Practice makes perfect

A marching team coach was once asked how she got her marchers to move in such straight lines.

With a smirk, she answered: "Electric fences".

Buckingham Guards (Hawke’s Bay) marching team member Ella Curtis (14) said it was a good joke but in reality, it was not the threat of a nasty shock that kept them in line. It was hours and hours of rehearsal.

Ella and her team-mates are in Dunedin for the Marching New Zealand Championships, and at the moment, they are spending up to 10 hours a day rehearsing, to achieve the "electrifyingly precise" manoeuvres that audiences expect at national competitions.

She is among about 700 marchers, coaches and supporters from around the country who arrived in Dunedin earlier this week, and spent much of yesterday preparing for the opening ceremony at 4pm today.

Marching Otago publicity officer Viki Kingsley-Holmes said she was looking forward to the buzz that the event would bring to the host city.

Competitors ranged in age from primary school level to over 50, she said.

Teams will be streamed tomorrow, before the competition begins, and the public is welcome to watch.