By Arthur E. Foulkes
TERRE HAUTE — The rapid-fire sound of beating drums rocked the Booker T. Washington Community Center on Friday night as a Los Angeles-based percussion group, Taikoproject, gave a free show to about 200 enthusiastic spectators.
Taikoproject plays a Japanese-style of drum music featuring drums of different sizes and handheld percussion instruments. The performers also dance and shout as they play. The word “taiko” is Japanese for “drum.”
“I want to learn how to play the drums,” said Destiny Montgomery, a fifth-grader at Davis Park Elementary who watched the show with dozens of other young people. A large group of children from the 14th and Chestnut Community Center also attended the program.
The Taikoproject drummers will be performing tonight to a sold out audience at Rose-Hulman’s Hatfield Hall theater. The performance at the Booker T. Washington Community Center was funded by a $2,500 community arts grant from the City of Terre Haute and by Rose-Hulman.
In addition to playing several songs, the Taikoproject drummers also taught their audience about their Japanese-style of music. At the end of the performance, several members of the audience, mostly grade school-aged children, were invited to try their hands at drumming.
“It was really fun,” said DaShana Johnson, a seventh-grader at Woodrow Wilson who got a chance to play one of the drums at the end of the show.
“I like how they did their moves,” added Shakyra Session, a fifth-grader at Ben Franklin Elementary.
The drummers performed for one hour in the gymnasium of the community center, formerly known as the Hyte Center, at 1101 S. 13th St. The drummers also taught the audience about the different instruments they played, including a large drum supported on four long wooden legs weighing about 120 pounds.
“It was a great cultural experience for the kids,” said Hiawatha Garrett, a fourth grade teacher at Ben Franklin who attended the performance. Performances such as the Taikoproject’s make the kids wonder and may spark a new interest, she said. “This is great.”
Rose-Hulman, as part of its performing arts series, tries to reach out to the community, said Bunny Nash, director of performing arts at Rose. “We try to do a lot of community outreach,” she said. The community arts grant from the city made it possible to bring the Taiko project to Terre Haute a day early for the Booker T. Washington performance, she said.
In all, five members of Taikoproject, which has performed in television commercials for companies such as Nike and Mitsubishi, took part in Friday night’s show at the center. Tonight’s show at Rose-Hulman will be more theatrical and will include as many as 10 members of the group, Nash said. Taikoproject also performed at this year’s Academy Awards show.
Apart from playing their drums, each member of the Taikoproject introduced himself to the community center audience. They also took questions from the audience.
The Taikoproject’s traditional Japanese drum music has its roots in spiritual, prayer drumming, one of the group told the audience. Traditionally, such drumming was done by a single person. Group drumming of this style is only about 50-years-old, the performer said. Taiko music was first introduced into the United States in the late 1960s in California, they said.
“It was cool how they switched up with each other,” said Najah Session, a fourth-grader at Ben Franklin who got to play one of the Taikoproject’s drums at the end of the show. “It was fun. I felt like I was one of them.”
For more information on the Taikoproject, see the group’s Web site at www.taikoproject.com.
Arthur Foulkes can be reached at (812) 231-4232 or arthur.foulkes@tribstar.com.
