|
 The
project between Alonzo King’s Lines Ballet and the
Shaolin monks represents both a blending of very
different cultural traditions—Western ballet and Chinese
martial arts—and, at the same time, a recognition that
these arts of movement are convergent and intertwined.
There is a Buddhist story about the moment when
Siddhartha begins to move towards enlightenment: he
remembers, as a child, intently watching his father
start to plow the fields. Focusing on this simple
movement created a sense of calm, of timelessness, and
of peace. The current collaboration of Alonzo King’s
Lines Ballet and the Shaolin monks begins with this kind
of understanding, of movement in the moment.
Sometimes the Lines dancers try out the monk's movements
-- deep bends in turned-in knees, arms ready to jab --
and sometimes the monks try out the dancers'. The music
oscillates between brittle industrial sounds and hard
beats by Miguel Frasconi and lush traditional Chinese
melodies delivered from the pit by the ensemble Melody
of China, under director and arranger Hong Wang.
Together they are drawing on the deep histories of both
traditions to build a uniquely beautiful work of art.
|
