Shaolin-Wheel of Life

[SLC]

I went to the "Shaolin-Wheel of Life"... production... last night, here in Savannah. It was not what I expected. I am sorry to say it was very circus-like rather than spiritual and the martial arts content was almost totally theatrical.

It was not "bad", per se, as a "show". The performers are wonderfully trained and conditioned young men and boys and they do "fly", are limber as string and do amazing things. But their MA is pure theater. And even that... it was just "flailing" away at each other.

There were several occasions where they would line up for a short kata, or form. Their timing between people was off. Some had their hands one way. Others, another way.

All this puzzles me. Our local paper ran an article saying that they don't do this for the money. They do it for the exposure of their "story". But I did not get any "deep meaning" from it. Do any of you have more insight into what their goals are than this?

[red5angel]

I am going February 14th. I fully expect it to be more a show then anything else. I wasn't even aware it had any real purpose but to entertain, call me an uncultured bastard I guess.

[Kinjit]

Yeah, they are good athletes, but I think it's time for something new... Shaolinzzzzzzzzzz......

[Oso]

r5a, I'm going this tuesday, I guess I'll post a review as well.

word is to expect a show but not necessarily traditional ma


matt

[The Willow Sword]

I couldnt agree MORE man.

Time for there to be some "other" shows on martial arts. and not the UFC crap or circus like shows.

[norther practitioner]

Sometimes you have to look deeper. Some of the stuff they did had a lot of traditional aspects to it, it's just a lot of time it is so intertwined with the contemporary that it is hard to extract it. It is a show, not a martial arts expo or demo. It is mearly a telling of a legend on stage. Yeah they are going to mess up from time to time (one of the perfomers dropped one of his chain whips when I went to go see the show), but take it for what it is worth. The guys in the show are pretty good at what they do, and remember that it was produced by some english people, etc.
I was overall impressed by it, but I didn't go expecting to glimpse of "real" shaolin. One of the drills they show is about as old as dirt too, that was cool.

[red5angel]

Thanks Oso, let me know what you think when you see it!

Here is my theory, I like the Circus right? And I do martial arts right? so if they stuck some martial arts in the circus, I would probably enjoy it.....of course it's not a Cynthia Rothrock marathon but you can't have everything

[neito]

i rented it and was not horribly impressed, but not dissapointed in my loss of $5 CDN. I liked to see lots of shiny weapons. Something with martial arts is always worthwhile to see, in my opinion.

[OdderMensch]

I assume they always do this, they took about 10-15 people up on stage and tried to get them to do that, for lack of a proper term, "spinny long-fist thighy they do at the start of all the forms" (i'm sure thats got a name.) Now THAT was entertaining!

[WinterPalm]

Northern Practitioner, why would their being English affect the outcome or content of the show? Wasn't it Chinese that tried to outlaw martial art in China?

[yu shan]

Going to the show here in Nashville, Sunday night! Will give a full report on what I saw. My dealings with the Monks in past...totally Martial!

[Crushing Step]

Speaking of circus... there was a wushu team at Ringling Bros last year. Neat stuff, including a large choreographed weapons battle. If you go to the circus, go 2 hours early for the floor show. You get to be on the stadium floor with various acts, and the kids get a "kung fu" lesson from the wushu team!

I rented wheel of life too. I've also seen those "collection of 100 shaolin forms" videos. Both real boring, imho

[Ben Gash]

I've got WOL on video, and I must say it is totally boring. There's about 5 minutes of kung fu and then endless tumbling, which just gets tedious. The kung fu was seriously sport wushu as well. It really bugged me when somebody met a blow from a Da Dao with a hard 2 handed stop with a jian. This showed total lack of understanding of the weapon and of reality!