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Saburo Teshigawara on his approach to dance You have a strong and specific stance or, if I may say, “philosophy” of dance. Could you tell us a bit more about your understanding of dance and what are you pursuing with your work in relation to the audience?
How has that affected your work, especially in Tristan and Isolde, where it seems, from time to time, like you are performing as a sculpture trying to break free?
The conflict between a human being’s exterior and interior is a paradoxical thing. I am interested in paradoxes out of context, of complex matters which look simple, and simple matters which are in fact complex. As an organised method of dance, this paradox gains a moving life. That is what dance is for me.
Sensitivity and fragility, huge wave-like forces, are two opposites which might seem like they do not belong together. Both exist in this great music by Wagner, and I feel it [the music] is born from the same small point. When I can feel that this great music and our tiny bodies are not on a different dimension, but can exist at the same level, this is when a dance piece can be created.
How does it feel to live the life of a successful and renowned artist, who is constantly creating new works, collaborating with different artists, ensembles, institutions, and touring a lot?
You dedicate a lot of time to teaching. Do you teach your students to work on their moves the same way you do; to overthink, to deconstruct, to work from within?
Curiosity that constantly keeps flowing, like a natural phenomenon, is what keeps moving me. This curiosity almost always appears together with tranquillity, and it leads me to a state of somewhat unstable and calm excitement. It is such a fun thing.
I do not teach them my way of thinking. I do talk about it, but I believe that there are individual ways of expression. The important thing is to release the mind and body, to concentrate and elevate it, to have fun, to be interested in difficulties, to forget, and not to give up. I try to teach that these are the elements which can make each person’s own rhythm. The rest depends on [the students] themselves.
You once said you like to overthink things. Is this overthinking crucial for deconstructing complex emotions and concepts? Is overthinking crucial for minimalism? Yes, and it is also necessary to make things simple and organised. Making things simple means searching for various simplicities, and not just one. You are also a sculptor. When did you start to feel the need to do the opposite, to work with movement instead of things frozen in time? When I thought that dance was a sure way of expression for me. Since then I had a premonition that the incomprehensibility and clarity of the body would lead me to something unknown.
Collated from interviews by Nika Arhar and Deja Crnovic´