Biography
Ikuyo Conant is a composer and choreographer based in Santa
Cruz, CA. She is the Artistic Director of Watsonville Taiko, and has
written and arranged the group’s music and developed the choreography
since l992. In 1996, she created Shinsei Daiko, a youth drumming and
performing arts group, and in 1999 she established Shinsho Mugen Daiko
of Santa Cruz and Monterey Bay. She is the resident teacher for
Sandoshin Taiko in Morgan Hill, and has taught Taiko drumming at CSUMB.
Ikuyo served on the steering committee and task
force of the Santa Cruz Cultural Action Plan organized by the Cultural
Council of Santa Cruz County and the Community Foundation. While a
member of SPECTRA, the Cultural Council’s Arts in Education Program,
she created a program for children integrating storytelling with
drumming and music. She continues to work with children through
school programs and cultural programs at elementary schools in Santa
Cruz County, Monterey Bay and San Jose.
In 2000, she received the
Calabash Award, and the following year she received the Gail Rich Award
from the Cultural Council of Santa Cruz County. Ikuyo works closely
with the Japanese American Citizen’s League of Watsonville, and is
involved in Japanese cultural fairs and festivals in counties of Santa Cruz and
Monterey.