【外国舞蹈指导眼中的少林僧人】少林僧人

　　When the innovative Belgian 1)choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui visited China’s Shaolin monks, it became more than a collaboration―it was a spiritual journey.
　　The legendary skills of the Shaolin monks have for years thrilled and fascinated him. He has been a fan of Bruce Lee from childhood. Yet, when he thought about creating a work with the monks, it was less their kung fu 2)prowess he wanted to explore than its underlying
　　philosophy: the inspiration the monks draw from the world around them, their capacity to identify with other living creatures and their perception of themselves as a 3)conduit for universal energy and transformation.
　　Here are the extracts from his diary.
　　Late January 2008
　　I made two visits to the temple last summer and it had been a big surprise. It was very beautiful, set on a mountainside, but it wasn’t exactly as I had imagined. The monks were talking on mobile phones, they were allowed pop music and an Internet connection was close by. They told me this was natural, as the Shaolins have
　　always been on top of new technology. Back when paper was first invented, they adopted it very quickly. This openness was good for me because it meant the monks were receptive to my ideas.
　　At our first meetings, we spoke about their culture, how their kung fu discipline connects with the outside world, and the way they relate spiritually to animals and the environment. I am thinking about how to develop these ideas into stories. 4)Sculptor Antony has designed a set of boxes that can be used to suggest different locations―a house, a village, a graveyard, an island, a lotus flower, even the bodies of the monks themselves.
　　February/Early March
　　It’s very cold here. Some days there is snow. Because the monks are so tough, they don’t need any heating. Most of the monks are young, around 21 or 22. When I showed them Antony’s boxes and explained how I wanted to use them as building blocks to create different sets, they were very eager. They organised themselves
　　immediately to build up the sets. It was like when my brother and I used to play with 5)Lego.
　　The routine here suits me very well. The monks get up at six for a warm-up jog, and I do a yoga session in my hotel room from about 7:30. I take all my meals with them in the temple. It’s heaven for me as I’ve been a 6)vegetarian for 17 years. Because I don’t drink or smoke, I don’t miss too much from the west. It’s such a blast. I want to stay here forever.
　　March
　　After a few weeks of watching and directing the monks, I’ve started
　　trying to do some of their moves myself. Everything
　　they do is very beautiful, although some of it could actually break your arm. One spiralling move was lovely in thin air, but when I did it with one of the monks, it pulled me almost onto the floor. I’m
　　surprised by how familiar certain moves are, as if dance elements cross cultures. There’s a 7)flipping of the shoulders the monks do, like a dolphin, that I use in my own choreography. Some jumps look more like jazz to me than kung fu.
本文为全文原貌 未安装PDF浏览器用户请先下载安装 原版全文 　　We are building up the stories that will go into the final narrative of 8)Sutra. I’ve started working with a very young monk, only 10 years old, who we call Dong Dong. There is one scene where the boxes form a 9)maze and he is like a little rabbit running through it, until he gets trapped in one of the boxes. In another, the boxes form a lotus flower and he is like a young Buddha in the middle, going into this incredible stillness. In a way, Dong Dong understands me best. Because he has the imagination of a child, he doesn’t need to ask why we do something, he just does it. He has an innocence, but he is very smart, very 10)intriguing.
　　April
　　Soon after I got back (from Moscow) to the temple, Antony arrived, as well as some of my own dancers, which I found very confusing. For a long time, I had been with the monks, and suddenly I had all these people looking at our work, offering different perspectives and suggestions. It’s very hard to 11)assimilate all their differences, but the main point seems to be that the monks enjoy the piece when it moves very fast and the Europeans, especially
　　Antony, think the images need much more time and space to be seen.
　　The monks have been interested in having my
　　dancers here, though: they’ve been learning some European
　　movement. Anything that looks like hip-hop, they learn very quickly. They recognise the moves from music videos. But dancing that is less undefined, they find difficult.
　　Now I can feel the clock ticking, as my time at the temple comes to an end. I know I’m really going to miss it. I have also been talking with the monks about what it will be like when they come to Britain to
　　perform Sutra. They aren’t exactly excited; they live too much day to day. But some of them haven’t been to the west before, and they want to see 12)Big Ben and all the tourist sites. They want to see how other people live.
　　What they don’t care about are the touring
　　conditions. They say they only need humble rooms. When I discuss what kind of space they need for
　　warming up and 13)rehearsing, they laugh and say they can go for a run in one of the parks. I think this is going to be such a sight for London: all the Shaolin monks jogging in the park.
　　
　　
　　
　　
　　比利时新派舞蹈指导斯蒂•拉
　　比•彻卡维对少林寺的拜访不止是合作之行，更是一次精神之旅。
　　他对少林僧人的传奇武艺已着迷多年，从童年时代开始就是李小龙的影迷。然而，当考虑和僧人们合作编排一个舞蹈作品时，他更想探究的并非是僧人们高超的功夫，而是其内在的哲学：僧人们从周遭世境所得的证悟、对众生的慈悲之心、视己身为宇宙能量及其转化之载体的观念。
　　以下是他日记的节选。
　　2008年1月末
　　去年夏天我到过少林寺两次，所见所闻令我非常惊讶。这里风景秀丽，依山而建，但和我想象的不完全一样。僧人们用手机打电话，可以听流行音乐，上网也很方便。他们告诉我这很正常，因为少林寺总是走在科技的最前端。当年纸张刚发明出来后，少林寺马上就拿来用了。对我而言，这种开放的态度很好，因为这意味着僧人们会很容易接受我的想法。
　　在最初的几次会面中，我们谈到了他们的文化，他们的功夫修行如何与外部世界相联系，他们如何在精神上和动物及环境相融合。我在考虑如何将这些概念演化成故事。雕刻师安东尼设计了一套盒子，用来代表不同的地点――房屋、村庄、墓地、岛屿、莲花，甚至是僧人自己的身体。
　　二月/三月初
　　这里很冷。有时会下雪。僧人们很强壮，不需要任何暖气。大多数僧人都很年轻，约摸21、22岁。当我向他们展示安东尼做的盒子，并解释如何把它们用作建筑材料搭建不同的布景时，他们都非常热心。他们很快就组织起来搭建布景，就像我哥哥和我过去玩乐高积木玩具一样。
　　这里的生活规律很适合我。僧人们早上六点起床进行热身慢跑，我则从七点半开始在宾馆房间里做瑜珈。我和他们一起在寺里用斋。我坚持素食已有17年，所以，对我来说这里就是个天堂。我不喝酒也不抽烟，对西方的生活方式没什么留恋。这里太棒了，我想永远留在这里。
　　三月
　　在观察并指导了僧人们几周之后，我开始试着自己练习一些他们的动作。他们的所有动作都那么优美，尽管事实上有些动作足以让人摔断胳膊。有一个旋转的动作在空中看上去很可爱，但是当我试着跟一位僧人做这个动作时，几乎一下就掉回地上。令我惊讶的是，某些动作十分熟悉，仿佛舞蹈元素全然不受国界文化所限。比如有个像海豚一样的大幅度耸肩摇摆的动作，我在自己的舞蹈编排中就会用到。有些跳跃在我看来更像是爵士舞而非功夫。
　　我们在构建最后用来叙述“佛经”的故事。我开始和一个年仅10岁的小和尚一起工作。我们叫他冬冬（音译）。有这么一幕，他像一只兔子在用盒子围成的迷宫里跑，直到被其中一个盒子困住。另一幕，盒子砌成一朵莲花，他则像年轻的佛陀一样端坐其中，进入奇妙无比的寂静之境。某种程度上说，冬冬最能理解我。因为他有儿童的想象力，从不问我们为什么，只是径直去做。他天真无邪，却也聪明伶俐，很讨人喜欢。
　　四月
　　我（从莫斯科）回寺里没多久，安东尼和我自己的一些舞蹈演员也到寺里了，这让我感到很困惑。我和僧人们待在一起有好一段时间了，突然之间要让这些人看我们的表演，提出不同的看法和建议。要完全消融他们这些分歧是件难事，而重点似乎在于：僧人们喜欢动作节奏快速的部分，而欧洲人，特别是安东尼，则认为需要更多的时间和空间去呈现形象。
　　但是僧人还是对我的这些在场的舞蹈演员很感兴趣：他们一直在学一些欧式动作。而类似嘻哈舞步的动作，他们学得很快。看到音乐视频，他们能认出这些动作，而对那些归类不明确的动作则觉得比较难学。
　　随着待在寺里的日子将近结束，我能感觉到时针在滴答地走。我知道我真的会很怀念这段日子。我也问过僧人们对到英国表演“佛经”有何感想。他们并没特别兴奋，他们崇尚过一天算一天。倒是他们中有些人从没去过西方，想去看看大本钟和所有旅游景点。他们想了解其他人是怎样生活的。
　　僧人们对出行条件并不挑剔，他们说只要有简单的房间即可。当我问起他们需要什么样的场地热身和彩排时，他们笑着说去某个公园跑跑步就行。我想这倒可以成为伦敦一景：一群少林僧人在公园里慢跑。
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