The lakalaka (walking briskly) is a Tongan group dance where the performers are largely standing still and make gestures with their arms only.

Admittedly, the pre-missionary pōmeʻe (night dances), after which couples disappeared into the bushes, did not occur anymore.

The lakalaka as it is known nowadays is usually accredited to have been invented towards the end of the 19th century by a high chief, who was a Methodist preacher as well: Tukuʻaho (1858—1897), from Tatakamotonga.

Often when a celebration is coming up, a punake (poet) will write the lyrics to the occasion, assign music to the stanzas from a pool of typical tunes and then choreograph the haka (dance movements).

In any case, how different their haka on first glance may be, both men and women interpret the words of the songs, but in a symbolic, allusive way as so typical for Tongan dance.

Sometimes in the middle of some lakalaka there are stanzas with a different type of lyrics and music than the rest, called the sipa.

The dance normally starts with the singing of the first stanza by both dancers and chorus, which is a deference to the god, the king and the chiefs of the country.

The persons in the middle of the front row, on the division line between the two gender are known as the vāhenga (central performer).

It is for a dance group a high honour if a prince or princess or noble will participate as vāhenga.

Often an either white or black tupenu with shirt and a taʻovala loukeha, although this all may be largely covered by a sisi an ornamental girdle of leaves and fragrant flowers and/or a manafau a grassskirt, but in reality made of hibiscus fibers.

The dancers of Tatakamotonga, who often perform last on big occasions, because they are claimed to be the best, always dress in black, as whether they still mourn for Tukuʻaho (see below) and his son Tungī Mailefihi, the consort of Queen Salote Tupou III.

For the women the feathers are usually glued to one or two small sticks, pointing up, while for the men it is a soft tuft hanging down.