Miroku

A choreographer, dancer and visual artist, Saburo Teshigawara is keenly aware of the power of images. His dance pieces contain striking imagery, and he has become one of the most important artists of our time. A classically trained dancer, Teshigawara has created dance movement that exists in space like vapour particles, in the Japanese manner of letting art be disclosed gradually, while retaining an element of mystery. Miroku, Future Buddha. Miroku is the Buddha who will appear once the world is in harmony. But for Teshigawara harmony is never achieved, for it demands constant struggle. In the stark, bare space, the stage design consists of lighting only. The dancer is a silhouette, a brightly lit monster or a shadow giant. In his superarticulated and extremely precise body, equilibrium occurs when opposites brush against one another. Here arms and legs move with the fluidity of seaweed; there nervous staccatos decompose the movement into the jolting motion of an old silent movie. It is an acute presence, a technique of being fully engaged. This is an exceptional choreographic encounter with Teshigawara, an opportunity to celebrate his return to Montreal after a ten-year absence.