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Sandy and Naoko, Bonnie the quilt maker, Ikuyo sensei, Taeko
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Ikuyo Conant joined Watsonville Taiko in February 1992, four month after the establishment of the group. She is the head teacher/sensei for not only Watsonville Taiko but also our sister organizations and the foremost drumming sensei in the Monterey Bay. She has been the artistic director of Watsonville Taiko since 1992 and composes and arranges all of the music for the group's 30-40 performances per year. In 2000, Ikuyo sensei received the Calabash Award for excellence in the Ethnic Arts from the Santa Cruz Ethnic Arts Network, and the following year she received the Gail Rich Award for Artistic Inspiration in the Community from the Cultural Council of Santa Cruz County. She has worked in collaboration with several local arts groups, including the Santa Cruz Ballet Theatre, Santa Cruz Youth Symphony, Cabrillo Theater, Los Gatos High School Theater, Zambra, Nelson Lee (Shakuhatchi), Studio Mai (Japanese dance), the Santa Cruz Academy of Martial Arts, the Monterey Peninsula College Dance Department, the Santa Cruz High School Color Guard, Seikishin Dojo and Aikido of Monterey. Ikuyo is passionate about integrating other traditional art forms into her taiko work and is a longtime student of martial arts, tea ceremony, and traditional Japanese dance.
Taeko D'Andrae is the organization's business manager and one of the group's most accomplished drummers. Taeko san came to Santa Cruz from Japan as a college student. She leads a number of performances each year and extends our outreach by teaching taiko workshops in the Santa Cruz area. She also has studied
piano, Japanese tea ceremony & flower arranging, ballet, and Taekwondo. Sometimes you'll have the pleasure of seeing Taeko down front and center performing an incredible solo. Other times you will find her in the back, playing the canon and an incredible shime!
Both Bonnie Chihara and Naoko Yamamoto are part of our advanced, artistic drumming group. They share their love of taiko by teaching workshops for children. Bonnie, a 20-year member of the group, also serves on the Board of Directors, leads a weekly studio practice session, and has sewn and maintained our costumes for 16 years. She also, with her son Hiroshi, creates the beautiful quilts that Watsonville Taiko has the honor of auctioning off each fall at our Boutique. She has been an active member of the Japanese American Cultural League for 15 years. One of her goals is to ensure that all costumes worn by Watsonville Taiko reflect the Japanese culture and traditions of taiko.
Naoko san also grew up in Japan. She first lived in Santa Cruz for two years in the late '80s. During that time she learned to play Latin percussion
(claves, cowbells, and quiro)
but never drummed taiko until 1996 when she permanently moved to Santa Cruz and joined Watsonville Taiko. Naoko serves on the Board and is an accomplished teacher of Japanese at UCSC since 2002 and still loves dancing to Latin music.
Sandy Allen is a community performer and Board President for Watsonville Taiko. She is a licensed Marriage and Family Counselor who has been working in that field for over 30 years. She has been playing taiko for 20 years, 18 of them with our group and, now in her mid 70s, is our oldest community performer. Rock on, Sandy!
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