ʻōteʻa

The tradition & historical record

The ʻōteʻa (usually written as otea) is a traditional dance and accompanying music from Tahiti characterized by a rapid hip-shaking motion to percussion accompaniment. The dancers, standing in several rows, may be further choreographed to execute different figures (including tamau, varu, otamu, ami, and fa'arapu) while maintaining the hip-shaking. The hip motion itself may in some choreographies be synchronized amongst multiple dancers and may be further coordinated with the accompanying percussion arrangement. The dance is with music only (drums) at a fast rhythm, and no singing. The drum can be one of the different types of the tōʻere, a lying log of wood with a longitudinal slit, which is struck by one or two sticks. Additional drum types accompanying the dance may include the ng drum covered with a shark skin and struck by the hands or with sticks) played at a slower rhythm, or the smaller faʻatētē drum. The ʻōteʻa is one of the few dances which already existed in pre-European times as a male dance. (The hura (Tahitian vernacular for hula), a dance for women, on the other hand has disappeared, and likewise is gone the couple's dance ʻupaʻupa but which may have reemerged as the tāmūrē). Nowadays, however the ʻōteʻa can be danced by men (ʻōteʻa tāne), by women (ʻōteʻa vahine), or by both genders (ʻōteʻa ʻāmui = united ʻō.). Dancers of the ʻōteʻa make gestures reenacting daily occupations of life.

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “'ote'a”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence.

ʻōteʻa is traditional dance and music from Tahiti, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. ¹

The source record links this tradition to 3 external registers, which can be verified through the citation. ¹