Does anyone know if the Shaolin Monk performance team still does tours in the US? If not, how about the Beijing Wushu team? If the monks still tour, how does one find information about their performances or go about booking a show?
Thanks in advance,
The B.
On that ‘Dog the Bounty Hunter’ show they went to see them perform. So I would guess they still do. I’m not into CMA at all, but they did some cool things.
well i am going to one in november at the university of amherst in massachusetts. are they monks? i dont know, i’, just gonna go watch them perform their usual stuff and probably be bored with it.
Shaolin monks are coming to Montreal w/ a new show… Jungua!
http://www.tohu.ca/en/activities/calendar.aspx?ID=184
While I was in Henan this summer, I ate out a few times with their lead coach, he is a friend of a friend. He is a fantastic sanshou fighter, and he seems to expect all those under him to be the same, so regardless of what one thinks of their forms, I’d think twice before messing with his guys.
Actually, I never once met a martial artist under fifty there who didn’t do sanshou.
Shaolin monks still tour…
…both officially and unofficially. See our Shaolin Shows near SF thread for more details. As for the BWT, they tour too when they can find sponsors. I think the last time they were in our area was the Flint Center show in Cupertino, November 2005. See Beijing Wushu Team 2005 Photo by Kevin Ho in our 2006 March/April issue.
sopposely some tour group is coming to houston end of october too so yeah i guess they do…
Yes the monks still tour. I just recently went to Tennessee with my master and Shi Yan Feng to visit with a group of their brothers who were performing a show there. Another group is touring also and will be in San Anotonio, Tx on Oct. 24th and Houston on the 27th.
[QUOTE=sha0lin1;794133]Yes the monks still tour. I just recently went to Tennessee with my master and Shi Yan Feng to visit with a group of their brothers who were performing a show there. Another group is touring also and will be in San Anotonio, Tx on Oct. 24th and Houston on the 27th.[/QUOTE]
if i rem correctly…you said that tour group in tennessee will be there till the end of the october..and another group is coming to houston around the end of october…would dis be the same group?
or a totally different group?
so there will be TWO DIFFERENT SHAOLIN GROUP in america at the SAME TIME??..wow…
on the tour you just came back from…were they actual monks? or just wushu people that practice shaolin??
[QUOTE=Pk_StyLeZ;794370]if i rem correctly…you said that tour group in tennessee will be there till the end of the october..and another group is coming to houston around the end of october…would dis be the same group?
or a totally different group?
so there will be TWO DIFFERENT SHAOLIN GROUP in america at the SAME TIME??..wow…
on the tour you just came back from…were they actual monks? or just wushu people that practice shaolin??[/QUOTE]
The group in Tennessee will be there till the end of November. The other group is not the same but a different group. The group from Tennessee were actual monks. Monks that my master and Shi Yan Feng had grown up with. It was quite touching to see them reunite, how close they were to each other. Master Shi Yan Feng was quite surprised to learn that when he left Shaolin Temple he was taller than his brothers but now they are all taller than he is.
[QUOTE=sha0lin1;794861]The group in Tennessee will be there till the end of November. The other group is not the same but a different group. The group from Tennessee were actual monks. Monks that my master and Shi Yan Feng had grown up with. It was quite touching to see them reunite, how close they were to each other. Master Shi Yan Feng was quite surprised to learn that when he left Shaolin Temple he was taller than his brothers but now they are all taller than he is.[/QUOTE]
wth is that group doing over there and not here in houston!
[QUOTE=Pk_StyLeZ;795233]wth is that group doing over there and not here in houston![/QUOTE]
Ya know I was asking myself that very same question. As I posted on another thread, Sevierville Tn was the strangest place I have ever been. It is a tourist trap. That area which includes Gatlinburg, and Pigeon Forge is full of a bunch of dinner theaters where you can catch all of these different variety shows. However, the shows were all of the “Hee Haw” variety. Dolly Parton I believe is from Pigeon Forge and she has built herself a Hillbilly amusement park called Dollywood. It was somewhat like a country Las Vegas without the hot women and gambling. It was however, quite beautiful being in the Smokey Mountains and we were real close to the main entrance to the Smokey Mountain National Park. I wanted to take the monks hiking up into the forest but time and circumstances didn’t permit. They had lost time to catch up on with each other. We did take them to eat “American Food” which was amusing because they did not know how to use the utensils. I tried to show them but my master stopped me, he thought it was funny too and he told me not to, to let them figure it out for themselves. I spent the whole time wondering and hoping that they didn’t think the rest of the U.S. was like that. I was reassured by Shi Yan Feng that alot of them had already been on other tours to the U.S. and other countries.
I felt sorry for them that they were stuck in a rut. They were not getting out to see/do anything, only going back and forth from the house they were staying at to the theater, and to eat at a chinese restraunt. The promotor of the tour was asking us lots of questions about Houston and if we thought the performance would do well if they toured it around the U.S. He also wanted to know if there were other places in the U.S. like that…maybe Branson, Mo. My response to him was to tour it in the bigger cities. He seemed to want to go to a place and perform the play for a month or so before moving on to another. I am not quite sure why he wanted to do that, I would think that after about two weeks the show would be played out. They are going back to China in November and they may come back next year and tour the show. I hope they do, I never get tired of watching the incredible martial arts that they perform.
I don’t think that they were making too much money there. The tourists we saw seemed to be older people and they weren’t even close to filling the theater.
The truth
Well to be honest with you…I don’t think the Shaolin shows do well anymore at all here in the USA. You seen one you seen them all. I can’t really imagine what a “sponsor” has to pay for a school from shaolin to come here and dow a tour. I am willing to guess that the sponsor loses a lot of money when doing these type of ventures. The “shaolin craze” is filtering out now as we seem to read about negative happenings to some of the shaolin monks and some of its students. The last two shaolin shows I went to watch were not all that very impressive. It’s the same thing over and over. As a matter of fact, one show was trying to copy stuff from the “Wheel of life tour”. I remember sitting near two guys that were trying to think how they could get back stage and convince a monk to defect, stay and teach. LOL. I just thought myself…stop the madness.
They still do well
They don’t do as well as they did in the late 90’s, but there are still plenty of Shaolin shows and they still sell out. Just look at our forum here - Shaolin Warriors are touring the US right now. That’s the show coming to the Marin Vets here and to Houston. There have been Shaolin groups touring America consistently for the last decade. It has died down for sure, but they still sell, so they still come. I don’t see it declining much more that the Gyuto monks or the Dancing Sufis.
I just heard about the Monterey show
Shaolin Warriors just sold out the Golden State Theater with minimal advertising. I hear this tour is selling out everywhere. We’ll see how it does in Houston.
[QUOTE=GeneChing;806776]Shaolin Warriors just sold out the Golden State Theater with minimal advertising. I hear this tour is selling out everywhere. We’ll see how it does in Houston.[/QUOTE]
selling out …uh oh..if it sell out in houston..that mean i must get my tickets now…but i dnt know if i am going to austin or stayin in houston..lol…
Shaolin fusion shows
There’s a growing trend in Chinese theater to incorporate Shaolin performances with general shows. Historically, it was very common for martial arts to accompany acrobatics and circus acts, but performing monks is sort of new.
Here’s an example:
MEANWHILE spectacular circus skills will be on show at Billingham’s Forum Theatre later this month.
THE CHINESE STATE CIRCUS will bring its action-packed show to the stage from Thursday, January 24, to Saturday, January 26.
The two-hour show combines the martial arts warriors from the Shaolin temple, artists from Peking Opera and acrobatic stars of the Chinese State Circus.
There will also be back-flipping acrobats spiralling through rotating hoops and an array of beautiful plate-spinning oriental divas. Further spice comes from candelabra balancing knotted contortionists, Chinese pole balancing and a lusciously set and costumed performance of the Lion Dance.
Tickets £19, concessions £16, details 01642 522633.
A new Shaolin Show coming to Broadway…
… but it doesn’t look like it’s from Shaolin. Hard to tell.
Martial Arts-Fueled Soul of Shaolin Will Play Broadway’s Marquis in January 2009
By Kenneth Jones
23 Oct 2008
China on Broadway, a partnership between Nederlander Worldwide and the Eastern Shanghai Cultural Film and Television Group, will present Soul of Shaolin — a spectacle involving dance, acrobatics and martial arts — at Broadway’s Marquis Theatre for a limited engagement Jan. 13-31, 2009, Variety reported.
An opening night is set for Jan. 15. Soul centers on a boy raised by monks to become a Shaolin kung fu master, according to the trade. This marks the first time the People’s Republic of China will play producer on Broadway.
A cast of 33 Chinese artists is expected. The production will play the Marquis between engagements of Irving Berlin’s White Christmas (closing Jan. 4, 2009) and 9 to 5: The Musical (starting previews April 7, 2009).
Through its affiliate, Nederlander New Century (the first foreign joint venture approved by the Chinese Ministry of Culture to participate in theatrical presentation and theatre management), Nederlander Worldwide recently presented 42nd Street, the first Broadway show to tour throughout The People’s Republic of China.
Nederlander Worldwide Entertainment, founded and managed by Robert Nederlander, Jr., a member of the third generation of the Nederlander entertainment family, has been involved in a variety of live entertainment projects including the expansion of the Nederlander operations into China, the development of an Off-Broadway theatre circuit and various theatrical production projects.
Nederlander New Century has established a circuit of first-tier legitimate theatres in major cities throughout China including Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, Wuhan, Hangzhou, Ningbo and other major Chinese markets for the purpose of presenting a series of world-renowned Broadway musicals.
In February 2008, Chinese and American cultural partners presented The Dream of the Red Chamber — The Dance, a theatrical dance event celebrating the Chinese New Year, for a New York City premiere at the Rose Theater in the Time Warner Center. It was presented by Shanghai City Dance, Ltd., Shanghai International Cultural & Communication Association and Eastern Shanghai International Cultural Film & Television Group in association with Nederlander Worldwide Entertainment, LLC.
A little more soul
Shaolin on Broadway. I found this site for HuiGuang - Shaolin Kung Fu, which is from the same production company (surely the same tour). They list Songshan Shaolin Temple Kungfu Studio as their team source - I’m not sure which school that is (there’s been so many changes there recently) but they claim it’s only 700m from the temple and there’s not much left there now. All the private schools have been relocated to Dengfeng.
BWW TV EXCLUSIVE SNEAK PEEK: SOUL OF SHAOLIN
Thursday, October 30, 2008; Posted: 06:10 PM - by BWW News Desk
Nederlander Worldwide Productions and The Eastern Shanghai Cultural Film and Television Group will partner to present the China on Broadway production of “Soul of Shaolin,” a new Chinese martial arts spectacle, which will begin previews on Tuesday, January 13 and open Thursday, January 15 at Broadway’s Marquis Theatre (1535 Broadway). “Soul of Shaolin” will play a limited engagement of 24 performances in celebration of the Lunar New Year* - the year of the Ox.
Direct from appearances in Sydney, Australia; Macau, People’s Republic of China; and at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, comes a theatrical event that is unparalleled on Broadway. “Soul of Shaolin” tells the story of a boy named Hui Guang who is separated from his mother by war. Hui Guang is found and taken in by the legendary monks of the Shaolin temple and raised among them. As he becomes a man, Hui Gang becomes an accomplished master of Shaolin Kung Fu and embarks on a spectacular journey of self-discovery.
“Soul of Shaolin” marks the first time a production from the People’s Republic of China has appeared on Broadway.
“Soul of Shaolin” will feature 33 Chinese nationals who are highly skilled in Shaolin Kung Fu, the breathtaking martial art that has been featured in such films as Fearless (starring international superstar Jet Li) and Shaolin Soccer, both of which were recent US box office successes.
Shaolin Kung Fu is the collection of martial arts that is associated with the monks of the Shaolin temple in China’s Henan province. This particular style is characterized by almost superhuman displays of strength and agility, but is tempered with the monks’ philosophical belief in training the mind, body, and Soul.
TICKETING INFORMATION
Tickets to “Soul of Shaolin” go on sale October 31, 2008 and will be available at Ticketmaster.com and at all Ticketmaster outlets. The Marquis Theatre Box Office (1535 Broadway) will open December 22, 2008. Tickets will be $95, $75, and $50. Student Rush tickets will be available for $30 day of the show at the Marquis Theatre Box Office with a valid ID, two tickets per student pending availability.
P.S. Huiguang was one of Batuo’s disciples. Batuo was the monk that Shaolin Temple was built for…
Hi Gene,
As for Huiguang, that was the show that Xing Ying, Yan Feng, Ryan Zemel, and myself went to Tennessee to go and meet the monks and they are all from Shaolin Temple. We met the producers of the show and they were very interested at the time about touring it around the country, they kept asking us if we thought a show like that would make money in the U.S. because I think they were getting disappointed by the small crowds around Dollywood. It was a good show, we really enjoyed it.