Having spent the morning in the East Village saying farewell to my cousin, I was back in Bergenfield High School by 3pm. This was a last minute session squeezed into the schedule that was pretty tight due to the staff talent show that started at 7pm that night in the auditorium. Joanie, the organiser of the event, was running around doing last minute chores as I took the taiko club through Tai Ya Sa and their performance song for that night. Jeff, who hadn’t been able to attend yesterday, stepped up to learn the central ji pattern with the intro, and as I stood at the back row of seats, I couldn’t believe how great they all looked having spent just two sessions on this piece. Baring in mind that some of these students had been playing taiko for only a few months, what they had achieved seemed more amazing.
Fifteen minutes before we had to clear the stage for the show to be set-up, Joanie returned and they performed for her – we looked at each other and she said just what I was hoping for, that we should ask them if they want to play it in the show. Checking with Jeff, he was unable to do it, due to numerous other performance commitments, so we agreed that if they wanted to do it, I’d fill in for him. Speaking to Joanie later, she told me that what happened next was worth all of the organization of getting me to USA to do this – we asked them, with no pressure, and at the edge of the stage, they went wild, faced beaming and screaming with excitement at the prospect. It’s always a tough call – you want them to have the thrill of taking up the challenge, but never want to put them in the position where it falls apart and no-one feels good about it. Could they do it?
What happened then showed the depth of this experience – they then had to sort out a transition, something they’d never done before, so we talked it through and made some compromises on both pieces to keep it as simple as possible. To top it, two members then arrived and of course wanted to join in, without being at the practice…they sorted it all out, made sure everyone had a drum, the right drum, knew where they were playing and changing to, and then went backstage to tap through the intro that they had learned just 3 ‘taiko hours’ earlier. Their co-operation was fantastic, including everyone, taking care of feelings, practicalities and performance considerations. There wasn’t much time to think about it – they were the opening act, and the doors had opened.
After their first song had finished, the clapping hadn’t stopped as a seamless transition occurred and I gave the cue to start the new piece. It started with a row at the front, playing the intro, whilst ten other players crouched behind their drums, waiting for the build-up before they jumped into the air to play their first beat. Eight hundred people exploded onto their feet and started clapping along, and carried on until then end, which they nailed with pure energy alone.
Speaking to Takiyah Townsend who runs the Step club at the after show party she confirmed my hopes – that more people were getting excited about taiko – there’s now a collaboration planned for Tai Ya Sa with the step club adding their body percussive dance to it for a basketball game. I had managed to catch a word with the school Principle in the hallway after the show who had really enjoyed seeing the taiko club perform at such a high level. Chatting to the Vice Principle at the party, I was so pleased that he had the chance to see what I had been talking with him about at the beginning of the week.
All in all, I really couldn’t have wished for a better outcome – new principles that I had introduced only one week previously with a smart board and a hope that they would translate to this New Jersey high school were projected out into the auditorium with the instant gratification of the crowd going crazy for it, and the best result of all: every student that walked off that stage knew that they had achieved something phenomenal, and you could see it in the way they held themselves and smiled to people giving them their well deserved praise. Being witness to that was a taiko high that I’ll never forget.
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