Coach turned actors into a team

Press, 2 December 1987, Page 18

Coach turned actors into a team

It is the North Island Championships — the big day for the Taita Supremes — in tonight’s final episode of “The Marching Girls” (9 on One). The team has come so far, against overwhelming odds, in just six months, but it remains to be seen how the marching frater-

nity will receive their outrageous creative routine. Tonight’s final also marked the culmination of six months hard work on the part of Sheryn Pahina. This Stokes Valley wife, mother of four, full-time worker and senior marching coach (Kensington Guards) had successfully turned a

group of young actors, who had never marched before, into a team which looked capable of winning a championship. Pahina, who with her three younger daughters choreographed the “over the top” marching display revealed in its full glory tonight, was still teaching the women minutes before the filming.

It is a short display but difficult, and Pahina says the women did it so well she would not have believed it possible. “In fact, they did it so well I was almost moved to tears,” she said. Fittingly, Pahina and her senior team, who helped with the actors’ basic training, appear in. this last episode.