Jul/090
LIVE: Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui / Antony Gormley / monks from the Shaolin Temple – Sutra
The blurb:
Take one Flemish-Moroccan dancer/choreographer, a modern artist known for his work with the human form and throw in a very generous helping of kung-fu, and this is what you get. A concise one hour show demonstrating how the very honest movements of martial arts can work alongside the precision of Western contemporary art.
Sounds like:
Szymon Brzóska’s soundtrack sat somewhere between Rachel’s Music for Egon Schiele, Arvo Pärt, and Esmerine’s If Only a Sweet Surrender to the Nights to Come Be True. Beautiful and engaging.
Thoughts:
I saw a lot of Gormley in this. I’m not sure how much of a say he had in the choreography (although I suspect that he and Cherkaoui collaborated closely, given that this at least their second piece together at Sadler’s), but there was so much in there about the body as statue and how someone can move through anonomynity, group membership and true individuality. The monks would move from a semi-chaotic swirl around the set (which consisted solely of a series of moveable man-size plywood boxes against a stark grey stage) to becoming part of a static installation piece on the stage that would remain some seconds and then begin transforming again, and this all being lead by the master and apprentice tale depicted by Cherkaoui and a young boy-monk.
The set itself was notable for its lack of inherent scale. They played with it; one moment it was a forest-like maze, the next the entire thing formed a single blossoming flower, whilst at other moments the forms were entirely abstract or mathematical. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up as the boxes were arranged in a simple expoded triangle, monks atop and cross-legged as they ran through elegant, flowing kata with their hands and upper bodies.
The other joy for me was seeing the contrast between the style of Cherkaoui and that of the monks. There were a small number of sequences where Cherkaoui was integrated into the group kung-fu, and it was clear that he had been training hard to learn the speed and subtleties of their art, yet he delivered those moves with the more delicate arm and body lines of a traditional European dancer.
Verdict:
Excellent. A challenging feast of the pretentious and the unpretentious.
The show is at Sadler’s Wells from 30 June – 4 July 2009.
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