What do you get when you mix taiko with big band and swing dancing? A super-fun time, as evidenced by this awesome performance from San Jose Taiko's Swingposium: Big Band Music and Dance from Camp, an immersive show performed and produced last year with Epic Immersive and Wesley Jazz Ensemble.
The piece, "Singing in the Present," is a mash-up of San Jose Taiko's signature song, "Gendai ni Ikiru (Living in the Present)" and Benny Goodman's swing classic, "Sing Sing Sing." And it looks like it was a blast.
Swingposium, performed last June in San Jose, was a tribute to Japanese Americans who were involved in swing music and dance while incarcerated in internment camps during World War II.
"Swingposium is essentially a dance as opposed to a concert," San Jose Taiko Artistic Director Franco Imperial explained in the lead up to the event. "The intention is to celebrate the amazing people who, in the midst of being incarcerated, turned to music and dance as a means of survival. We've invited Epic Immersive to help craft a dynamic environment for the audience. This is not a typical show where you sit and passively observe."
The evening featured an immersive 360-degree theatrical experience, in which guests were part of the narrative from the inside, with the storyline set in a swing dance hall at a World War II internment camp.
This event was a precursor to a larger scale event, Japantown Immersive, happening this year as part of San Jose Taiko's 45th Anniversary season. For further information and updates, visit San Jose Taiko's website.
