Kapa Haka performance/assessment

First off, this is what a poi is.

Thursday was tiring. I had dance for three and a half hours and then my Kapa Haka assessment!

The assessment went well - though it was more of a ceremony with some singing than a performance. There were lots of formalities which included mass amounts of our tudors/other people I didn't recognize speaking in Maori as well as introductions - seriously, all 180 of us had to introduce ourselves. We were supposed to invite our friends and family and some of my friends here came. Also, about 90% of IES students are in Kapa Haka, so the other IESers came to see.. well, everyone. It was sweet. Here are some pictures/video! Also: on the video, I'm on the right side of the group in the 2nd row (except in E hara, where I'm in the middle, and the haka where I'm behind the boys). Happy trying to find me! :)

"E hara"


"Papaki Nui" (action song)


"Hokihoki" (seriously poi is so hard, it looks easy but it's NOT)


The Haka - seriously, there are such better, more complete videos of these on facebook that other people took. But, at least I have some video of all of them except one!


After the assessment there was a feast - or, at least, it was supposed to be a feast. The guests got to eat first and so by the time it got to the students there wasn't much food left. Boo. I got dessert though?

Kapa Haka was an awesome class though. I loved that it was only once a week and that it was more of a cultural community class. Probably half of the people that took Kapa Haka were American exchange/study abroad students, but it was cool that there were a chunk of Maori (and other New Zealand) people in the class as well. Also helpful to help on things such as the poi, which theoretically shouldn't be hard but actually is. While some days Kapa Haka felt very redundant, it was cool to learn a language (which I still don't know what the songs mean in English but it taught me how to pronounce some Maori words) and learn about the culture from our tudors and classmates who really wanted to teach us. Overall, I am so so so happy I took that class. Awesome!