Meet the Team
HJ:
HJ has studied with global taiko pioneers, and connected with taiko groups around the world. She is passionate about taiko inspiring positive social change, with a goal of increased individual and community well-being. HJ shares the art with a spirit of adventure, awareness and compassion. She teaches with real excitement, leading students gently into the form developing stance, breath, power and experience of connection with self and team that is central to the art form.
“HJ integrates a mindful approach to her teaching for taiko practice and performance. She skilfully guides players to experience embodied learning and takes them to a place of fresh creative possibilities. Her exploration of synthesizing “awakened” movement to the musicality of taiko playing is a wonderful addition to the taiko community. She offers beauty and genuine connection that extends beyond the stage and into daily life. She is passionate about sharing taiko for personal and social transformation—to open our hearts and minds.” (PJ Hirabayashi, TaikoPeace activator/founder, San Jose Taiko founding member).
photo credits: Anthony de Sigley, Diana Wilkins
Linda:
Linda has over ten years of taiko performance experience, and also delivered taiko team-building workshops to well-known national companies. Having played taiko both in the UK and internationally, she has a natural stage-presence and exudes energy and joy when she plays. Linda has now been part of the Taiko Journey performance team for the past two years, performing and sharing her expertise in corporate team events. The relationship between Linda’s work as a psychosocial practitioner and grounded, embodied rhythmic practice of taiko is proving to be a powerful combination.
Linda is a Psychotherapeutic Counsellor and trainer, and prior to that she practiced as a Chartered Physiotherapist. Linda has worked both in the N.H.S. and Private Sector. Linda currently works as a Psychosocial Practitioner for the British Red Cross and delivers training in Stress Management to national companies and Government Institutions. Taiko Journey is delighted to have Linda working as part of the corporate wellness work that Taiko journey offers.
photo credits: unknown, Diana Wilkins
Ruth:
Ruth Janssen, a London Contemporary Dance School alum, danced
and choreographed 
professionally for two decades, notably with Scottish Dance Theatre and working with many of the UKs leading dance artists and touring globally. After relocating to Devon and starting a family, she discovered a love for Taiko drumming, finding rhythm, community, and joy. A qualified yoga teacher, Ruth also leads Thula Mama groups and co-directs The Hall Exeter.
“Taiko was introduced to me by my Mum, who was rebelling against her own self-imposed Pilates class. I quickly found huge love for the way the movements channel energy through the body into and through the drum, the driving rhythms, the excitable wild and warrior like sensations that arise. Now I find myself gratefully embedded into a community who share a love for taiko as an expression for the joys of life.”
Sarah:
Sarah has been playing Taiko on and off since 2011, including whilst
carrying a couple of taiko baby
bumps. Having danced American tribal style belly dance in a collective in her pre-taiko life, Sarah loves the challenge and aesthetic of taiko’s rhythm and movement as a performance art. A collaboration between taiko and belly dance led her to start her taiko journey. She has been a member of the Taiko Journey Collective (TJC) for a number of years now, and when time allows is part of the Zassō project. Taiko is her happy place and is a key part of helping her to maintain good mental health.
“Having completed my taiko teacher training at the same time as my secondary science teacher training, over 10 years ago, I felt it was time to properly take up the taiko teacher baton and co-lead the rehearsals for TJC. TJC are a wonderfully eclectic family and I wouldn’t be without them!”
Jude:
Jude is a freelance Music teacher based in Torbay. With nearly 20 years teaching
experience she has worked in both primary and secondary schools but her real passion is with Early years. Jude became interested in the Music of very young children after having her daughters. She studied at the Centre for Research in Early Childhood in Birmingham and in 2021 she qualified as an Early Years Music Practitioner. Through her work, Jude creates exciting and safe environments where very young children can explore through Musical Freeplay. She ‘tunes into’ and supports the children’s music and accompanies them on their own journey of musical discovery by becoming a play partner.
Jude is a Cellist and Pianist and alongside her teaching she has performed in a number of chamber ensembles, Symphony Orchestras and pit orchestras including taking on the role of Musical Director. In schools, she facilitates workshops in Djembe Drumming, Samba and Indonesian Gamelan, giving children the opportunity of a shared Musical experience where they can be fully immersed in sound.
photo credits: n/a
Lumi:
Lumi found taiko in 2011 when they were going through some major life changes and was looking for something to do in a group dynamic that would be energising and preferably have performance opportunities. Taiko goes above and beyond this! As a Shiatsu practitioner (healing bodywork therapy originating in Japan) many of the underlying principles of taiko were already familiar and a part of their life so taiko provides a Yang to the Yin of Shiatsu.”
“I am passionate about sharing my skills with people in order to facilitate transformative healing and see taiko has a role to play in this. As a parent I am dedicated to education and a way of life that supports and nourishes people to live to their fullest. This comes through in my expression of taiko. My other interests vary and include but are not limited to: Theatre of the Oppressed, authentic relating, Queer theory, dance and performance art. I like diversity, questioning and finding out what lies beneath.”
Lumi has performed with and assisted in the teaching studio with Taiko Journey since 2014. The ability to relax and ground people so that they can listen not only to physical instruction but to themselves is a skill that they bring from years both teaching and practising shiatsu. Lumi continues to offer a unique perspective on the wellness aspects of taiko which informs Taiko Journey’s ergonomic style.
photo credits: Laura Muresan, Amanda Bluglass
Kaitlyn:
Kaitlyn is a Freelance Dance and Taiko artist who has recently graduated (2017) with a First Class Honours Degree in Dance Theatre from Plymouth University. During her 3 undergraduate years, she founded the Taiko Drumming Society in Plymouth, and trained to perform and teach taiko. Outreach work and performances have taken Kaitlyn on a multitude of exciting destinations including festivals across the South West, supporting the Exeter Chiefs at Sandy Park, and playing for Toyota at the Dubai International Car Show. She is currently working with Exim Dance Company, Plymouth Dance and Taiko Journey whilst also working as a freelance dance and Taiko artist based in Plymouth.
