Returning to Sadler’s Wells five years after its premiere there, Sutra introduces us to a community of Shaolin monks, who traditionally express their Buddhist beliefs through a combination of Kung-Fu and Tai Chi. Now described as warrior monks, they have fused breathing exercises and calisthenics for both military and spiritual purposes.

Cherkaoui has transformed their codified movement into choreography that evokes many aspects of human experience, from friendship to travel to death. The dramatic action takes place in, on, and under wooden boxes shaped like coffins, designed by the British sculptor Antony Gormley. As the 17 monks rearrange these simple structures, the boxes become their homes—carried on their backs as if they were snails—or tiers of beds, stacked like bunks in a ship’s hold, or the unfolding petals of a flower, or springboards for aerial tumbling that defies gravity.

Read the full review