aesthetic
The aesthetic of canoe dance is grounded in the tradition of Canadian style-paddling. And the aesthetic of Canadian style-paddling is grounded on the notion of ‘the invisible paddler.’

What matters here is the motion of the canoe: it must be silent, smooth, precise–in a word, graceful. Canoeists must not call attention to themselves; they must be invisible. This is in contrast to some other forms, where the canoeist is the centre of interest and performs all manner of contortions to accomplish otherwise simple manoeuvres.

Because canoe dance is (as I see it) a group activity, what we are looking for is graceful movement of multiple canoes through interesting geometric forms. Or it may be the performance of interesting or difficult manoeuvres for the sheer kinaesthetic pleasure of it.