Shaolin Monks show grace, technique

"WHEEL OF LIFE," SHAOLIN MONKS, Kingsbury Hall, Feb. 18.

If you think theatrics and martial arts can only be found in Jackie Chan or Bruce Lee movies, you should have been at the Shaolin Monks "Wheel of Life" performance in Kingsbury Hall Tuesday night.

The blend of performing and martial arts was highlighted by dramatic lighting, music and set changes, which brought to life the legend of the Soldier Monks of Shaolin.

The story began in the Shaolin Temple, the site where kung fu was created some 2,000 years ago. In ancient China, peace-loving Shaolin Monks studied the movement of animals and incorporated those movements into their workouts. They learned to handle weapons in smooth and fluent manners.

The emperor of China caught wind of the monks and invited them to the Forbidden City to fight an invading army. After the monks' victory, the emperor commanded they stay and be his body guards. When they refused, the angry emperor ordered the martial artists killed. But five young monks survived the slaughter and continued the cycle known as the "Wheel of Life."

Throughout the performance, young and older monks displayed their grace and technique to an appreciative audience that filled Kingsbury Hall.

Handless kip-ups drew gasps as the performers used their necks and heads to spring themselves to standing positions. The power of animalistic gestures and postures added to the spiritual aura of the show. The tiger, the hawk, the scorpion, the dragon and the monkey were some of the animals whose actions were recognized during the sequences.

The monks used weapons such as the kwando (a spearlike sword), a snake spear and fighting bo staffs in acutely focused routines and kata (prechoreographed combinations).

And when it came to the kumite (sparring), the audience was left breathless. The monks' actions and reactions flavored those moments, which were basically demonstrations, albeit filled with theatrics, as the audience got a heavy dose of the lifetime commitment and training that goes into such discipline.

Flexibility and limberness were also displayed as the boys drew their legs up in standing splits. The younger ones also laid on their torsos and bent their backs in a "C" shape, bringing their feet over their shoulders. And when the monks executed the flying kicks, front and back flips, audience members gasped at the heights they managed to reach.

After the telling of the story, which included voiceover narration and musical accompaniment by recorded and live musicians, the monks demonstrated the true, death-defying martial-arts stunts.

A couple of monks laid on a bed of swords with a plaque of nails, while balancing concrete slabs on their chests, which were shattered with a sledgehammer. And one monk broke a 2-inch bar of metal over his shaven head. Others laid on the tips of spears and supported their bodies on index fingers.

There were no wires or computer animation; this was the real thing.

E-mail: [email protected]

Copyright C 2003 Deseret News Publishing Co.
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.