Taiko shakes audience -- in a good way
DANCE REVIEW, October 29, 1998
By CERINDA SURVANT, Special writer, The Oregonian
Only a curmudgeon or a corpse could watch Portland Taiko and remain unmoved.
Each of the many percussion instruments -- big drums, little drums, teeny tiny metal ones -- resonates in a different part of the body. The hall shakes underfoot and the metal chairs vibrate.
And the stage is full of simple, honest elegance -- the instruments’ polished wood, dull metals and carefully tended leather; the performers’ unaffected expressions of effort, ease and pleasure.
Portland Taiko, a 4-year-old ensemble of virtuosic, athletic percussionists, played three sold-out shows of “Making Waves” at Portland State University’s Lincoln Performance Hall last weekend. Sometimes they played and told stories. Sometimes they played and danced. And sometimes they simply played, and that was satisfying enough.
Though rooted in classical Japanese theater and ritual, taiko developed out of post-war Japan’s rediscovery of traditional (read “folk”) forms. According to Portland Taiko co-director Zack Semke, some 5,000 taiko groups play in Japan today and more than 100 play here in the United States; the American groups consist mainly of women.
The program’s most exciting pieces combine precise playing with big, crisp movement: The performers pass the lead from one to another like jazz players; they whirl and dodge each other changing drums. Their pleasure and exuberance are obvious -- and irresistible.
Jamey Hampton, Eric Oglesbee and Trina Patricelli-Betts of BODYVOX reduced the audience to helpless laughter when they joined Portland Taiko to Perform “Ring of Steel,” a work Hampton created with Brian Frette. The company also reprised “Sticks and Skins,” a piece the two ensembles premiered last summer at the Nike World Games opening ceremonies.
(uncut review)
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