Japanese drums enliven PNCA

Folk dance and Japanese drum performance by students captivated the audience.

ISLAMABAD: In a resounding act that thumped its way through the evening, though only for an hour, the folk dance and Japanese drum performance put on by the students of the Islamabad Japanese School took the audience by storm.

The event was organised in collaboration with the Embassy of Japan and was held at the Pakistan National Council of Arts Auditorium
on Wednesday.

Decked out in matching blue kimonos and arrayed in almost oriental symmetry, the troupe, comprised of school students, some as young as five-year-old. They danced and played out traditional Japanese folk music to the delighted applause of the audience.

The evening started on a very considerate note with a pitch perfect rendition of the Pakistani national anthem followed by that of Japan’s.

The troupe then set off the show with their first folk routine, Hanagasa, the ‘flower-straw hat’ dance.

It was performed by some of the younger students among the group, with colourful straw hats in their hands. The act was a playful preface to the rest of the event.

Following this was the Kagura, a theatrical dance performed to the beat of a very invigorating drum. The jaunty performance utilised the entire theatre
hall and had the young dancers streaming out from either
side of the room carrying props such as fans.

The third act of the show was the Japanese drum performance and if you have ever heard Taiko or Japanese drums before you’ll know how profound and bracing it would have been.

The deep bass of their thrum is enough to stir the spirit and charge one like no other. Playing the Wadaiko (Taiko drums being classified by size etc), the fleet footed students got into the groove and hammered out a truly enlivening routine. Rhythmic and stylised, the students performed with almost clockwork like accuracy, a beat or a step rarely being missed.

After such an energetic evening one felt it had ended too soon, there being a need for more. Perhaps such a vigorous act was too taxing on the little performers, who had been beating on a drum for a quarter of an hour.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 5^th, 2010.