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photo by Lori Ikeda-Lowe
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| photos by Lori Ikeda-Lowe |
Friday night’s performance also featured the dance and taiko infused group, Girl Brigade, who put on a bone-chilling performance with a strong social justice message, using the medium of their dance, voice and taiko.
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| photos by Lori Ikeda-Lowe |
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| photos by Lori Ikeda-Lowe |
1) The
newly choreographed Soran Bushi, with over 20 SF Taiko Dojo members taking over
the stage with UC Davis Bakuhatsu Taiko Dan for Saturday night’s performance.
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| photo by Lori Ikeda-Lowe |
2) A
full-blown Sokobayashi classic performance with SFTD’s Performing Group
(including a timpani drum solo)
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| photos by Lori Ikeda-Lowe |
3) The
Junior Rising Stars (aka Sarita-san’s kids) performing Matsuri Daiko, and the
Rising Stars performing Many Sides, as well as a newly choreographed piece,
which for now is just called “the new piece”.
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| photo by Lori Ikeda-Lowe |
4) The
always anticipated and powerful Tsunami, which began with a chanting and prayer
by Eiji Tsuchiya for the victims of last year’s devastating Tsunami in the
Tohoku region.
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| photos by Lori Ikeda-Lowe |
An unusual event that I
feel needs mentioning as we look back on this concert was the unfortunate event
of having the leader of Wako Daiko having to return to Japan immediately after
touching down in SFO, upon hearing news of his father’s sudden passing. We were all devastated to hear the sad
news and knew that the right thing for the leader to do was to turn around and
be with his family. While it was a
difficult decision to leave behind his group, he knew that he could rely on
them to still make a great performance, especially under Tanaka-sensei’s
guidance. With side stage curtain
support from all of us, and also supported backbeat on stage by Tanaka-sensei,
they four performers were able to pull off such an amazing and physically
demanding performance with all of their spirit and energy they had. They knew that they were doing it for
their leader, his father and for their own memory. They left it all on stage.
This year’s ITF was not
unusually exhausting, as they all generally are. From the perspective of someone who has been with SFTD for
13 years, I feel like every year we are pulling off the greatest impossible
feat and doing it all together as a family. Even when there are unknowns and very little time to do
run-throughs and technical rehearsals and stage spiking, and knowing that there
are always going to be last-minute changes, unexpected events, we always manage
to somehow get through and still get out there on stage and put everything
we’ve been working on all year out there for the audience to enjoy. We don’t show that we’ve been in the
theater since 8am on our feet, running around making sure our guests are taken
care of, that the equipment is all set up and ready, that the stage is set for
all of our guest performers. Its
just part of being part of SFTD and being backstage. It is an honor and privilege to be so thoroughly spent by
the end of the weekend, to be even a sliver of this long tradition and legacy
that Tanaka Sensei and the pioneer members have created for us. We all know it
and feel it and that’s why we come back year after year.
For many of us, emerging from that theater life and the dojo life you live all weekend is a difficult transition, as many of us head back into our regular work weeks. To try and describe what you’ve just experienced over that weekend to anyone who asks “How’d the concert go?” is just one of those things you can never muster up the energy or words to quite describe it. You just know that you’ve been a part of something spectacular, have made strong connections with friends and that you will eventually recover, rest up and gear up for next year’s.
Written by:
Hideko Akashi
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| photos by Lori Ikeda-Lowe |
For many of us, emerging from that theater life and the dojo life you live all weekend is a difficult transition, as many of us head back into our regular work weeks. To try and describe what you’ve just experienced over that weekend to anyone who asks “How’d the concert go?” is just one of those things you can never muster up the energy or words to quite describe it. You just know that you’ve been a part of something spectacular, have made strong connections with friends and that you will eventually recover, rest up and gear up for next year’s.
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| photos by Lori Ikeda-Lowe |
Written by:
Hideko Akashi
This is a great posting! Thank you for the insight. As a long time taiko drummer I too can feel the truth of what you are saying. It will be great to be with Tanaka Sensei and his dojo again in the future.
ReplyDeleteBen