Taiko is remarkable for its emphasis on the entire body. Performers set their legs in wide stances to strike oversize drums, but even at rest they’re tense, like human metronomes ticking on mute. This energetic physical engagement situates taiko as dance—and it’s a key point of technique for the musician Tatsu Aoki and his group, Tsukasa Taiko, now in their tenth year of an annual showcase at the Museum for Contemporary Art. Gathering artists from Chicago, San Francisco, and Tokyo, Taiko Legacy 10 celebrates traditional Japanese forms—such as Fujima Shunojo’s kimono dancing, where a flickering fan might represent the moon reflecting on a lake—as well as newer dances based on ancient motifs. Reduction is a sampler of the Japanese fusion styles that bubbled up from postwar experimentation with jazz, blues, and swing; it also delves into avant-garde improvised forms, performed here by Ayako Kato.
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Taiko Legacy 10 Sat-Sun 12/21-12/22, 3 PM; Reduction Sat 12/21, 7:30 PM Museum of Contemporary Art 220 E. Chicago 312-397-4010mcachicago.org $18
