White Light Festival Presents 'Sutra' 11/2-11/4

A major highlight of Lincoln Center's inaugurAl White Light Festival this fall is the U.S. premiere of 'Sutra', a modern dance work by acclaimed Belgian/Moroccan choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui featuring 17 monks from the original Shaolin Temple in three performances November 2-4 at 7:30 in the Rose Theater. In the first true collaboration between Western artists and the revered Buddhist institution, Sutra combines the graceful, gravity-defying athleticism of the Shaolin monks with Cherkaoui's signature blend of modern ballet, African dance, and hip-hop.

There will be a pre-concert discussion on Tuesday, November 2 at 6:15pm by Karen Armstrong in the Theatre at the Museum of Arts and Design and a post-concert discussion on Wednesday, November 3 by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Szymon Brzóska, Shi Yanhao and Shi Yanji, and Anastasia Tsioulcas in the Rose Theater.

Award-winning British artist Antony Gormley (whose installation, Event Horizon, was recently seen atop buildings surrounding Madison Square Park) created the striking sculptural set, and contemporary Polish composer Szymon Brzóska wrote the dramatic new score performed live by percussion, piano, and strings.

Inspired by ancient Chinese martial arts and its interconnectedness to spirituality, the choreographer spent several months gathering ideas for Sutra at the Shaolin Temple in the Henan Province of China, which was established in 495 A.D. by monks from India. Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui's resultant piece, 'Sutra', had its world premiere at Sadler's Wells in London in May 2008 and has received critical acclaim worldwide. The Times (London) described the piece as "a dazzling alliance of space and content. Buddhist warrior monks'... mind and body are joined in transcendent vibrancy. Their grace, strength, and bravery are awesome, the speed and ferocity of their punches, kicks, back flips, and flying jumps astounding."

Gromley's 21 large wooden boxes create changing environments and act as sculptural counterpoints to the Shaolin monks, who range in age from 9 to 23, and incorporate their daily practice of Kung Fu and Tai Chi into their powerful and exhilarating performance.

Tickets for Sutra are priced at $35, $45, $60, $75, and $90 and are available online at www.LincolnCenter.org, by calling CenterCharge at 212-721-6500, or at the Alice Tully and Avery Fisher Hall Box Office, on Broadway at West 65th Street.

Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui was most recently seen in New York at The Joyce Theater in 2009 with Orbo Novo performed by Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet. In January of this year, he celebrated his new company, Eastman, who is in residence at Het Toneelhuis in Antwerp, with a new piece, 'BABEL', in collaboration with Damien Jalet and Antony Gormley. Cherkaoui made his debut as a choreographer in 1999 with Andrew Wale's contemporary musical ANONYMOUS SOCIETY. Since then, he has made more than 15 full-fledged choreographic pieces and has won various awards, including the Fringe First Award, the Total Theatre Award (Edinburgh), the Barclays Theatre Award (London), the Special Prize at the BITEF Festival (Belgrade), the Most Promising Choreographer Prize at the Nijinski Awards (Monte Carlo), the Movimentos Award (Germany), and the Helpmann Award (Australia). In August 2008, Ballet Tanz awarded him the title of Choreographer of the Year for his work across the 2007-2008 season: 'Myth', 'Apocrifu', 'Origine' and 'Sutra'. The Alfred Toëpfer Stiftung awarded its 2009 Kairos Prize to him in recognition of his artistic philosophy and his quest for cultural dialogue. While Cherkaoui's initial pieces were made as a core member of the Belgian collective Les Ballets C. de la B. - 'Rien de rien' (2000), 'Foi' (2003), 'Tempus Fugit' (2004) - he also undertook parallel projects that both expanded and consolidated his artistic vision. 'Ook' (2000) was born from a workshop for mentally disabled actors held by Theater Stap in Turnhout with choreographer Nienke Reehorst; 'D'avant' (2002) from an encounter with long-standing artistic partner Damien Jalet and dancer-singers of the Sasha Waltz & Guests company, and zero degrees (2005) inspired by friend and fellow-choreographer Akram Khan. Larbi has worked with a variety of theaters, opera houses, and ballet companies, ranging from Sadler's Wells in London, Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels (Apocrifu, 2007), the Royal Danish Ballet (L'homme du bois, 2007), Ballets Cullberg in Stockholm (End, 2006), Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo (Mea culpa, 2006, and In memoriam, 2004) and the Grand Théâtre in Geneva (Loin, 2005). Since 2006, Cherkaoui has been associate artist at Het Toneelhuis in Antwerp, the theater that produced Myth (2007) and Origine (2008).

Antony Gormley, recently made his long-awaited U.S. public art debut in New York this summer with 'Event Horizon', a sculptural installation featuring 31 life-size figures on rooftops, setbacks, and sidewalks around Madison Square Park. Gromley was born in London in 1950. Upon completing a degree in archaeology, anthropology, and the history of art at Trinity College, Cambridge, he traveled to India, returning to London three years later to study at the Central School of Art, Goldsmiths College, and the Slade School of Art. Over the last 25 years, he has revitalized the human image in sculpture through a radical investigation of the body as a place of memory and transformation, using his own body as subject, tool, and material. Since 1990, he has expanded his concern with the human condition to explore the collective body and the relationship between self and other in large-scale installations such as 'Allotment', 'Critical Mass', 'Another Place', 'Domain Field', and 'Inside Australia'. His recent work increasingly engages with energy systems, fields, and vectors, rather than mass and defined volume, evident in works like 'Clearing', 'Blind Light', 'Firmament', and 'Another Singularity'. Antony Gormley's work has been exhibited extensively, with solo shows throughout the U.K. in venues such as the Whitechapel, Tate, and the Hayward Galleries, the British Museum, and White Cube, and internationally at museums including the Louisiana Museum in Humlebaek, the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin, and the Kölnischer Kunstverein in Germany. Blind Light, a major solo exhibition of his work, was held at the Hayward Gallery in 2007. He has participated in major group shows such as the Venice Biennale and the Kassel Documenta 8. His Field has toured America, Europe, and Asia. 'Angel of the North' and, more recently, 'Quantum Cloud on the Thames' in Greenwich are amongst the most celebrated examples of contemporary British sculpture. One of his key installations, 'Another Place', is to remain permanently on display at Crosby Beach, Merseyside. Gormley was awarded the Turner Prize in 1994 and the South Bank Prize for Visual Art in 1999. He was made an Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1997. In 2007, he was awarded the Bernhard Heiliger Award for Sculpture. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects, Trinity College, Cambridge and Jesus College, Cambridge, and has been a Royal Academician since 2003.

Recently awarded a postgraduate diploma in composition from the Royal Flemish Conservatory in Antwerp, Szymon Brzóska trained under the baton of Luc Van Hove. He attended workshops directed by Marek Stachowski, Tapio Tuomela, Remigijus Merkelys, Toivo Tulev, and Peteris Plakidis between 2000 and 2004. The young Polish composer, who also holds a Master of Arts diploma from the Ignacy Jan Paderewski Music Academy in Poznan, has already attracted considerable attention among professionals of classical and contemporary music. His works have been performed in Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Norway, and Poland. In 2003, his 'Antiphona Beatae Mariae Virginis' was chosen by the Polish chamber choir Schola Cantorum Gedanensis for their concert at the Festival of Sacred Music Maria Auxilium Christianorum in Rumia. In 2004, he won both the 3rd prize at the Adam Didur Composition Competition in Sanok (Poland) for 'Czarna róza' (The Black Rose), song for tenor and piano with words by Zbigniew Herbert and the 2nd prize in the Composition Competition for Choral Passion Song in Bydgoszcz (Poland) for 'Vexilla Regis Prodeunt'. In 2006, his 6 miniatures for cello and piano was chosen for the workshop with the prestigious Belgian Prometheus Ensemble and he was also among the selected few at the Composition Competition of the music@venture 2007 festival in Antwerp, which commissioned him to create a piece for the Belgian ensemble I solisti del vento, which they performed in October 2007. Brzóska is particularly interested in collaborating with contemporary dance, theater, and cinema. He has participated in soundtracks for several film and theater projects in Poland, and his composition for the original motion picture soundtrack for the French film 'Le bruit des gens autour', directed by Diastème and produced by CipanGo Productions was heard at the Festival d'Avignon.

The warrior monks performing in Sutra are from the Shaolin Temple, situated near Songshan mountain in Dengfeng City in the Henan Province of China. In 1983, the State Council defined the Shaolin Temple as the key national Buddhist Temple. They follow a strict Buddhist doctrine in which kung fu and tai chi martial arts are an integral part of their daily regime. A patriarchal clan system presides within the Temple and in nearly 800 years, there have been over 30 generations of monks. Shaolin kung fu is one of the oldest Chinese martial arts traditions. Based on a belief in the supernatural power of Chan Buddhism, the moves practiced by the Shaolin monks are its major form of expression. According to the guidebooks handed down in the Shaolin Temple, kung fu has 708 movement sequences, plus another 552 boxing sequences and 72 unique skills for capturing, wrestling, disjointing, and touching vital points in order to cause injury. The monks of the Shaolin Temple regard the perfection of their kung fu warrior skills as their lifelong goal. Fully understanding life with no fear in their hearts, their physical and mental practice embodies the ancient Chinese belief in ‘the unity between heaven and man'. Note: There are many martial arts schools that have also been set up in the region under the name of Shaolin, from which performers for many of the more commercial Shaolin Monk shows are drawn. Please note that the performers in Sutra are all Buddhist Monks from the original temple itself.

Across the three weeks of the White Light Festival are works spanning centuries and continents: from compositions of western Renaissance, Classical, Romantic and 20th-century music by Palestrina, Tallis, Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Liszt, Schubert, Bruckner and John Cage to recent works by composers including Lera Auerbach, Giya Kancheli, Jan Garbarek, Szymon Brzóska, Tigran Mansurian, Valentin Silvestrov, Veljo Tormis and Arvo Pärt (whose work is featured in several programs throughout the festival), to traditional Indian music. Noted ensembles and artists who will participate in the Festival are: Philippe Herreweghe, leading the Collegium Vocale Gent Choir with Accademia Chigiana Siena and I Solisti del Vento (the latter two making their New York debuts), The Hilliard Ensemble with guest artist Jan Garbarek, saxophone, Gidon Kremer and his Kremerata Baltica, The Tallis Scholars with their founder/director Peter Phillips, and Latvian National Choir led by Tõnu Kaljuste with the Orchestra of St. Luke's.

Support for the White Light Festival is provided by Rita E. and Gustave M. Hauser, The Florence Gould Foundation, The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Inc., The Shubert Foundation, Logicworks, Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation, Great Performers Circle, Chairman's Council, and Friends of Lincoln Center.

The White Light Festival is a presentation of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Inc. (LCPA), which serves three primary roles: presenter of superb artistic programming, national leader in arts and education, and manager of the Lincoln Center campus. As a presenter of more than 400 events annually, LCPA's programs include American Songbook, Great Performers, Lincoln Center Festival, Lincoln Center Out of Doors, Midsummer Night Swing, the Mostly Mozart Festival, and Live From Lincoln Center. In addition, LCPA is leading a series of major capital projects on behalf of the resident organizations across the campus.

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Programs, artists and prices are subject to change.