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The Sutra of Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui
by Rosslyn Hyams
Article published on the 2008-07-12 Latest update 2008-07-14 09:40 TU
Choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui from Belgium has left his native continent and gone to the Far East for inspiration. He’s performing a new piece called Sutra at the Festival this year. European contemporary dance meets Kung Fu in Sutra.
Moroccan-Belgian choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui grew up admiring Bruce Lee. Combine that with a sort of spiritual or existential quest, and the surprising agility and control of the dancer, and you end up with Sutra. Cherkaoui says Sutra is part of his quest for another type of society, or values.
On a stage defined by huge translucent awnings under the night sky, the decor is minimalist and designed by a renowned British artist, Antony Gormley. It also consists of plain wooden, five-sided, human-width-and-length boxes which come together to form a cube, are laid down like a bridge, blossom into a lotus flower or are stacked up like shelves, each containing an outstretched human body. And there’s one box which always stands out from the others, with a metallic appearance, an outsider.
That’s the box used by Cherkaoui.
The composer of the music for Sutra is a young Polish man called Szymon Brzoska. His music varies in tempo and style throughout the piece. Although Brzoska’s previous compositions had the meditative quality Cherkaoui was seeking, Brzoska says it was necessary for him to spend time in China to get it right.
One thing struck me at the Avignon Festival after seeing four or five productions this year: children on stage. Some of them are still wearing nappies and just about able to walk! Sutra’s child star does a lot more than that.
Knee-high to a grasshopper, mini-monk Shiyan Dong, reproduced the same movements as his elders, and one wonders, after receiving such rousing and affectionate applause, if he’s going to find his way back to the monastery in Henan.
Sutra, a performance of dance, with more than a hint of martial arts is at the Avignon Festival until 13th July, and then on tour in Europe in 2008 and 2009, with a final show at Sadler’s Wells in London.
The 62nd Avignon IN Festival runs until 26 July. The fringe festival, the OFF, continues until 2 August.
