Unit Souzou
March 26, 2025 @ 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
| $15 – $35
Unit Souzou
Join HCOA in welcoming the imaginative and ground breaking Taiko drumming group Unit Souzou.
Wednesday, March 26th at 7pm
In the Homer Mariner Theater
Unit Souzou’s artistic voice is personal and authentic, sound shaped and inspired by form and by movement. The essence of Unit Souzou is an expressive blend of taiko and Japanese folk dance, forging new traditions for evolving communities. In addition to creating groundbreaking professional theatrical works, Unit Souzou is deeply committed to share taiko through community performances and collaborations, public classes for adults and youth, and school-based education programs.
ABOUT UNIT SOUZOU
‘Souzou’ can be written in three ways meaning ‘creation’ (創造), ‘imagination’ (想像), or ‘noisy’ (騒々), alluding to a force by which new ideas are born and take shape in the world. Inspired by these words, the mission of Unit Souzou is to build creative, imaginative works while honoring the history and roots of the taiko art form.
Founded in 2014 Unit Souzou’s Co-directors Michelle Fujii and Toru Watanabe, are relentless innovators at the forefront of a growing artistic movement within the taiko community. Since meeting at Warabi-za, Japan’s foremost traditional folk dance troupe based in Akita, Northern Japan. They have been guest artists and collaborators with many North American and international taiko groups.
Unit Souzou has received support from Regional Arts & Culture Council and the National Performance Network (NPN) Creation and Development Fund, and was a featured showcase performer at NPN’s 2015 Annual Meeting. Unit Souzou has toured throughout the United States including Oregon, Washington, California, Montana, Wyoming, Minnesota and Washington DC, performing professional theatrical work and teaching taiko workshops. They were founding teaching artists with the Right Brain Initiative and are on the teaching artist roster with Young Audiences of Oregon & SW Washington.
This program is supported in part by Creative West, the National Endowment for the Arts, New England Foundation for the Arts, and a Harper Arts Touring Fund grant, funded by the Rasmuson Foundation and administered, under contract, by the Alaska State Council on the Arts.
Presented in partnership and collaboration with the Alaska Japanese Club.
