All classes took part in these performances. We had a lot of rehearsals as each class, and groups such as the Kapa-Haka group, the Samoan group, the Tongan group and the Cook Island group. Then we had two rehearsals with the whole School, so we knew what to do and say. The Kapa-Haka group kicked off the festival with their amazing performance. Then the Juniors performed their cute and funny dances.
Finally, it was now our class' turn to perform. Our class was going to play the drums, tambourine's and shakers. The drums we used looked kinda like a Djembe.
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| Djembe |
The drummers were sitting in a half a circle, while the shakers and tambourine players were standing at the back of them also in a half a circle. Mr. Nath (Our Teacher) was also playing a drum. I was playing the tambourine. One of our class members was playing the bass, and every time he hits it, we had to hit our tambourines to make a good rhythm. The students playing the shakers just hit them continuously against their own hand. The beat was magnificent to my ears.
As we got into it and started to have fun, our teacher started to dance.. causing other teachers / parents to dance as well. One of the staff members came up on stage and starting dancing with Mr. Nath, and everyone started to laugh their heads off.
After all, we had the last group to perform, which was also the biggest.. The Cook Island group! First, the smaller children performed their Cook Island dance. A lot of people were cheering them on. Then the older classes came on stage and showed us their fantastic dance. There were also Cook Island drummers which made the dance more exciting!
We had this festival so we could raise some money for our own outfits, the ones we were using weren't ours. There were a lot of parents giving their money for us, so that's great! We're very thankful. That night is definitely a night to remember, it was super fun to experience watching different dances from different cultures and some of us weren't even apart of that culture, so I'm super proud that we gave the dances a try and entertained others.
