pāʻōʻā

{{short description|Modern dance from Tahiti, French Polynesia}}

The pā{{okina}}ō{{okina}}ā (often written as paoa, as the Tahitian is not punctilious about writing accents), is a modern dance from Tahiti where the dancers sit on their knees in a circle on the ground, sing and tap with their hands on their thighs on the rhythm of the music, which is a quite repetitive scanning refrain. Selected members, one boy and one girl, dance inside the circle.{{cite web |url=https://www.travelbrain.us/tahiti-french-polynesia/types-of-dance.html |title=Types Of Dance |publisher=Travel Brain |access-date=10 August 2022}} Being selected is an honor—it symbolizes recognition from one's teacher. The whole scenario has something of a rooster fight (not common on Tahiti). Coincidentally the theme of the dance is usually from the hunt or from fishing.