VIEWPOINTS – Lincoln Center’s White Light Festival, Week 1: SUTRA & BORDERLINE get things off to an energizing, crowd-pleasing start

Lincoln Center’s White Light Festival got off to an energizing start last week with two works of highly physical dance theater, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s Sutra and Company Wang Ramirez’s Borderline. Both pieces have a number characteristics in common – they both payed homage to the martial arts tradition, as well as employed a vaguely suggestive, East-meets-West narrative – but most notably, both were undeniable crowd-pleasing hits with audiences.

Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui's "Sutra" at the Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center.

Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s “Sutra” at the Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center.

First up, at the Rose Theatre at Jazz at Lincoln Center was Belgian choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s enthusiastically-received Sutra (RECOMMENDED). Utilizing more than a dozen coffin-sized wooden boxes sculptures and seemingly an army of acrobatic Shaolin Temple monks, Mr. conjures a captivating array of stage pictures that transform with impressive fluidity and freedom, yet mind-boggling precision. Even though I found the musical score – played well by onstage musicians located backstage just behinf a transluscent scrim – to be generic and the overall impact of the performance a tad hokey, it was impossible to repress the child-like wonder the propulsive production induced in me.

Company Wang Ramirez's "Borderline" at the Gerald W. Lynch Theater.

Company Wang Ramirez’s “Borderline” at the Gerald W. Lynch Theater.

Then came Company Wang Ramirez’s gravity- and time-defying Borderline (RECOMMENDED) at the Gerald W. Lynch Theater. Sébastien Ramirez and Honji Wang’s choreography draws from various traditions, from break dancing and hip hop to the aerial weightlessness of Hong Kong kung fu flicks, creating an intoxicating, highly theatrical aesthetic. Even though some segments of the short, tension-filled evening were more compelling than others, I found the overall effect of the piece to be breathtaking, particularly the haunting final stretch of the performance, which was downright poetic.

 

SUTRA
Dance / Performance
Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center
1 hour, 10 minutes (without an intermission)
Closed

BORDERLINE
Dance / Performance
Gerald W. Lynch Theater
1 hour, 10 minutes (without an intermission)
Closed

 

Categories: Dance, Off-Broadway

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