Hannah Buckley

wow.

Published Saturday, 13 February, 2010 | Comments

NSCD has a good selection of dance and art dvd's, but with all the hectic schedule its easy to forget to take advantage of it. Recently I said to myself Hannah, you need to watch some more stuff! So I had a quick look at 'Sutra', by Sidi Larbi (choreography) and Antony Gormley (set design), with Monks from the Shaolin Temple.

Unfortunately I didn't get to finish watching the whole thing, but what I did see blew me away. The Shaolin Monks were absolutely amazing. I have never in my life seen physicality like that. They had so much power and strength, whilst maintaining a pose, grace and control that was unbelievable. It blew me away. And I thought wow, this makes what we do at school look like child's play, amateur. The Shaolin Monks will definitely be and inspiration for me for a long time. Sidi Larbi was pretty impressive too.

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  • "And I thought wow, this makes what we do at school look like child's play, amateur"

    We find that statement puzzling. They are highly trained professionals, just like any dancer. Ask a martial arts expert to perform martial arts and that's what they will do, ask a professional dancer to perform choreography and that's what they will do.

    The video embedded above is no more or less impressive than any 16 year old gymnast.
  • hannahbuckley
    this is true, but what impressed me was the complete control in their body. they went from powerful flips to controlled stillness with ease and grace. perhaps as a dancer that makes it more impressive (for me anyway) because we all know it ain't easy!

    your comment did make me think though....why was I so impressed? maybe this is part of it...at school we spend a lot of time in class, not 'dancing'. its very different. the point of class is to push you so that means there is always something new and challenging which can sometimes make you feel like you've not improved/are always struggling..there's always something new to contend with...

    it also means we spend a lot of time watching each other in class and not that much time watching each other dance. recently we had our choreography assessment and I realised i had forgotten how good people are. How different seeing people perform is to seeing each other in class. When I watch other NSCD students perform I am constantly impressed with the skill.

    but I am still impressed with the Shoalin Monks. I'd rather watch them than 16 year old gymnasts.
  • hannahbuckley
    Scrap that, I've been thinking about this a lot. And I've come to this conclusion about the statement 'it makes what we do at school look like child's play, amateur'. Firstly, it was a bad choice of words in a medium that doesn't come with a tone of voice....of course what we do at school is not amateur, we all know that. My body is definitely telling me that right now. Secondly, it was not referring to the Monks in purely a physical sense, but also that to their life choices an philosophy behind what they do. That takes dedication. Thirdly, I should have said that its good to feel like what you do's not THAT hard sometimes. Its good to see what you do in a different perspective, and realise that there is always something more difficult, something higher to aim for and you can always work harder and with more focus.
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