Folklorama day one is over and it went off pretty much without a hitch. The venue, Sisler High School seems to have many advantages to Tec Voc, the biggest difference being air conditioning. Granted it wasn't exactly scorching or the high humidity it was a week ago, but it was cool, comfortable and I'm sure it will stay that way the rest of the week. The other major advantage is the fact you can eat, drink and enjoy the show all in one room. I know when I visit a Pavilion I find when the food and entertainment are in two different rooms, it always feels rushed and frenzied. You have to find somewhere to sit twice and particularly at the first show (6:45), the food lines are endless.
Despite the uncertainty of the Entertainment schedule, the main stage show went surprisingly smooth. It especially helps having Chris our sound and lighting guy for his 4th year, because he knows how the show flows and he knows the performers and their pieces. The show itself always seems to revolve around Hinode Taiko, which in some ways may be why certain people attend this Pavilion. I personally enjoy the dance groups, tonight the Aurora dance group performed two pieces while "the man-dance" with Shig Saito (also a member of Hinode) along with Sumi and Mitch (of Aurora), did a collaborative number with Taiko. This was a new piece that worked beautifully as the music and Taiko's beat complimented each other quite well.
Another pleasant surprise was singer Brent Hirose's strong vocal stylings who seemed to hit all the right notes. Once he abandons his Japanese lyric cheat sheet, I'm sure his confidence will soar and will allow him to showcase his full potential. The multi-talented Hirose is coming off performing at the Winnipeg Fringe Festival in no less than 3 plays, his one-man play, "Jesus Christ, I'm Sorry" was a best of Fringe Play.
It's a long week, so it's no reason to celebrate yet, in the upcoming days I will try to profile more of the performers at the Japanese Pavilion for Folklorama.
4 comments:
Good job Geoff! VEry informative. It think you should be a reporter for an arts and entertainment paper.
Your Asian co-worker. There's only one so, you better figure who I am!
hey, this is torrie (one of the taiko people)
it looks like you got all sorts of information down about everything and everyone during the week im sure this kept you busy too. foklorama was good this year but i did want to see more of the martial arts and i know a lot of my friends went to see more of that than the dancing the dancing is good and everything is good
i don’t think you should say that foklorama revolved around taiko i don’t think it’s a fare assumption the dancing did as many numbers as taiko and the martial arts just didn’t have enough people and they were having their own problems with scheduling and so on so i don’t think it revolved around taiko it revolves around our culture but anyways….
i did wish that we have yakisoba and other things for the bento choices if we were to buy food
but good job putting all this together ill probably see you around somewhere
have a nice summer
Hey Torrie!
Thanks for checking out the site, I always appreciate comments and especially constructive criticism.
I'm adding one more Folklorama post for a "week in review" type of thing, check back every few days, as I will keep this updated..i promise. This site will deal with things in my life that interest me in some way, except for music...
check my other Blog for music-related news, (click the link on the right side) "Teenage dogs In Trouble", tell me what type of music I should be listening to, and again PLEASE leave comments.
Thanks, come back soon!
G
oops.."Teenage Dogs In Trouble" link is on the LEFT-side.
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