Tuesday April 20, 2004
I went to see a taiko group, Tokara, who was giving a free performance at the Texas Union Theater today. It is a small troop, only four members, two American men and two Japanese women. They communicated such joy in their playing that I was absolutely enchanted. The beauty of taiko drumming is more than the rhythms; the players move like dancers. Are they dancers making their own music with their bodies, or are they musicians whose music cannot be contained to the confines of their instruments?
An elderly gentleman kept on about how the rhythm wasn't dance-able, that it was warlike and intimidating like Thor and his thunderbolts. My reaction was just the opposite. I felt pure, primal joy as the beat reverberated through my body, as if the gods were calling the universe to life.
Posted by M Sinclair Stevens
April 20, 2004
Share Your Thoughts
14:00. Saw the taiko ensemble, Tokara, at the Texas Union Theater.