Shaolin Warriors

This sunday I went to see a performance of the Shaolin Warriors at Centennial Hall. The performance was a two hour immersion into the Buddhist martial arts of the Shaolin monks. There was a beautiful rhythm to the way these men moved their bodies. Each fluid motion of this martial arts gave an elegant illusion that contradicted the deadly power of each limb. There was a balance of push and pull between man and his surrounding. A fascinating demonstration of this mastery of control existed in the way one man balanced upon the point of knives hovering over the heads of other men.

Although this martial arts is said to originate from a Buddhist temple tucked in the ancient forests of China, there was a clear fusion of taoism within this performance. Elements of Taoism were present in the background music which imitated sounds of nature such as the flow of water and the drum of wood. Animal movements were also incorporated into the motions of the shaolin warriors. One man crouched on the ground over his hands with one foot on the ground and another in the air curved over his head to imitate the stinger of a scorpion. Another warrior jumped around stage to imitate the erratic movements of a monkey. One of the most fascinating things for me was the performance of two young boys who progressed through the stages of mastering the Shaolin martial arts. They too represented the Taoist balance of yin and yang: one boy wore the cool shade of blue while the other wore the warm shade of orange.

The Shaolin Warrior performance provided a fascinating look into the one of the dignified martial arts of Asia. I hold a great regard for these men who keep this Shaolin tradition alive.