He's one of the greatest. He has been claimed as the dancer -- and dance-maker -- of the 21st century." So says Lin Hwai-min (
The except from the program shown to the press yesterday afternoon more than confirmed this evaluation. It was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen anywhere.
PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YING, TAIPEI TIMES
To tranquil, meditative piano music that sounded like late Schubert, but was in fact an arrangement by the Russian mystic and early advocate of Eastern esoteric philosophy Georgei Gurdjieff, Teshigawara, dressed in black, and his white clad supporting dancer -- one is tempted to say "handmaiden" or perhaps "moon shadow" -- performed movements of utter and total beauty.
This was part of the second item in their show Absolute Zero. In the other two parts Teshigawara dances alone, and all three parts are preceded by a video display.
Young people today are bombarded from all sides by what is essentially advertising, glossy promotion of ephemeral and frequently near-worthless commercial products. After so much exposure to smart people lying for money, this tranquil, harmonious, but sometimes also ecstatic performance was like suddenly being ushered into paradise after a prolonged period in purgatory, if not hell itself.
Teshigawara's movement is extraordinary. He twists and writhes, shudders and then flows, seems to expand out of himself into the very fabric of the plain drapes of the scenery behind him.
Never for a moment is there anything suave, slinky, smart or sophisticated (in the commercial sense) about him. Instead, his dance is a kind of purity personified. It's the movement of a soul in bliss, or alternatively a being simultaneously aware of his embodiment in flesh and of the presence of eternity within him.
No one should miss this show. I only saw a small part, but the spirit shone out with a radiance that was undeniable.
So much modern dance tries to catch the audience's affection with modish displays of distinctive clothing (yellow socks, in one recent manifestation), or else plays whimsically with contemporary images, pop fashions or the looks of ephemeral media icons. There's nothing like that here. Teshigawara inhabits a world of eternal verities. His roots are in the religious dances of ecstasy and serenity that characterize so many ancient Eastern religious traditions.
It's no surprise that Lin Hwai-min praises him so highly. He too is working with taichi traditions with Cloud Gate, and has been involved recently in Cambodia in attempts to re-introduce ancient Khmer dance to the war-traumatized younger generation in that tragic country.
Gurdjieff, who died in 1949, was also one of the most celebrated and important promulgators of Oriental mysticism in the West. That Teshigawara is using his music in at least one of his dances demonstrates unambiguously the inner, you might say secret, nature of his extraordinary and beautiful dance.
For Lin Hwai-min to refer to this artist as a key figure now, in this new century, is also significant. In many of the arts, modernism, with its fragmentation, bizarre juxtapositions, and sense of horror at the dreadful upheavals of the twentieth century, is over. In its place is being born something much more serene, something simple and elemental, with far older roots. It can be felt most readily in the music of Polish composer Henryk Gorecki, or the Estonian Arvo Part, both of whom find their inspiration in ancient Eastern Orthodox church music.
The movement of Kei Miyata, the female dancer in the middle section of Absolute Zero's triptych, is more simple, more flowing, than Teshigawara's. But you feel that this is intentional, and represents some ancient concept of the eternal female vis-a-vis the more volatile male. It's something feminists would probably loathe, but the idea has an antiquity besides which their claims represent the briefest moment in time.
The title Absolute Zero refers to the lowest temperature it is possible for matter to reach, for the record minus 273.15 degrees centigrade. You can be sure Teshigawara means nothing sensational by this. Instead, it surely refers to a state of total stillness and even abnegation, an ideal that religious adepts of all disciplines have long aspired to.
In the same way that Indian sacred dance has always seen itself as representing life rising up out of nothingness, and then returning at the end of the performance to the same state, you can be fairly sure that Teshigawara too has a similar concept in mind.
Cultural critics may talk about his taking on of modish concepts such as multi-media art, but the reality is that this extraordinary man is doing something far more ancient, far more archetypal. Like all beings, of course, he can only live in the present. But, like the work of all artists working in this oldest of traditions, his dance simultaneousl expresses an awareness of eternity, and a joy in existence at the very moment of his performance.
This weekend's event cannot be recommended too highly. So often dance is pleasing enough, but leaves something deep within us unsatisfied. Anyone who has felt like this about recent experiences in the theater should go to see this show. They will not be disappointed.
Performance Note:
What: Absolute zero.
Who: Saburo Teshigawara.
When: Today and tomorrow at 8pm and 3pm on Sunday.
Where: Novel Hall for performance Arts.
Tickets: NT$400 to NT$1,500. ERA ticketing outlets.
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