Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival closes with Rhythms of Thunder: An Evening of Taiko, November 8
Thrilling evening features performances by Uzume Taiko, GO Taiko and Taiko 55, and Onibana Taiko
SPONSORED POST BY Vancouver Moving Theatre
Uzume Taiko. Photo by Adam PW Smith
Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival presents Rhythms of Thunder: An Evening of Taiko at the Russian Hall on November 8 from 7 pm to 9 pm.
Witness a full evening of taiko at the festival’s closing concert, where a spectacular array of Vancouver taiko artists will showcase a thrilling lineup of Japanese drumming styles. Performers include Uzume Taiko, Canada’s first professional taiko group, which fuses old and new drumming styles with dramatic flair; GO Taiko and Taiko 55, the only intergenerational taiko group in B.C.; and Onibana Taiko, whose performers combine Japanese tradition and a kick-ass taiko aesthetic.
GO Taiko. Photo by Manto Artworks, © Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre
Uzume Taiko was co-founded in 1988 and is Canada’s first professional taiko group. The troupe has toured its original West Coast taiko repertoire across Canada, the U.K., western Europe, and the U.S., as well as to Mexico and Japan. Today, Uzume Taiko’s core drummers include Boyd Seiichi Grealy, Naomi Kajiwara, Jason Overy, Jordan Riley, and Bonnie Soon.
GO Taiko originated from free afterschool taiko classes at Admiral Seymour Elementary School in East Vancouver. It is the second youth taiko group ever founded in B.C. GO Taiko brings a fresh, energetic approach to drumming, and loves to share Japanese culture through taiko. Taiko 55, meanwhile, formed from taiko drumming classes at South Arm Community Centre in Richmond. This group of energetic older adults fell in love with the rhythms of the taiko songs.
Onibana Taiko. Photo by Matthew Chun
Onibana Taiko are Nikkei veterans of Vancouver’s taiko community whose performances infuse Japanese traditional arts, festival drumming, and folk music and dance with feminist, queer, and punk aesthetics. The group is composed of E. Kage, Noriko Kobayashi, and Leslie Komori, whose collective depth of performance and taiko experience exceeds a century. On November 8, Onibana Taiko will share Sounds of Dreams, a live performance featuring archival images taken on the Downtown Eastside from the 1890s to 1970s. It was put together in 2024 in collaboration with the National Nikkei Museum and the Powell Street Festival.
Rhythms of Thunder: An Evening of Taiko will be hosted by Teresa Vandertuin and Rika Uto. Tickets are available here.
Post sponsored by Vancouver Moving Theatre.
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