Engaging, captivating and uplifting, Finding Her Beat tells the story of a Japanese drumming master and a Korean adoptee from North Dakota as they work to convene the world’s best Taiko drummers to claim center stage in a space historically reserved for men. The group includes rhythmic powerhouses from around the world such as Kaoly Asano, Chieko Kojima, and Tiffany Tamaribuchi. Their first performance showcases the vulnerability, joy, and passion of the group, and represents a revolution that extends beyond taiko drumming.
GLAAD Media Institute had the pleasure of interviewing co-directors Dawn Mikkelson and Keri Pickett as well as the documentary’s main subjects and producers, Jennifer Weir and Megan Chao-Smith about their experiences, queerness and the future of Taiko drumming.
*Disclaimer: Some quotes have been edited for clarity*
Why did you take a special interest in Taiko? What led you to pursue HerBeat as subjects of the documentary?
Dawn Mikkelson: Jennifer Weir and I have been friends for over 20 years. I have attended a number of taiko performances over the years to support her and always loved the experience as an audience member. In 2018, Jen told me she wanted me to film the HerBeat concert, knowing that it was a once-in-a-lifetime event. The more we talked the more I learned about the residency and all of these women and nonbinary players from around the world – divas in their own practices – coming together to create something profoundly different. I said, “Jen, this is a film.” It was about women and nonbinary people who have been told their whole lives not to take up space or be loud, to wait until someone invites you to be center stage. It was about saying “I will be big, loud, and throw my own concert to claim that place on stage.” Basically saying, “I can be everything you said I couldn’t and be amazing while doing it.” I was hooked.
Keri Pickett: Dawn Mikkelson invited me to join her in making a film on this dream of having a residency and concert bringing in taiko drummers from around the world to learn from one another and achieve this great goal of the concert. There are not many documentaries that have a known date of completion but we knew we would wrap after the concert. Everything about this project led me to pursue the story and that has been part of the success of the film. It fits into so many people’s areas of interest: music, female, and queer empowerment, pan-Asian power, and specifically, taiko. We could have made a mini-series with the amount of talent in the group.
How does being a part of the LGBTQ community affect your approach to storytelling and directing a documentary?
Dawn Mikkelson: My films all hold a part of me in them. They hold my history, my friendships, my beliefs and my identities. My first film Treading Water was an exploration of what it was to be rural and queer in the years after Matthew Shepard’s murder. My ex-partner and I narrated that film and shared experiences of both joy and fear, being harassed while walking down the street holding hands. As the film was produced in 1999, it dealt with being queer in a time when gay marriage was just a dream, when the general public was distrustful and scandalized by our existence. Now, some 25 years later, queer characters show up in my films dealing with other things, while still being queer. I am so thrilled as a storyteller that queer characters are now portrayed as well-rounded characters, reflecting the diversity within our communities. In the case of Finding Her Beat, it was important that Jen, Megan, and Josie’s family were front and center. Their ability to weave together their lives as mothers with their roles as creators and performers, is something I admire and often struggle with as a queer mother of two kiddos.
How do you think the intersection of being queer and Asian American has affected your life experiences and your journey as taiko performers?
Jennifer Weir: For me, I had two coming out experiences. The first one was as a lesbian in my early twenties. The second one was more gradual in coming out as an Asian American and discovering AAPI pride. As an adoptee raised in North Dakota, my self-discovery was delayed by having no role models or references for who I wanted to be. Thankfully, I discovered both through the performing arts, specifically Theater Mu (an Asian American theater company in Minneapolis) and taiko drumming. I found myself, and I found my family both figuratively and literally. I met my wife through taiko, and our daughter’s donor dad as well. I’ve found taiko naturally attracts the queer community, and I think it is because of the exuberant physicality that women and nonbinary folks get to experience that feels empowering to everyone who sees it.
Megan Chao-Smith: As a kid I felt very hopeful about joining a queer movement that would help me find footing in the world as a homeless teen. Seeking Asian family and solidarity as a queer kid was a challenge. I was afraid my family’s mindset would be more aligned with China than the more open-minded US. My immigrant Chinese grandparents actually shocked me with pure acceptance when I came out to them; a gift that still fills me with incredulity and gratitude. My US family did not, and some still do not accept me.
In taiko, I found a lot of cultural appropriation by students. I also found what it means to me to honor an Asian tradition. I have always felt at home in my power and physicality, particularly as a gender fluid person who is very athletic. I know I am still not considered appropriate for the taiko stage – deemed too big, too masculine, not fitting into the ‘feminine aesthetic’. It takes strength and passion to keep learning, honing, and finding my own greatness and grace on stage. Taiko is the perfect place for me to shine.
How does HerBeat find its way to exist outside of the social constructs of masculinity and femininity?
Jennifer Weir: HerBeat succeeds through the genuine representation of artists doing their thing. It was a curated Avengers-style gathering, and is a reflection of the diversity of its artists and their lived experience. They carved a path outside of traditional norms, and created a whole new way to embody power, identity, culture and joy at the drums. Taiko is for everyone. Period.
Megan Chao-Smith: There were all kinds of haircuts, bodies, costumes, ideologies and beliefs on stage. Each person was a beautiful version of taiko in a non-cis gender body. Music and rhythms are genderless, the movement of the body special and unique to each human. The world has seen a lot of taiko showcasing muscular men’s bodies and approaches to power, calling it the definitive expression of the artform. In Finding Her Beat we see a variety of women and nonbinary people masterfully filling the stage in ways neither previously seen nor allowed.
What does it mean to be a woman or nonbinary person performing taiko?
Megan Chao-Smith: I think it means you have to work harder to a) claim your space and b) feel deserving of that space. It means you have to find a way to exert your own voice and leadership style that was traditionally hierarchical and male. It means you have to work harder to get paid. It also means you are often surrounded by powerful creative women/nonbinary folks who are both cheering and challenging you to be better. The taiko community is pretty supportive and welcoming as a whole. There is a natural appeal within the queer community, and I think it is because it is an embodied practice that allows people to show up as their full selves in a really physical way. Also, it can be really sexy – seeing so many people joyfully bad-ass!
Thank you to Dawn Mikkelson, Keri Pickett, Jennifer Weir, Megan Chao-Smith, and the amazing performers of HerBeat for giving us a glimpse into the world of taiko and your legendary performance.
Finding Her Beat is available to rent or buy on Amazon Prime Video. Additionally, for those interested in watching the full concert video, you can do so on Vimeo!