Stage Door News
Stage Door News
Inspired by the skill, strength and spirituality of Buddhist Shaolin monks, SUTRA makes its long-awaited Toronto premiere on Saturday, May 12, 2018 at the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts.
A cast of 19 Buddhist monks from the Shaolin Temple in China performs breathtaking sequences to live music, deploying every flying image beloved of fans of martial arts. They fight, leap, spin, roll, fall, battle and create worlds and dramas with coffin-like wooden boxes that they manoeuvre. The boxes represent the Shaolin discipline of self-control that is both physical and spiritual. SUTRA is a spectacle of athleticism that explores the philosophy of faith behind the Shaolin tradition and its relationship with kung fu within a dance context.
The UK’s Guardian describes SUTRA in their five-star review as “a maze of episodic dance stories, each revealing the monks in a different aspect. The stacked boxes are both functional and miraculous. They can be arranged to resemble the petals of a lotus flower, upon which the boy sits like a little Buddha, or they can be upended to become a forest of skyscrapers, upon which the monks stand gazing as if on their first trip to the city.”
SUTRA is an award-winning collaboration between celebrated Flemish-Moroccan choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Turner Prize-winning sculptor Antony Gormley, and Polish composer Szyman Brzóska. The show premiered at London’s legendary Sadler’s Wells Theatre in May 2008 and has since been seen by more than 200,000 people in 71 cities across 35 countries. The Toronto premiere of SUTRA marks the third and final instalment of the Sony Centre’s international Dance Collection for this year, presented by BMO Financial Group. It is also one of four Canadian stops that SUTRA will make in 2018, including Quebec City (May 1), Montreal (May 3-9) and Sherbrook (May 15).
Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui is a multiple-award winning Belgian dancer and choreographer. Cherkaoui has made over 50 full-fledged choreographic pieces, including Beyoncé’s 2017 Grammy Awards performance. Most recently, the two-time Oliver Award-winning choreographer has joined the creative team of the Jagged Little Pill musical, featuring the music of Alanis Morissette's album of the same name. The production will make its world premiere at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts in spring 2018. Among his many accolades are three Ballet Tanz awards for best choreographer (2008, 2011, 2017) and the Kairos Prize (2009) for his artistic vision and his quest for intercultural dialogue.
Sir Antony Gormley is widely acclaimed for his sculptures, installations and public artworks that investigate the relationship of the human body to space. Gormley was awarded the Turner Prize in 1994, the South Bank Prize for Visual Art in 1999, the Bernhard Heiliger Award for Sculpture in 2007, the Obayashi Prize in 2012 and the Praemium Imperiale in 2013. In 1997, he was made an Officer of the British Empire (OBE) and was made a knight in the New Year's Honours list in 2014.
Originally from Poland, Szymon Brzóska’s work for SUTRA crafts a serene score for five musicians, including piano, percussion and strings, which is played live.
The heart of Shaolin Buddhism in China, the Shaolin Temple and Monastery was first founded in the fifth century, and is now also important in the history of martial arts as well as being a part of the religious legacy of the country.
Tickets prices range from $55 - $145 each plus applicable service charges and can be purchased by phone at 1-855-872-7669, in person at the Sony Centre Box Office (Monday-Friday from noon-5pm) or online at www.sonycentre.ca.
Photo: Shaolin Monks. ©2017 Hugo Glendinning.
2018-04-03
Toronto: Kung fu meets dance at the Toronto premiere of "SUTRA" May 12 at the Sony Centre