Three Rivers Festival is just around the corner and so is another opportunity to see FW Taiko up close and personal  at  1PM on  Saturday July 9th in Freimann Square.  Meet us at the corner of Main and Clinton; follow the sound of the  drums if you don’t see us.

  http://www.trfonline.org/

The Fort Wayne Dance Collective (FWDC) is pleased to present Fort Wayne Taiko’s fourth annual Knock on Wood performance on Saturday, November 20, 2010 at 7 p.m. The performance will be held at the Allen County Pubic Library’s theatre, located at the main library at 900 Library Plaza in downtown Fort Wayne.

Knock on Wood will feature a playful collage of sound and images performed by a diverse group of local talent. The collection of songs will include traditional and contemporary taiko drumming pieces as well as original compositions featuring chants, body percussion, language and dance.

Pre-sale tickets are $12 for adults and $10 for students 12 and under. At the door, adult tickets are $15 and children tickets are $12. Call the Fort Wayne Dance Collective at 424-6574 for tickets or information.

Taiko, which means “big drum,” is a drumming and movement form based on Japanese tradition. Taiko is played on big drums, skinned both ends and placed in vertical, horizontal and diagonal positions. In taiko, the movement is as important as the rhythm–drummers play rhythms with sticks using choreographed arm movements and/or while ”dancing” from drum to drum.

Fort Wayne Taiko, the only performing taiko group in Indiana, has provided Northeast/Central Indiana with taiko performances and instruction since 2000. Fort Wayne Taiko members have studied with Japanese taiko masters in California and have brought guest taiko drummers to Fort Wayne to teach skills and repertory to local drummers. A program of the Fort Wayne Dance Collective, Fort Wayne Taiko honors the tradition of taiko as it equally strives to integrate taiko with other art forms to create experimental performance art. Weekly taiko classes are offered at the Fort Wayne Dance Collective. Children’s classes, outreach programs and performances are available upon request. For more info, go to their website, FWTaiko.org. To see several photos from recent FW Taiko shows, including Knock on Wood 2008, see below.

Fort Wayne Taiko is a program of the Fort Wayne Dance Collective, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. FWDC receives funding from Arts United of Greater Fort Wayne, the Indiana Arts Commission, and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency. Partial funding for this event provided by the Downtown Improvement District.

3-Rivers Festival is always a fun time to perform up close and personal with our audience.  We usually save a little time for spectators to join us in making music so check us out at 1PM in Freimann Square.

Fort Wayne Taiko and Fort Wayne Dance Collective is pleased to announce a 3-day guest artist residency by the internationally-renowned TAIKOPROJECT, a Los Angeles-based drumming group. This residency includes a performance of “(re)generation” April 17, 2010 at 8 pm at the Arts United Center (see map below).

LA Weekly said of TAIKOPROJECT, “This ain’t your mama’s taiko, but it may be your hip, younger cousin’s”, and they couldn’t be more right. This company seamlessly blends fast-paced, exciting taiko with storytelling, music, hip-hop choreography, multimedia and dance.

In 2005, TAIKOPROJECT traveled to Japan to represent American taiko at the Tokyo International Taiko Contest. They took home the top prize, becoming the first foreign taiko group to win the contest. Earlier that year, they were featured in Mitsubishi Motor’s national ad campaign, featuring women in their group.

This 8-member company is in Fort Wayne for a three-day residency that includes educational lecture/demonstrations with schoolchildren, workshops for local taiko drummers and taiko enthusiasts, and will even be doing a demonstration during the Cherry Blossom Festival, happening downtown on April 18!

Reserved tickets are $25 for adults and $20 for children 12 and under. At the door, tickets are $30. They can be purchased by calling Fort Wayne Dance Collective at 260-424-6574 or by emailing info@fwdc.org. For more information about TAIKOPROJECT and their residency in Fort Wayne, visit www.fwdc.org/taikoproject.

FUN FACTS ABOUT TAIKO:

• Taiko, which means “big drum” in Japanese, is a drumming and movement art form from ancient Japan. In taiko, the movement is as important as the rhythm — drummers play rhythms with sticks using choreographed arm movements while dancing from drum to drum.
• Fort Wayne has our very own taiko group! Fort Wayne Taiko has been around since 2001 and has performed at countless local festivals, schools, and other events. See their website at www.fwtaiko.org.
• Drums (at least those used by Fort Wayne Taiko) are made out of 50-gallon bourbon barrels, skinned at both ends in cowhide and played in horizontal, diagonal and vertical positions. Read a history of the drums and see pictures at http://fwtaiko.org/who-we-are/the-drums

TAIKOPROJECT at the Arts United Center