St. David’s Hall, Cardiff
Sun 10 Oct 2010
Words: Stephen Nottingham
It’s not often you see bellydancing performed to the sound of a huge Odaiko drum, but then this is Mugenkyo. Inspired by elite Japanese troupe Kodo, Neil Mackie and Miyuki Williams founded The Mugenkyo Taiko Drummers in 1994. They have been honing their skills on tours ever since. Mugenkyo, the only professional European Taiko group, incorporate dance and innovative lighting in a unique and theatrical show; much different to that of the traditional Kodo (at the WMC on 20 Oct).
The Celtic-Japanese chill-out music playing during the interval and in the Opening segment, as the blessing of the drum is enacted, gives an indication of how a show like this could tip into oriental kitsch. That this show rarely does is down to the skill and focused energy of the six troupe members.
Taiko drums are hand-crafted from Japanese elm and cowhide and come in a variety of shapes and sizes, from the big Odaiko to the mobile Okedo. A range of drumming techniques are featured across fourteen segments, interspersed with flute solos and dancing, to make a pleasingly diverse programme. The main event is of course the drumming; starting with Hachijo, a style demonstrated by the two founder-members on both ends of a drum, and Gekko, a thundering Odaiko solo by Theresa Brookes.
Guest dancer Lale Sayoko contributes greatly to the visual and narrative elements of the show. She is especially good in Essence, where she dances “backwards”, with a carved mask on the rear of her head, in the persona of a prince so wracked by jealousy he turns into a demon. In Reflections on Still Water, Sayoko performs a fan-veil dance to a bamboo flute solo by Brookes.
The first act climaxes with Phoenix, a tour-de-force of cross-hand drumming, visualized with UV lighting. Three perfectly synchronised drummers play across each other at a fast tempo. When the lights dim, animation-like blue drumsticks dance across the drums. The effect is mesmerizing.
A hypnotic, almost electronic-sounding, bass rhythm is achieved during Onsen/Hibiki using thin bamboo sticks on an Odaiko, over which improvised solos are played on smaller drums by recent members Joao Madeira and Carolyn Cutter.
In the second half, the troupe appears more relaxed. Mackie explains the background to some pieces; including Ikkyo (One Vibration), composed for their first tour, a complex interplay between low and high-pitched sounds. He also confides that the last time he was on the St David’s Hall stage, in his pre-Mugenkyo days, was in a rock band supporting Tina Turner. A rock concert aesthetic surfaces in Matsuri, a summer festival piece (the troupe met their dancer at Glastonbury), with its audience participation clapping. The drumming climax is reached in the modern piece Todoroki, which deploys fast rhythms and three thundering Odaiko drums.
Education and community activity are central to the philosophy of Mugenkyo (meaning “limitless reverberation”). Their Taiko centre in Lanarkshire – The Mugen Taiko Dojo – runs regular classes and residential workshops (contact: [email protected]). They certainly seem to be succeeding in their aim of developing Taiko as a modern European art form.
