The pomaani is a kind of war dance. It is performed by men individually, with musical accompaniment on the pasala (gamelan drum) and the ndoo (bass gong). By turns, each man enters the circle of spectators with a shout, and demonstrates his prowess with a long sword in one hand and holding a symbolic shield and spray of young coconut leaves in the other.
The same musical rhythm is used for both the pomaani and the pangaru dances. The diffrence between the two dances is that the pomaani is always performed individually, while the pangaru is performed by two or more people who mime combat with each other.
