High School and married in 1966.
Jack, now 54, is Samoan, Tokelauan, Spanish, Portuguese and English. He was born on Swain's Island Atoll, about 200 miles from American Samoa and owned by his mother's family.
His 53-year-old wife is Filipino, Spanish, Chinese, Scottish and Irish. She grew up in Kalihi Valley Housing.
Early married life was tough.
Jack Thompson recalls they were so poor they had to live with Alene Eleneke-Pa, Cha's auntie, at Palolo Housing. Eleneke-Pa had five children, and dinner on one memorable night was "two cans of sardines, a heaping ball of rice and watercress with mayonnaise."
"We were starved but didn't want to eat because there wouldn't be enough food for all of them," he said. "So we got in Cha's VW and drove over to St. Louis Drive-In. We had $2 in loose change and I bought one hamburger, french fries and a Coke.
"We split it and mine was gone in one bite. That night, Cha gave birth to our first child, Ruana."
The Thompsons kept day jobs as they struggled to be in show business: Jack as a Hawaiian Airlines "baggage boy, ramp agent and then reservations agent" and Cha working with medical records at Queen's Hospital.
Their big break came in 1968, when Henry Ayau asked Jack to put a show together at Duke Kahanamoku's to temporarily replace Don Ho, who was on a mainland tour.
"Cha and I sat down and brainstormed," Jack said. "We decided to take the most exciting dances from every island and put it in a one-hour show.
"It was something different than an all-Tahitian or all-Hawaiian show."
The Polynesian revue format was a hit. Within a year, the Thompsons began a 14-year gig at the Beachcomber hotel. By the early 1980s, they were also staging a show at the Moana.
Today, Tihati produces eight shows statewide -- three on Oahu, three on the Big Island and two on Maui -- and also services 80 lounges.
"We feel it's important for our kids to be humble because if they become bosses in our business, they have to know how to treat employees," Jack said.
