Becoming Human was composed by Sasen Cain in 2011 with choreography by Maxyn
Leitner. It was created for the now-defunct Rutsubo Taiko, who
premiered it at Boston Children's Museum's 2012 Oshogatsu. In 2020,
Frontline Taiko Players rebirthed the piece in West Hollywood in
support of Los Angeles, California's Dance for Black Lives protest events.
The piece is freely licensed under CC-BY-SA,
as a Free Cultural
Work. Rearranging, remixing, and creative liberties are warmly encouraged!
A note from Sasen about dance. Technically all of the "dance"
aspects of this piece are unnecessary for a successful performance,
and I fully endorse playing this piece without any of that. Indeed,
I've only been able to spare the personnel for a dance part 50% of
the times we've played it so far. What is important to me is the
storytelling, and that doesn't have to be accomplished through
dance--so pull out whatever arts and talents you like. Puppetry? DJ
visuals? Song lyrics? Cheese pairings? Yes!
If you are interested in dance as the storytelling vehicle: there are no resources for the dance parts right now, because they
are ad lib. Dance as the music inspires you, in whatever style you
want. Use this piece to explore different stories that need to be
told, in service of the idea of Becoming Human. For instance, in
recent performances, I have imagined a poor lonely robot, handcuffed
in a prison cell by its mean owner. I then pick landmarks in the
music by which I will have wriggled out of various restraints, made
contact with my new human friends, and so forth. Anyway, I recognize
that few taiko players would be comfortable with such an open-ended
and vulnerable process, so for the record: (1) You do not have to
improvise. Feel free to choreograph something, or contact me to
commission movements that work for you. (2) You don't have to dance
solo. There are a lot of interpretations of what it means to Become
Human, and the story need not focus on loneliness or dramatic
stuff. You can have groups of dancers so that nobody has to feel so
self-conscious, and just adapt the story accordingly.
Kuchishoga and Song Flow (Google Sheets)
The Google Sheet has two pages--one with colored kuchishoga notation,
and one explaining the overall song flow for the three instruments. Note
that the kuchishoga page has a few mouseover comments in anticipation of
people's questions. We've carefully colored the spreadsheet to
communicate dynamics as well. Please reach out if you notice errors or
have any questions.