By ALANAH MAY ERIKSEN
Rotorua Girls' High School has come up with an innovative way to recruit students: dance for them.
For the second year, about 25 senior performing arts students visited seven primary and intermediate schools to showcase what the school has to offer.
The free
45-minute concerts included a performance by the Te Arawa Secondary Schools' Kapa Haka runners-up and dancing, singing, theatre and instrument-playing.
At Mokoia Intermediate, pupils cheered, clapped and laughed. Afterwards they performed a haka for the students to show their appreciation.
Year 13 Girls' High student DJ Wiringi, 17, is usually a hip hop dancer, but she tried her hand at cabaret dance.
It is the second year the former Crucial Movement hip hop crew member has toured with her school and she believes the performances made a lot of the pupils want to attend the school.
"Kids really like the dancing the best. It's so cool because they'll often do a haka for us afterwards, even the little 5-year-olds. We get a buzz from the tautoko [support]."
Mokoia Year 8 pupil Damon Eccles, 12, said his favorite part was when a group of the girls danced to a medley of songs.
"It was really cool. It's the first time I've seen anything like it, they dance really differently," he said.
Year 7 pupil Moko Pukepuke, 11, said his favourite part was the kapa haka because he knew members of the group performing it.
The teacher in charge of dance, Jane Edward, said teachers and pupils at the schools had welcomed the group.
"We just wanted to build our profile in the community and with the kids," she said.
"The girls do it for free and the kids seem to love it. It's nice for them to see something a bit different when thinking about what high school they might like to attend."
