breathing."
Another thing about Jackson that amazed Teshigawara was his propensity to move endlessly until he'd moved in a perfect circle. "He can't move straight but can move in perfect curves. He wouldn't stop until he'd turned a perfect circle. Come to think it, straight lines are entirely man-made. There's no straight lines on the human body. While we try to move straight, the blind circle with force and in a natural manner."
In their duet, Teshigawara and Jackson whirl hand-in-hand, again-and-again until the choreographer lets go of the blind dancer, then stands still, watching Jackson move in circles. The feeling, Teshigawara said, was like setting a bird free. "Stuart also told me that he felt free at that moment, like becoming a bird in flight."
Teshigawara's new project has taken him to France, where the 23-year-old Jackson acted as instructor to 20 blind and mentally challenged teenagers from 11 to 16 years old.
"It's the most difficult of all my projects so far. These teenagers cannot express themselves in clear language, but breathing is their common language. It breaks down the barriers set up by our different experiences. They're fragile in body but their inner being is immense. They dance like splinters of glass. It was so beautiful."
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