They Played the Bejeezus Out of That Pole

And once again, Taiko rocks my world!

I happened to mention that I liked that drumming arcade game again. It was three weeks ago, at Arao #3 Junior High, and my comment was followed by an invitation from one of my all-time favorite seventh graders. I like this kid because he carries his energy wherever he goes, including right into the classroom. I wish he would come along with me to every class in every school, but then I'd have to pay him, and he's sort of young for a regular job and all. Anyway, he told me he liked to do Taiko drumming and invited me to come and watch his group performance in a few weeks. I thought it sounded cute--a bunch of seventh graders doing Taiko on a stage.
And today rolled 'round, I'd forgotten the performance date, and at 9am my lovely tutor calls me this with a couple of free tickets to the show!
I think a lot of people have seen Taiko on TV, like me, but I didn't really expect it to be like it was on TV, with all the glory and intensity. I wondered if it was a production put on by the area middle schools or something.
The great sloping hall of the Arts Center probably holds seven or eight hundred people, and the place was full to capacity. I ended up sitting next to three of my former students from Arao #3, and we exchanged the standard, "How are you?", "I'm fine, thank you. And you?", only to be interupted by the incredible sound of 'PONG PONG PONG PONG'; the big bass drum captured our attention.
Taiko is not just hitting a drum. Taiko is a full experience of movement, color, sound, and energy. Every strike comes with intention, from the mind and the body. The drummers struck the drums and moved from side to side with every strike, their stance deeply wide. Their arms moved so graciously and furiously, shooting up after each hit, all the way up, seeming to point towards the heavens! As the rhythms became more and more complex between the various performers on stage, the stage lights shone new colors forth onto them and their background. The performance went on, strikingly, flawlessly, and every new group that would come out to take the stage would have a different set of costumes. The sets were varied yet simple, the colors were always subtely different and therefore refreshing to take in. The show was dynamic and professional throughout, even when these teeny little kids(maybe around 5 or 6 years old) were on stage, banging away with the rest of them. It was again amazing to witness the concept of talent education(a concept brought to the west by Shinichiro Suzuki, founder of the Suzuki method for stringed-instrument players) brilliantly at work. This concept says that every child has talent, and with the proper support structure, all children can achieve success.
Now, I didn't mean to skimp on the part about the adults, the ones really drove the show home. Their skill was apparent even before they started twirling their sticks in the air and adding complex steps and body movements as they played. All in all, there seemed to be about seventy-five members of the group. They finally all took the stage for one big(and actually real, not like in the US, where it's just expected) encore. A gargantuan bamboo pole was lowered across the front length of the stage, and while the adults and young adults played the drums on the back part of the stage, the kids lined up and played that bamboo pole with fury. It was a spectacular encore.
Needless to say, I got a lot more than my money's worth out of this one. Of course, since I didn't pay for it at all, that isn't saying much. ; ) But I mean for it to say great things, actually. The show genuinely blew me away, and seeing that little seventh-grader up there on the stage, the head drummer of the junior students, giving it his blessed all, brought tears to my eyes.
This has been an interlude, brought to you by life itself. It has been an intermission from the job-saga, which will continue to unfold at another meeting with the Board of Education tomorrow...