Stone Creek Elementary
Summer is now in full swing which means school is out and there will be many summer festivals to be attended. On June 3rd, TAIKOPROJECT had the honor to make a repeat performance at Stone Creek Elementary School in Irvine for an outdoor evening performance. The outdoor event had different booths and activities for the students and their families, one of which was an Italian Ice vendor and it looked amazing on such a warm day! I don't often get to report from the audience perspective, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to watch my friends perform and take some performance photos for the blog!
Maz, Courtney, Yumi, Liz and David all braved the Friday traffic to make it to Irvine and when I arrived all the drums were set up and the team was going over their set near by in the shade. After surprising the team with a quick hello, I made my way into the audience and tried to find a shaded place to stand. Being an outdoor performance with a festival sort of atmosphere, the team kicked off the performance with a very energetic Midare Uchi. Once David played the first beat of the song, I could tell it sparked the interest of all the kids playing in the soccer field and the crowd began to form really quick. The set included classics like Expanding and Many Sides, and some newer works like Illustrate Flying, overall it was a complete set covering our varied repertoire and I think the families enjoyed the performance.
Like most school shows, the part we enjoy the most is when students get the opportunity to play the taiko drums. The excitement and the smiles on their faces always reminds me of how important it is to keep spreading the word about taiko and the joy it gave me when I first learned how to play. Great job to the TP5 putting on an awesome performance and thank you Stone Creek Elementary for inviting us to perform again! Hope you have a great summer break and we hope to visit your school again soon!