(drums drumming) - We are TaikoArts Midwest, and we've been in existence since 2017.

We do Japanese drumming.

Our mission is to promote and express a high level of the art form and to build community.

- Whenever you teach a class, you kind of do a quick mental survey of who's there and kind of what you think their goals might be, or their level of entry.

And for most people, they're being introduced to Taiko drumming.

So my job is to introduce it and to kind of give a sense of the spirit of it.

And so I care less about learning specifics, like, oh, move your shoulder here and stand just right.

'Cause I don't want people to feel like they're doing it wrong.

I want people to feel like they can try it and they can get a feeling for the energy behind it.

They can play together as a group.

They can learn the basics of how to learn Taiko and how it feels to hit a Taiko, and know that that path is open to them if they want to learn more.

But for kind of a once in a lifetime or a one-off workshop, I really just like to give a taste of it, you know.

(drums drumming) - [Narrator] "The Slice" from PBS North.