KODO Drummers to Launch New UK Tour in February 2016

The phenomenal Japanese taiko drumming company KODO will return to the UK in February 2016 - its 35th anniversary - with the thrilling new production 'MYSTERY', a dramatic mix of storytelling, music, dance and drama designed to reflect the beauty and mystery of Japanese traditions throughout the ages. Featuring 15 of Kodo's highly trained Taiko (Japanese percussion instruments) performers, 'MYSTERY' is the second touring work to be directed by the company's Artistic Director, the celebrated Kabuki actor Tamasaburo Bando.

Hailing from the remote Sado Island, Kodo is the first and most influential Taiko ensemble in the world, comprising a troupe of musicians and dancers who transform centuries-old traditional Japanese ritual and performing arts into exhilarating, contemporary stage shows.

Says Tamasaburo Bando: "With this new show 'Mystery', my aim is to create just that: a world of mystery. In the folk arts that have been handed down through the generations in Japan, there's a form of sacredness, an air of mystery within prayers which, in our show, is expressed by the drums. Our aim is to touch audiences as well as entertain them so they can feel that same, incredible air of mystery. I'm hoping that audiences who come to see our show in February will experience a similar sort of other-worldly splendor, a spirituality that you sense in a Japanese temple or shrine."

http://www.kodo.or.jp/pr/top/index2016a_en.html

2016 UK tour dates:

February 13th Warwick Arts Centre www.warwickartscentre.co.uk

February 15th London, Barbican Hall www.barbican.org.uk

February 17th Basingstoke Anvil www.anvilarts.org.uk

February 18th High Wycombe Swan www.wycombeswan.co.uk

February 19th Plymouth Pavilions www.plymouthpavilions.com

February 21st Poole Lighthouse www.lighthouse.co.uk

February 22nd Cambridge Corn Exchange www.cornex.co.uk

KODO has seen a departure from its traditional costume styles and musical direction since Tamasaburo Bando became Artistic Director in 2012. 'MYSTERY' kicks off on Saturday February 13th at the 1500 seat Butterworth Hall at Warwick Arts Centre on the leafy campus of the University of Warwick. The London show follows at the Barbican on February 15th marking the first time the company have trod the Barbican boards in ten years. After performing at the uniquely designed Anvil in Basingstoke on February 17th the company travels a mere 38 miles to perform at the High Wycombe Swan for the first time on February 18th; February 19th it's a first visit to the historic Plymouth Pavilions - which boasts an ice rink and swimming pool although not for this tour - and on February 21st to the Lighthouse at Poole where the company performed in 2014; the tour finishes on February 22nd at the beautiful Cambridge Corn Exchange, the biggest and oldest concert venue in East Anglia.

'MYSTERY': Amidst reverberations like rumbles in the earth large serpents coil, demons and lions move wildly. They surface from the gloomy dark, eerie at times, and in some respects, even nostalgic... This work fuses Kodo's real worth, the dynamism of taiko expression, with the wondrous beauty and true charm that lie within rituals expressing the worship of myriad gods and reverence for nature that have been traditions in Japan since ancient times. This performance takes you on a voyage to the extraordinary, to a mysterious realm that lies in the beyond.

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