UT News January 2012

As I write this we’re just a day past the winter solstice so, although it’s officially winter, I prefer to think of us as already on our way to spring. (I’m an eternal optimist!) In many ways, Uminari Taiko has had a great year and we’ve accomplished a number of goals that we’d set out early in 2011. In addition to teaching a number of workshops and classes at our studio, we’ve had several great workshops with Eien Hunter‐Ishikawa; we attended this year’s North American Taiko Conference and performed as part of NATC’s Taiko Ten; and, in addition to a number of performances around Victoria, we also played at least a small role in raising funds for Japan’s earthquake survivors. As a capstone, we’ve recently hosted our annual year‐end Open House that featured some very talented students. January 2012 marks our official 10th anniversary as it will have been ten years since we first started hitting tires wrapped in duct tape in Mike Abe’s old aikido dojo on Johnson St. In that first year, we adopted Michiko Warkentyne’s suggestion of Uminari Taiko as our group’s name; we attended the 2002 Regional Taiko Gathering in Vancouver; we organized several workshops with Boyd Seiichi Grealy, formerly of Uzume Taiko; Rev. Tom Kurai of Los Angeles Taiko Center visited us; we pooled our resources and built six sewer pipe drums; and we learned several songs in time to perform at the 2002 VNCS Fall Fair, our breakout performance. For the coming year, I have a number of predictions for Uminari Taiko that I’ll share with you: I predict that you will see some new faces joining us and hope you may see an old face or two rejoining us as well. I predict that before the year is out we’ll be performing at least two or three original songs and that we’ll also collaborate with local artists in some fashion or other. (I also predict that my predictions will prove more accurate than the Amazing Kreskin’s.) I’ll also share a new favourite quote from this year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner, Ellen Johnson‐Sirleaf: “If your dreams do not scare you, they are not big enough.” I still have big dreams for us as we enter our 10th year, and I look forward to sharing them with you as 2012 progresses. On behalf of Uminari Taiko, I wish you a Happy New Year. As always, more information can be had by contacting us at info [at] uminaritaiko [dot] com.

Jacob Derksen