Luminous looks at the relationship that could exist between movements and light and between movements and sound. How does the body perceive, react and adapt based on the different information that the eyes communicate to us about space and its sound environment?

This questioning finds its expression in the scenic set-up of Luminous, which uses light and its reflections, resonance and reverberation, where each element acts on the other and creates a heterogeneous environment for the recipient, in this case the dancer.

Luminous, which comprises two parts, begins with a solo by Teshigawara who reproduces elements from his previous work, Light Behind Light.

Here, the dancer is immersed in a world of sound and light whose source is very low to begin with but perpetually multiplies and reflects. Teshigawara plays on shade and light and their varying intensity. Bodies appear then disappear, as if absorbed by the void, emptiness, nothingness. Stuart Jackson, a blind dancer who Teshigawara met during the workshops that he was directing in London during S.T.E.P. 2000 (Saburo Teshigawara Education Project), appears out of this void.

“Stuart Jackson was really afraid of moving. He rarely spoke or not at all. He couldn't even manage to stand up really straight, and he was unable to learn Braille. He had been born blind, and all his capacities had remained stuck on the sidelines, as if they were hidden. Slowly but surely as we worked, I was astounded to discover his prepositions for dancing. Of course, his technique was limited, but he had got the gist of direction, angles, speed, turning, even jumps, and it was absolutely fascinating. This young man demonstrated amazing freedom, as if there was no right, no left, no in front and no behind. A dance saw the light of day, a new dance that incorporated an incredibly free relationship between the body and space, because it was free from any visual perception. Then, the young man began to express himself, to translate the emotion he felt being part of this immense space that surrounded him”, remembers the choreographer. Through his presence, the transition between the visible and the audible became palpable. Silence gave way to an austere audio composition that was soon accompanied by the words of the actor Vincent Guédon. Here, the body is totally controlled by the sound, which eventually sweeps through the space.

The second part opens with partitions and luminous bodies that appear out of the darkness. The light is not direct but reflected by the walls and the dancers themselves. It eventually gradually spreads throughout the space and creates a fantastic world that accentuates the reality of the movement and its speed, the light and the sound which, in the end, all become one.

Teshigawara begins his solo to music by Mozart. Only the dance and the bodies now exist on an open stage. The light, reduced to the strict minimum, emphasizes the quality of the body and the movement. Stuart Jackson joins in. It seems as if he is about to fade into the air, as if he was spreading his wings to take flight. No words, no gestures, just a duo based on trust and the space that they share. The true essence of Teshigawara's dance is here.

Source : Maison de la Danse - programme

Saburo Teshigawara began his unique creative career in 1981 in his native Tokyo after studying plastic arts and classic ballet. In 1985, he formed KARAS with Kei Miyata and started group choreography and their own activities. Since then, he and KARAS have been invited every year to perform in major international cities around the world. In addition to solo performances and his work with KARAS, Teshigawara has also been receiving international attention as a choreographer/director.He has been commissioned by many international Ballet companies such as the Paris Opera to create repertoire pieces for the company. Teshigawara has likewise received increasing international attention in the visual arts field, with art exhibitions, films / videos as well as designing scenography, lighting and costume for all his performances. Teshigawara's keenly honed sculptural sensibilities and powerful sense of composition, command of space and his decisive dance movements all fuse to create a unique world that is his alone. Keen interests in music and space have led him to create site-specific works, and collaboration with various types of musicians.

Besides the continuous workshops at the KARAS studio in Tokyo, Saburo Teshigawara has been involved in many education projects. Recent young members of the company KARAS are from the project "Dance of Air", an educational project bringing out a performance as a culmination of a year-long workshop process, produced by the New national Theatre Tokyo. S.T.E.P. (Saburo Teshigawara Education Project) has been initiated since 1995 with partners in the UK, also in the same style as "Dance of Air". In 2004, he was selected as the mentor of dance for The Rolex Mentor and Protege Arts Initiative, to work for one year with a chosen protégé. He is a professor from 2014 at Tama Art university, department of Scenography Design, Drama, and Dance. 2006-2013, he taught at the College of Contemporary Psychology,St. Paul’s(Rikkyo) University in Japan. Through these various projects, Saburo Teshigawara continues to encourage and inspire young dancers, together with his creative work.

Source : The company Karas 's website

More information : st-karas.com

Author, filmmaker and video artist Charles Picq (1952-2012) entered working life in the 70s through theatre and photography. A- fter resuming his studies (Maîtrise de Linguistique - Lyon ii, Maîtrise des sciences et Techniques de la Communication - grenoble iii), he then focused on video, first in the field of fine arts at the espace Lyonnais d'art Contemporain (ELAC) and with the group « Frigo », and then in dance.
   On creation of the Maison de la Danse in Lyon in 1980, he was asked to undertake a video documentation project that he has continued ever since. During the ‘80s, a decade marked in France by the explosion of contemporary dance and the development of video, he met numerous artists such as andy Degroat, Dominique Bagouet, Carolyn Carlson, régine Chopinot, susanne Linke, Joëlle Bouvier and regis Obadia, Michel Kelemenis. He worked in the creative field with installations and on-stage video, as well as in television with recorded shows, entertainment and documentaries.

His work with Dominique Bagouet (80-90) was a unique encounter. He documents his creativity, assisting with Le Crawl de Lucien and co-directing with his films Tant Mieux, Tant Mieux and 10 anges. in the 90s he became director of video development for the Maison de la Danse and worked, with the support of guy Darmet and his team, in the growing space of theatre video through several initiatives:
       - He founded a video library of dance films with free public access. This was a first for France. Continuing the video documentation of theatre performances, he organised their management and storage.
       - He promoted the creation of a video-bar and projection room, both dedicated to welcoming school pupils.
       - He started «présentations de saisons» in pictures.
       - He oversaw the DVD publication of Le tour du monde en 80 danses, a pocket video library produced by the Maison de la Danse for the educational sector.

       - He launched the series “scènes d'écran” for television and online. He undertook the video library's digital conversion and created Numeridanse.

His main documentaries are: enchaînement, Planète Bagouet, Montpellier le saut de l'ange, Carolyn Carlson, a woman of many faces, grand ecart, Mama africa, C'est pas facile, Lyon, le pas de deux d'une ville, Le Défilé, Un rêve de cirque.

He has also produced theatre films: Song, Vu d'ici (Carolyn Carlson), Tant Mieux, Tant Mieux, 10 anges, Necesito and So schnell, (Dominique Bagouet), Im bade wannen, Flut and Wandelung (Susanne Linke), Le Cabaret Latin (Karine Saporta), La danse du temps (Régine Chopinot), Nuit Blanche (Abou Lagraa), Le Témoin (Claude Brumachon), Corps est graphique (Käfig), Seule et WMD (Françoise et Dominique Dupuy), La Veillée des abysses (James Thiérrée), Agwa (Mourad Merzouki), Fuenteovejuna (Antonio Gades), Blue Lady revistied (Carolyn Carlson).

Source: Maison de la Danse de Lyon