Have you ever watched monks dance? No? Well, I can tell it it is a quite amusing experience. Especially when you have a wide concept for the word “dance” and really enjoy some amazing action with the human body.
I went with the Springload team to the opening night of Sutra, on the St. James Theatre on Wellington. The play was one of the most antecipated events of the New Zealand International Arts Festival of 2010. With a big knowledge of what was it about and a lot of expectation there I went to watch the thing.
My lot of excitement was exactly my biggest mistake. Yep, Sutra is amazing and breath taking at some moments but it wasn’t magical. Maybe because we are kind of use to see some of the movements on movies and stuff, even though it is not comparable when you see it live. Maybe it was all the anticipation built around it. But on the end we got a mixed review from everyone that went to it, which helped me made my peace of mind with my not-so-amazing impression.
On the stage there are 20 or so martial arts monks (one of them being a child) and the Belgium dancer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui. Sidi visited the Shaolin temple digging through the temple’s philosophy and the relationship between martial arts and dance. There he was asked to help promote the monks’ work throughout the world. Since 2008 they have been travelling around showing what they can do.
What I liked the most on the whole concept was the very clever use of the boxes. Sometimes they were shaped to make a stage on top of the stage, sometimes pilled together to form a dormitory and sometimes used as dominos with the monks inside, among other uses. The high points go to Sidi standing on his neck (!) and to the exciting sequence on the end with all the great fighting moves around the whole stage. The good matching with the music played by the live band is also a highlight of the play.
I don’t know if I recommend the concert or not. Maybe you can buy a ticket for another play in case you have options, but maybe not. Maybe you will think it is not enjoyable and you expected way more, but also there are high chances that maybe not. It wasn’t the greatest thing I’ve seen in my life, but I definitely give a lot of credit to the amazing work this “dancing monks” are able to pull off.



