From the Islands: Taiko Beats 2025
Every year, Taiko Beats gives us something to work toward.
You can feel it building over time in rehearsals, in the small corrections, in the moments where something finally starts to click. Having a date on the calendar changes how we show up. There’s a shared focus that grows week after week.
This year, that focus carried us into Shimajima Kara (島々から) - From the Islands.
We explored rhythms and influences from islands across the world: Japan, the Caribbean, the Polynesian islands, the Philippines, and stepped into movements and musical ideas that felt new for many of us. Some pieces pushed timing in unfamiliar ways. Others asked for a different kind of presence on stage. It wasn’t always comfortable, but it kept things moving forward.
Taiko Beats brings together the full community at О̄nami Taiko Center (OTC). Students from all levels, including our Hikari, Asama, Kodama, Sakura, Wakaba, and Toki classes, as well as participants from La Jolla Country Day School and La Jolla Taiko as the performing ensemble, come together to share the same stage. That mix is something we look forward to every year.
You see it in the way newer students watch from the wings, quietly following along with the rhythms. You see it in the way more experienced players adjust, support, and hold space for the group. Everyone is working through something different, but we’re all moving in the same direction.
By the time show day arrives, there’s a different kind of energy.
Backstage, it’s a mix of quiet focus and small moments. Running through cues under your breath, adjusting costumes, checking in with each other. Then the first note hits, and everything settles into place.
From the stage, you start to notice things.
The way the audience leans in during quieter moments.
The shift in energy when a rhythm locks in across the group.
The small smiles between players when something lands the way it’s supposed to.
There were moments this year that stayed with us. Pieces where the groove felt especially strong, transitions that used to feel uncertain but suddenly felt natural, and the way different musical influences came together in a way that felt both new and familiar.
For many of our students, this was their first time performing in Taiko Beats. For others, it was another step in a longer journey. In both cases, you could see the work behind it. The hours, the repetition, the willingness to keep going.
That’s what makes this show meaningful for us.
It reflects where we are right now. What we’ve been practicing. What we’re still figuring out. What we’re starting to understand more deeply.
And when it’s over, there’s always that same feeling of having moved forward and leveled up, even just a little.
To everyone who performed, supported, helped behind the scenes (especially our ninjas!), and showed up to watch. Thank you. This is only possible because of you!
And to our OTC community: students, teachers, and families, hank you for showing up, for putting in the work, and for being part of this process together.
If this resonates with you, we’d love to have you join us—whether that’s watching a future performance or stepping into the dojo to try taiko for yourself.