Since 2019, members of Odaiko New England have been preserving a traditional Japanese art form in the basement of Arlington’s Regent Theatre.
On Sundays and Mondays — when the theater is closed — dozens of performers and students gather to practice and learn taiko, a type of ensemble drumming that combines dynamic movement, compelling rhythms, and grace. During performances, drummers position themselves in wide stances in front of large drums, swing their arms high between drum strikes, chant or shout along with the music, and sometimes leap and twirl across the stage.
Odaiko New England students like Gregg Kelly liken taiko to yoga or a workout that’s fueled by rhythms not often found in modern music. “You head down into the Regent basement and you leave behind the world and any stress that you may have,” he said. “It really is like an oasis of percussion.”
The only problem? It’s a pretty loud oasis.
Taiko’s big sound — one of the hallmarks of the art form — is also why Odaiko New England is having a tough time finding a long-term rental space where they won’t annoy neighbors. In recent years, the group solved their noise issue by operating within the basement of the Regent, where the sound of their drumbeats doesn’t travel outside.
But the sound does bleed upstairs, and the new owner of the building is planning projects in the main theater space that require periods of quiet, some of which conflict with the group’s class and practice schedule. He has kept the rent low, but so far he’s offering the group only three-month lease extensions while he figures out if he and Odaiko New England can coexist in the building.
“That makes it very hard for us to plan ahead, which is why we’re looking for new space,” said Juni Kobayashi, the drumming group’s artistic director.
Odaiko is New England’s oldest and largest taiko organization, and planning is a key part of bringing performances, classes, and workshops to communities across the region. From Amherst to Arlington, the group performs at festivals, schools, and companies across the state, and they’ve taken their show on the road at venues as far away as Ohio and Florida.
For months, Kobayashi has been on the hunt for a new, ADA-compliant practice space — hopefully somewhere that’s near public transportation, has ample parking, and is large enough for roughly 30 people to drum together. She’s reached out to community centers, houses of worship, additional theaters, gyms, and commercial spaces, but she hasn’t yet turned up a suitable location.
“Most retail or business office spaces have shared walls with other businesses,” she said, noting that the sound of the group’s collective drumming can reverberate through walls and floors. “The other challenge is that we’re looking for a space that will also allow us to store our drums — and we have a lot of them.”
Elaine Fong founded Odaiko New England three decades ago, after she’d been involved with a taiko group called Soh Daiko in New York City in the early 1980s. When she moved to Boston in 1991, she was surprised that the city didn’t have a similar group, and figured her taiko days were over.
Then she was contacted by a local dance company that was planning a performance to mark the 50th anniversary of Executive Order 9066: the order signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt that led to the internment of 125,000 people of Japanese ancestry during World War II. The dance group was looking for taiko drummers for the performance. They’d contacted Soh Daiko to see if they could help, and Soh Daiko suggested getting in touch with Fong.
Fong pulled together a small group of local drummers for the performance. Afterward, some of the performers wanted to continue playing together, which led to the creation of Odaiko New England.
“Our first-ever practice space was in a church basement in Brookline,” she recalled. “We practiced in the children’s playroom for about four months.”
Since then, the group has often struggled to find suitable locations to call home, said Fong, who stepped down as the group’s artistic director in 2007 and currently serves as treasurer.
“The best place to be is an urban center, but urban centers are so dense that it’s a real challenge to find a space,” she said. “At every performance we had, I’d announce that we were a nomadic taiko — that we didn’t have a home — and that if anyone had a space, they should let us know.”
After one of Fong’s post-performance appeals, someone reached out about a space the group could use in Woburn, the now-shuttered American Chinese Art Society. The nonprofit had a large space with an auditorium, and because there weren’t any close neighbors, that location worked well for more than 20 years. But, over time, houses cropped up nearby, and noise became an issue. Since then, Odaiko New England has been at the Regent.
As the search for a new home continues, Fong is concerned about the taiko group’s future.
“Odaiko New England is a very small Asian American performing arts group,” she said. “And it can be a struggle for any small culturally specific organization, particularly in this current political climate, to survive.”
If staying at the Regent proves unrealistic, Kobayashi has a potential backup plan — a space in Middleton that may be available. But some of the group’s members aren’t keen on traveling that far, and weeknight practices at that location wouldn’t be able to start until 8 p.m.
Kobayashi hopes to locate another space that works for everyone, but if she can’t, the group might find itself without a home, which she says would be a huge loss.
“No other group in the Boston area offers what we do,” she said.
“For the performers and students, it’s an activity that’s musical, physical, and involves working together and being part of a community,” she added. “Taiko really enriches the quality of people’s lives.”
