Renaissance Man of Dance
Saburo Teshigawara is a highly imaginative choreographer who fills his performances with ideas. “Dance is not simple. But dance can be simple. And it can also be complex. What is important is clarity.”
“I have the premonition that all substances will melt.” “The sense of reality that we are aware of, and emptiness, are two sides of the same coin.”
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Illusion of Reality / Reality of Illusion
Light is used masterfully to stake out and limit space or sever the bodies within it. Even more indelible are the performances of Teshigawara and Stuart Jackson, a young man, blind at birth, who had made a cameo appearance in the first half… Teshigawara, in white on a bare stage, indulges in a long beautiful solo to a Mozart clarinet quintet. This is dance as idiosyncratic prayer. The black-clad Jackson joins him, arms reaching to heaven or streaming behind as he spins like a top. The men follow overlapping circular flight paths, achieving a memorable shared ecstasy.”
Review
Luminous combines Teshigawara’s graceful choreography with technological ingenuity: figures move and out of darkness, multiple reflections scatter around the stage, shadows are thrown against the wall. He dazzles the audience with optical illusions that serve as visual humor and catalysts to deeper thought. The sets and lights seem to act and dance with the performers. And although it can all seem a little aseptic even this is revealed to be an illusion as shown by Teshigawara’s stunning duet with Stuart Jackson, a young man blind since birth.
Donald Hutera in The Times