San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival to Present Lifetime Achievement Award to Grand Master Seiichi Tanaka, Founder of San Francisco Taiko Dojo.

(From AScribe)

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. -- The 27th Annual San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival, presenting a thrilling array of dance performances by twenty-nine performing groups during three weekends in June, will honor Grand Master Seiichi Tanaka, Founder of San Francisco Taiko Dojo, with the annual Malonga Casquelourd Lifetime Achievement Award during the Opening Night Festival Performance on June 11, 2005, at the Palace of Fine Arts Theatre.

Festival Artistic Director Isabel Fine says: "It is a great fortune for us that Grand Master Tanaka calls the Bay Area home, and an honor for World Arts West to be in a position to acknowledge his accomplishments. His open, innovative nature, coupled with deep mastery and virtuosity, has inspired and ignited widespread international appreciation of Japanese Taiko."

Grand Master Tanaka established the first taiko dojo (taiko school) in North America in 1968, and since has made an enormous contribution to the preservation of Japanese traditions and culture. He has been instrumental in the evolution of taiko, a form of ritual drumming which combines percussive sound with physically demanding choreographic movement.

He was inspired to found the San Francisco Taiko Dojo after attending a Cherry Blossom Festival in San Francisco and realizing that this art form was not yet represented in the United States. In the 38 years since the founding of San Francisco Taiko Dojo, more than 10,000 men, women, and children of all walks of life have been fortunate to study under Grand Master Tanaka. Many of these students have gone on to begin over 200 other taiko groups throughout the United States and Canada. Additionally, in Tokyo, the drum maker to the Emperor founded an academy-Nihon (Japan) Taiko Dojo-based on Grand Master Tanaka's teachings and taiko philosophy.

The longevity and success of San Francisco Taiko Dojo is attributed to Grand Master Tanaka's unique style of Taiko, which is highly improvised. "Most people just listen," he said. "I want people to not only hear the sound, but also watch the sound, see the sound, feel the sound." Although the group is highly trained and their performances may appear to be highly scripted, there is a lot of improvisation and every performance varies. "There's a lot of creativity," he said. "You play it by feeling. There is a lot of communication between the drummers and me, a lot of contact. They instinctively know what the others are going to do."

Throughout the past 35 years, Grand Master Tanaka and San Francisco Taiko Dojo have gained worldwide attention and have performed in Japan, Germany, France, Switzerland, Austria, Israel, Mexico, Brazil, Cuba, across the United States, and throughout California. Notable performances include Carnegie Hall, before Emperor Hirohito, Hiroshima 50th Commemoration ceremony in Japan, Ashland Music Festival, Vanderbilt House International Festival in North Carolina, annual Black Ships Festival in Rhode Island, Oakland Coliseum for Nelson Mandela, Ticotin Japanese Museum in Israel, and the Major League Baseball All-Star Game celebration.