Saburo Teshigawara: “Glass Tooth”

Since his early years, the material glass has been a source of inspiration for Saburo Teshigawara, as seen in “Bones in Pages” and “White Clouds under the Heels” commissioned by William Forsythe. As a choreographer with keen aesthetics, Teshigawara’s choreographic interest often focuses on how the body changes in reaction to outer elements, including glass, and how our existence corresponds to our environment. Indeed the charm of Teshigawara’s work is in the poetic analysis of this correspondence between the body and its surround-ing elements in a space.

In his new piece, “Glass Tooth,” glass is the substance and the body is human existence, aesthetically co-responding on the interface of the stage. The apron and the far back of the stage are covered with innumerable fragments of broken glass, shining silvery white. As Teshigawara walks over the glass carpet, shards crack under his feet. The sight and squeak of broken glass physically attack our perception. In the next scene, three dancers come in off balance, torsos swaying with the constant change of gravity, as if they were floating in the air. Intense emotion – something like anxiety – spreads with the sound of cracking glass ...