The Otago Polyfest performance is our biggest performance of the year. It is the one time that our community, who supports the work that we do either through fundraising, volunteering or in any other form, gets to see our National or Regional performance live. It is the one big performance where the group do not have any other responsibilities on them other than performing for the love of performing. They are not judged, nor do they carry any cultural obligations. There are no restrictions on numbers and no pressure to win any competitions. This performance is where the younger children in our community often choose their high schools based on the groups they see at Polyfest.
Three major things affected our normal build up and performance for Polyfest this year:
1. Ngā Manu Kōrero: The national Ngā Manu Kōrero national competition was being held the same week so we organised to perform on the Monday night rather than the Thursday night, when we would normally perform.
2. Takere: Te Hautonga, our regional competition was held so late in the year and only 3 weeks out from Polyfest. This made it difficult to prepare and practice a separate Takere performance. Added to this, we had low numbers in our Takere team this year, so decided it would be easier on us and more beneficial to our Takere members to bring them in to the Tira Tauwhāinga, the competition team. This way those members would be able to experience the level of commitment needed to prepare for competition and we would only have one performance for Polyfest. Even though Te Hautonga had not long finished, it is still not easy to work an extra 9 people into the choreography.
Tahu Pōtiki: As mentioned previously this year was punctuated by the loss of Tahu Pōtiki. His tangi was held the week after Hautonga and two weeks before this performance. It was an emotionally draining time for those of our members who were part of Tahu’s family and meant that between Hautonga and Polyfest there was not a lot of time to prepare.
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