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Easter Taiko Course Mon 14th - Weds 16th April 2014

Easter Taiko Course
14th - 16th April
Crook Village Hall
Nr Kendal
Cumbria

A few years ago we ran a week of taiko skills practice which was really enjoyable. This Easter we are repeating the idea, but just for three days. Mostly focussed on achieving excellent ji-uchi, playing style and stance, this series of workshops will suit Taiko players of any level who play regularly and want to improve their level of skill. The four days will consist of a variety of led exercises and taiko drills which you can also take-away and use with your groups.

Sessions will be led by Dee Swift of Thunderdrummers Cumbria and John Bolwell of Tantara Rochdale.

All players welcome, but the course is already booking fast.

Cost £80 for the three days or £35 a day.
Plenty of accommodation nearby, of all types.

To book please email spiralmyth@lineone.net

Thunderdrummers live at Exeter Taiko Festival

Many Thanks to Dave Rodwell for filming this video of our performance at Exeter Taiko Festival.

It was a great festival and the audience of Taiko fans were fantastic.

Taiko Workshop with Art Lee

Art Lee and his team gave us a fantastic Day Workshop on 'Tonbane' and 'Issame Goma'. Everyone worked flat out despite the current heat wave, and a massively enjoyable day's Taiko was had by all. More photos are here

We were all inspired by Art's form and precision and will be working hard to bring those qualities into 'Tonbane' in the autumn.

Thanks to everyone for providing a fabulous shared lunch on the day, and particular thanks to Art and Yukari for taking time out of their schedule to teach us.
For anyone who has not seen Art in action, here's his Miyake clip on YouTube, and you can catch Tokara through August at the Edinburgh Festival.

Exeter Taiko Festival 2013

Thanks to Penny for the pic. Here are some of the group getting ready to play in the Guildhall shopping centre, at 10 oclock, just before the heat of the day set in. Despite being first on, we had a good crowd and enjoyed what turned out to be a very warm warm-up for the afternoon performance. More about that later if I can find someone with any pictures! 

We had a great weekend which included some excellent workshops and finished with an Indian meal with Kaminari Taiko Group from York.

More soon.

Workshop with Art Lee Sunday 21st July 2013 10 - 4

We are delighted to welcome back Art Lee for another fantastic workshop here in the Lakes

Goodly Dale School, Lake Road, Windermere, Cumbria

Advance Booking essential - workshop £80, £25 reserves a place.

Accommodation is available nearby for those travelling, please enquire:

dee.swift@tiscali.co.uk

NB This replaces the last workshop which Art was unable to attend. Those that came on that day were treated to a great work out with Dean Havixbeck also of Tokara.

Upcoming Performance at Exeter Taiko Festival

Everyone has been working hard practising for the Exeter Taiko Festival.

We will be playing two pieces - one is a Flamenco piece called 'Olé'  designed by the group.

The word "Olé!" probably comes from the Arabic and could be from the word 'Allah', but it is widely used in bullfighting in Spain to mean Bravo! In Flamenco it is used to signify that the dancer or musician has excelled him/herself - let's hope that will be true of us!

The other piece is called Dragon and Phoenix and is based on some rhythms Dee and John learnt as exercises with Hiroshi Motofuji on the Asian Music Summer School. You can see Motofujisan's awesome playing on this video.

We will also be playing in Exeter town centre with three of our older pieces on Saturday morning. We are the first group to play so are looking to wake Exeter up by making some noise!

Players at the Taiko Festival will be Anna, Doreen, Steve, Michelle, Shirley, Sandra, Penny, Gaynor, Ena, John and Dee.