The Actions

Te Ao Hou, June 1963, Page 24

The Actions Just as it is a good idea to practice sounds, so it is often helpful—particularly when there are a number of inexperienced members in a group—to carry out practice exercises before getting on to the actions of the song or haka. These exercises allow everyone to limber up, gives novices confidence and allows the group leader to move around correcting common faults in posture and execution. When the time comes to learn the song, etc., actions are too often merely repeated time after time. Initially the song or haka should be broken down line by line or into groups of lines, the actions of each being taken through slowly with the performers following. Difficult actions must be fully demonstrated and performers given a few minutes to practise in their own time, those in difficulty being corrected by the more experienced. Opinions differ as to whether items should be practised in correct tempo from the very beginning. Many teachers favour taking items with difficult words and/or actions through more slowly at first. The disadvantage of this is that it makes the correct speed more difficult to establish later and performers tend to slow down during the course of an item to the original practice tempo even after the correct beat is established and practised.