SABURO TESHIGAWARA

With Double District, Saburo Teshigawara, visual artist, choreographer, and dancer, demonstrates an all-absorbing approach to technology, which is used to create a separate universe where performing art and installation meld together. The title lends itself to numerous emblematic references: according to the creators, in particular the two “visual districts, right eye district and the left eye district” which the human brain reassembles into an illusory image which represents reality. The particular physiology of human vision allows us to create other illusions through techniques like 3D, holograms, virtual reality, and so on.

Teshigawara created Double District specifically for one of these technological environments, for Sarah Kenderdine and Jeffrey Shaw’s ReACTOR, an apparatus capable of creating a virtual 3D room. The super high definition quality of this installation- mounted on a wall in Rome –, generates a perception of “physical” illusoriness in the video images of the two dancers, Teshigawara and Rihoko Sato. Thus, the two dancers, different districts of physicality as well, and the two worlds, or shall we say two districts of performers and viewers, shatter the illusion of the fourth wall on stage. This destruction and simultaneous multiplication of illusions in Double District, aims to demonstrate how these are part of true reality.
Saburo Teshigawara, dancer/choreographer/director, began his career in 1981 with his dance company, KARAS. He received increasing international attention in the visual arts field for his various collaborations (Light Behind Light, Fragments of Time, and Double District), films/videos (T-City , A Tale Of and Friction of Time – Perspective Study vol.2), as well as for the scenography, costumes, and lighting in his performances. His sculptural sensibilities, powerful sense of composition, command of space, and decisive dance movements, all fuse together to create a unique world which, in conjunction with his interest in music, has led him to create site-specific works and various collaborations.

TECHNIQUE

A passive 3D projection system creates a virtual 3D image. Direction, choreography, lighting design, and costumes by Saburo Teshigawara performers Saburo Teshigawara and Rihoko Sato initially conceived for Sarah Kenderdine and Jeffrey Shaw’s 3D ReACTOR environment, production manager, technical director, stereoscopic cinematography, video and audio post-productionVolker Kuchelmeister (iCinema) lighting designer Paul Nichola lighting technician Rob Kelly (NIDA) production assistant Sue Midgley (iCinema) producer Richard Castelli(Epidemic) co-produced by Karas, Tokyo - Epidemic, Paris, Berlin - Le Volcan Scène nationale, Le Havre - UNSW iCinema Centre, Sydney supported by Museum Victoria