Saburo Teshigawara immerses himself in questions of time and space in beautiful MIROKU
Rose Theater, Frederick P. Rose Hall
Broadway aat 60th St.
July 9-11
Tickets: $30-$60
www.lincolncenter.org
www.st-karas.com
Tokyo-based dancer-choreographer Saburo Teshigawara dazzled a rapt audience on July 9 at the New York premiere of his beautiful one-man show MIROKU. Last seen at the Lincoln Center Festival in 2006 with the solo performance BONES IN PAGES, Teshigawara, currently celebrating the twenty-fifth anniversary of his KARAS company, designed the set, costume, and lighting design as well, placing himself within a large three-sided box as if he is walled in. Playing with light, shadow, and color to an electronic soundscape (compiled with Neil Griffiths and KARAS cofounder Kei Miyata), Teshigawara first moves with jerky, spastic motions, angulating his arms and legs as if he is uncomfortable in his own skin, trying to get out of his body, but over the course of the sixty-minute production his movement becomes more fluid as he gains control of his being. Meanwhile, the lighting design gets more and more complex, flashing rapidly changing patterns against the three walls. At one point Teshigawara holds a lightbulb that hangs from the ceiling, creating a dazzling series of shadows of different shapes and sizes. Occasionally, light projections form windows and doorways, as if offering tantalizing glimpses of what is on the outside, but Teshigawara is in no hurry to leave as he continues to examine time and space within the confines of the human body and soul. Miroku is a Buddhist term that refers to the final reincarnation of the Buddha, and the show more than hints at such concepts as heaven and hell, life and death, but Teshigawara has claimed that there’s nothing religious about MIROKU, and there doesn’t need to be, as the narrative works merely as an examination of beauty and art itself.