I agree with Ismene Brown that the movement of these drummers adds a dance dimension to the performances:

A breathtaking big bang
Ismene Brown for The Daily Telegraph reviews the Yamato Drummers at the Peacock Theatre.


Not dance exactly, not music precisely, not spectacle solely, Japan's Yamato Drummers are a combination of all three. They fill the stage with huge, beautiful drums and beat seven bells out of them at an unrelenting decibel level and with phenomenal skill, applying a ferocity somewhere between the seriousness of samurai and the crazed exhibitionism of heavy-metal rock drummers. And then suddenly they turn all cute to the audience and play cheesy audience participation games.

They claim to be reinvigorating Japan's ancient ritual love-affair with the taiko - the folkloric drum - for a new age, and certainly the youth of the drummers and their rock-style mannerisms and electric hairdos are striking.

click for more