The Star News 2/16/05

Mu Performing Arts will return to Elk River

by Britt Aamodt
Special to the Star News

Back by popular demand, Mu Performing Arts is making a return visit to Elk River for a 7:30 p.m. show on Saturday, Feb. 26 at the Zabee Theater, Elk River High School.

Audiences will experience the vibrant rhythms of the traditional Japanese drummers, Chinese flutes, Korean mask dancing, storytelling and theater as presented by Mu Performing Arts in Mu Daiko. The show will feature a vigorous, fast-paced blend of Chinese flute music, Japanese taiko drumming, and Korean Pongsan dancing and theater. Many local residents will remember Mu from the 2003 installment of ArtSoup.

Mu is the Korean pronunciation for a Chinese ideogram meaning the “shaman artist warrior who connects the earth to the heavens through the tree of life.” In its original inception as Theater Mu, Mu Performing Arts saw its mission as connecting predominantly Caucasian Minnesota audiences to the traditions and culture of its Asian and Asian-American performers.

Originally, in animistic, old-world Asia, “the shaman was a very powerful person able to transform the community. He was a spiritual individual, connected to nature, who helped people to see things in a different light,” says Susie Kuniyoshi, outreach director for Mu Performing Arts. In the same way, “through art and theater, Mu Performing Arts gives the performers a chance to express their minority culture so that audiences see that culture in a different light.”

Taiko drumming is the centerpiece of the group’s performances. Taiko drumming incorporates acrobatics and choreography into a drum performance which Kuniyoshi calls “extraverted.”

The extraversion of taiko drumming is what Kuniyoshi refers to when she talks about Mu Performing Arts’ mission to shed light on Asian culture.

Also a part of the Zabee theater show, flutist Ying Zhang provides the melodic thread weaving together the fierce outbursts of taiko drumming. Ying, who emigrated from China, performs on a variety of Chinese flutes and wind instruments as well as a selection of instruments drawn from throughout Asia.

A Korean mask dance leads into a modern retelling of a Korean folktale.

Children in Elk River schools will have an opportunity to work with Mu Performing Arts in February. In the past, the group has shown students how taiko drumming and its sequence of rhythms express mathematical concepts, how the acoustical properties of drums relate to science, and how dance and theater define a society and contribute to the arts.

Tickets are now on sale for Mu Performing Arts and will be on sale the night of the performance. Ticket price is $17 adult and $14 for senior, student, and Elk River Area Arts Alliance (ERAAA) members. Advance tickets can be purchased at Coborn’s, Mikol’s Gallery, Lions Park, and the ERAAA office. For more information, call (763) 441-4725.

Journalist

http://www.erstarnews.com/2005/februar... 

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