Mana - The Spirit Of Polynesia

                        Mana - The Spirit Of Polynesia 

Hula hoops and dance what a surprise, on Friday last week, a man called Bernard Mangakahia came to the Karoro school to perform a show called, Mana - the spirit of Polynesia.

He did lots of dances from different countries that had different meanings. He did  a sign language act, where there was a song playing and he did sign language to the words. The act he did explained and showed that if you want to achieve something you have to work for it.

Bernard did lots of different dances, like hip hop, a haka, a Hawaiian dance, a Maori poi dance and a hoop dance. He did a haka and drew  moko on half of his face and explained what the lines, meant and where they went. He also did a poi dance, with two long poi. He showed us how to  swing them and do patterns with the poi in the air without them hitting each other.

Bernard did a hoop dance which is a Native American Indian dance which he explained to us that each hoop was a new challenge and that if you completed the challenge it was like adding another hoop and you get stronger every time. Bernard said that the hoop dance took him about 10 years to perfect. The hoop dance that he did needed fitness, flexibility and hard work. He had to spin around while going in and out of the hoops. While he was doing this he made different shapes and animals, like a horse, a flower, an eagle, a butterfly and a cactus. I enjoyed watching the hoop dance because I like watching him making the animals.

At the end he did a hip hop dance. Bernard said that one of his sons does hip hop and that he showed him some moves. Bernard also told us lots of stories about where his family is from and where he is from. He also told us that we should continue to tell stories so that they just keep going and they don’t get forgotten.

I really enjoyed watching his show and, I think it was cool that he invited people on stage to have a go at some of the things that he did.