It's hard to imagine Saburo Teshigawara ever coming up with a solo to rival "Absolute Zero," his work currently in production at Setagaya Public Theater.
Teshigawara has pulled off some stunning solo pieces in his time -- it's not easy to beat a four-hour marathon with alive crow -- but this work is a piece of total integrity, so true to the choreographer's own physical expression that it is destined to be the hallmark of his career.
This artist-turned-classical ballet dancer, choreographer, turned-filmmaker and designer-turned-opera director is a complete man of the theater and long regarded overseas as Japan's most complete contemporary aesthete. His work is utterly dramatic, as much for his own choreography on bare stages swathed in black and pinpointed by lights, as for his sparse artistic vision, seen in his work for Bunkamura's recent "Turandot" production, which opens this year's Edinburgh International Festival in August.