TP in Long Beach~!!

For the last two weeks, Bryan, Maz, Jen, Courtney, Jason, and I have been going into elementary school classrooms in Long Beach. We would go to the schools alone and teach the class... like we were guest teachers! This would be a typical day for one of us that did lessons that day:

-Drive to the elementary school, usually when school started
-Meet up with someone from the Carpenter Center (which is where our big school show will be this Thursday)
-Unload the car full of equipment for the lessons (chu, chu stand, shime, shime stand, okedo, okedo stand, percussion bag, a skate to put it all on, etc.)
-Wheel the equipment into class #1
-Do the lesson (demo and intro, taiko in Japan, taiko in US, drum talk, percussion talk, kiai talk, kids learn song and play on drums, q&a)
-Pack everything back up
-Wheel equipment to class #2
-Repeat above steps

For each school we went to, we had about 3-4 classrooms that we visited. Then, this Thursday (tomorrow), TP will go to the Carpenter Center in Long Beach to do two school shows. From what I hear, the Carpenter Center has a huge, beautiful theater! I'm excited to do a school show in such a big venue!

It's pretty neat that the Carpenter Center provides this program to the students in Long Beach. Prior to our classroom visits, they send someone else in a week or two ahead of time to talk about performing arts, music, and to give a little background about taiko. Then, we go into the classrooms to talk more in depth about taiko. After getting all this background knowledge about taiko, they come to the theater to watch the show. It's not just about getting exposed to different cultures, but they emphasize on the students to try and retain the information. Cool, huh? :)

We'll have an update about how our school shows went!
In other news, Bryan and Maz will be leaving for Japan tomorrow to attend Asano Taiko's 400th Anniversary! Have fun!

:)