The ʻaparima or kaparima ( Rarotongan ) is a dance from Tahiti and the Cook Islands where the mimicks ( ʻapa ) with the hands ( rima ) are central, and as such it is close to the hula or Tongan tauʻolunga . It is usually a dance for groups. There are two types of ʻaparima : the ʻaparima hīmene (sung handdance) and the ʻaparima vāvā (silent handdance), the latter being performed with music only, and no singing. The music is often played on the guitar or the Tahitian ʻukulele .
6-472: The stories depicted by the dance are taken from daily traditional occupations or ancient myths. Unlike the other Tahitian dances, this one is more often performed with the dancers dressed in pāreu and maro . It can also (especially the ʻaparima vāvā ) be performed seated, much like the Tongan māʻuluʻulu . Patrick O'Reilly; La danse à Tahiti (unclear ref) This French Polynesia -related article
12-406: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This dance-related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Pareo A pāreu or pareo is a wraparound skirt worn on Tahiti or other Pacific islands . The term was originally used only for women's skirts, as men wore a loincloth , called a maro . Nowadays the term is used for any cloth worn wrapped around
18-401: Is popular as well. A pāreu can be worn in many ways. Women will usually wrap it around their upper body, covering it from breasts to above the knees. Either they rely on their breasts for it not to slide down, or they may wrap a corner around their shoulder or their neck. In more traditional surroundings the covering of the upper body is less important, but the covering of the thighs is. Then it
24-513: The e and u pronounced separately, rather than slurred into a diphthong: [pɑːreu]. It is not clear where the variant pareo comes from. It might be an old dialectic variant or an early explorers' misinterpretation. But both terms were already used in the 19th century (the Dutch geographic magazine De Aarde en haar Volken of 1887 had a few South-seas articles, some of them using pāreu, others pareo). Nowadays, however, pareo can be considered as
30-638: The English-language form of the word (plural pareos ), much less likely subject to mispronunciation. The Tahitian pāreu are among the most colourful and bright of the Pacific. Originally flower patterns, the hibiscus flowers in particular, or traditional tapa patterns, were printed in bright colours on a cotton sheet of about 90 or 120 cm wide and 180 cm long. Nowadays they are also made in Tahiti itself and dye painting with varying colours
36-473: The body by men and women. The pareo is related to the Malay sarong , Filipino malong , tapis and patadyong , Samoan lavalava , Tongan tupenu and other such garments of the Pacific islands. In contemporary Tahitian the garment is called pāreu ( singular : te pāreu, plural : te mau pāreu), with the pronunciation of the word with a long a (hold the sound for two beats rather than just one) and
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