Carrie Alita Carter Most of my life I’ve defined myself as a tap dancer. In the fall of 2003, my feet warned me of over-use and I took a break from tapping: no choreographing, no improving, no performing. On a sunny afternoon stroll, I heard ebullient rhythms coming from the community center and invited myself in. This marked my first introduction to taiko, as well as the renowned song, Matsuri Taiko. The group that day, Icho Daiko, invited me in. I became a member and performed taiko with them starting a couple of months later (crash course!) and the following summer I taught the summer session adult workshop series. It wasn’t much later that I connected with Stan Shikuma through email to inquire about SKT since I would be moving to Seattle in just a few weeks. After auditioning in November 2004, I became an apprentice for SKT in January 2005. In addition to taiko and tap dance, since I moved to Seattle I’ve found my way into dance, theatre, commercial, and film. I love collaborating with other artists and am always looking for ways to succeed at mixing genres. I’m also a teacher and spend most of my days exploring with 3-9 yr. olds through creative dance, physical education, math, and (occasionally) Chinese. *photograph by Yukiko Ebara