Kapa Haka - Music and Dance Styles Used By Kapa Haka

Music and Dance Styles Used By Kapa Haka

Not all Māori performance types are used by kapa haka. Below are brief descriptions of the ones that usually appear. See Māori music for a wider discussion of Māori music.

• Waiata tira are choral pieces used to warm up the vocal cords and introduce the group to the audience. Through a waiata tira the group announces its arrival in a manner that is generally light and positive.

• Whakaeke are also choral pieces. They are frequently used to comment on a social issue of the day or to commemorate an individual or some element of Māoridom. They may also simply be used as the entrance song to announce the group's arrival.

• Haka are best described as challenges. They are used to make a point and to vent anger. They are performed by both men and women, with the focus on the men in the front and support from the women behind. They are vocal performances involving rhythmic declamation in triple metre and aggressive or challenging facial expressions (pūkana, literally "glaring"), body movements and demeanour. The men make heavy use of foot stamping, body percussion, and grimace in an attempt to appear as menacing as possible. Haka are often described as traditional war dances but in fact had many other uses as well in precolonial Māori society, and have many peaceful uses today.

• Waiata-ā-ringa (literally "song of hands or arms") are "action songs", which means that they display the typical Polynesian practice of embellishing and reinforcing the sung poetry with arm and hand actions. They are performed by men and women with women in the front and men in the back. Some use melodies from common English-language songs with new lyrics in Māori, while others are newly-composed, treating a wide variety of topics. They feature the wiri or trembling of the hands to indicate the interface between the mind and the body.

• Poi are women's dances involving the swinging of balls, about the size of tennis balls, attached to cords. Poi's origins lie in the precolonial practice of training with poi to improve agility in battle, but today poi is used to showcase the beauty and gracefulness of the women. Poi were traditionally used by women on long Waka voyages as a mean of keeping timing of the male paddlers, in the style of a coxwain. This is the reason for the emphasis of the sound of the poi striking the hand. Performers swing the balls in synchrony in a variety of figures and rhythms while simultaneously singing a song (a waiata poi) accompanied by guitar. They demonstrate great dexterity and coordination, particularly with "long poi", with cords up to a metre long, where four poi at once may be manipulated by each performer. Formerly the balls were made of raupo and the cords of flax but today they tend to be made of plastic shopping-bag material and yarn. The sound of poi striking the hands is an important part of the musical accompaniment.

• Tītī tōrea are occasionally used by kapa haka. Tītī tōrea are pairs of carved thin sticks about shoulder width manipulated with dextrous wrist and arm work, often simultaneously passed between performers. Like poi, tītī tōrea figures are performed in synchrony and to music (and like poi, their sounds, especially that of the ends hitting the floor together, form a percussive accompaniment); and, also like poi, arose out of a precolonial warrior training technique.

• Pou or mōteatea are unison songs performed in a style reminisicent of precolonial Māori singing. They are an important genre within Maoridom because they tell stories in which historical, genealogical and cultural information is preserved and thus link Māori with their past. Mōteatea come in a variety of forms including laments, lullabies, and songs about revenge, anger, and love.

• Whakawātea are choral pieces used to farewell the audience or make a final point before departing the stage. They may pick up on themes raised in the whakaeke or comment on the event at hand. Performers are often at the side or back of the stage.