Review: Waltz, Coronet Theatre

A waltz is a dance where a couple revolve around each other. It has a rise and fall style, and a distinctive three beat structure. Here, it is the foundation for Saburo Teshigawara’s exquisite work Waltz, currently at the Coronet Theatre, which he performs with his long-term collaborator Rihoko Sato. The pair create a haunting love story, told through the languages of music movement and bodies in space.

Throughout the dance, the two performers orbit each other: sometimes they are on stage together, at other times solo. These are older dancers whose extraordinary bodies reveal experience both gained and lost, from the vivacity of youth to the pain of loneliness and a love no longer accessible. The relationship between them feels deeply authentic and is emotionally charged.

To begin, Teshigawara takes to the stage with an eccentric and almost grotesque technique. Emerging in half-light and clad in black, there’s an uncertainty about him and the space he inhabits; there’s a sense of confusion, grasping for memory, and a lack of self-control that suggests old age. It’s a remarkable performance that uses every last inch of his body in innovative and effective ways. He transitions between states and makes us conscious of what it is and is not to be human. Sometimes he seems an elderly man, yet at others he is limber and sprightly. Elsewhere, he is a marionette, drooping unnaturally. His body speaks of dislocation and discomfort, augmenting the dreamlike ambiance. We see movements akin to body popping, his shoulders disturbingly aberrant, or his fingers flutter in unexpected and striking ways. A man striving for a different normality, his loudly stamping feet defy the regular beat, insistently disrupting the regularity of the music.

Sato alternates with him on the dance floor, dressed in a ghostly white with long silver hair flowing. Her style is quite different and beautifully complementary. She sweeps across the stage with passion and fluidity, absorbed in her own energies, heart beating visibly, until she falls to the floor breathless. When together, they dance independently around each other, creating a temporal insecurity that suggests remembrance and a love story being acted out in different places, times or minds. The pair never meet until for one brief moment he touches her hair and there’s a tangible, dazzling flash of sensory reality. It’s stunning.

The vital interaction with the space itself tells more of the story. Segments are carved out by Teshigawara’s signature stark lighting, which draws squares and lines to impressively reveal borders and barriers that, although insubstantial, nevertheless inhibit the couple’s interaction and tell of incapacity and isolation. When Teshigawara turns to the wall, attacking the fabric of the building and even causing plaster to fall to the floor, there’s a sudden tangible reality to his humanness.

The pace of the performance fluctuates with and alongside the music and movement. Throughout, the music choices support the dance with variation and texture, unsettling the audience with volumes ranging from euphorically resounding to gentle whispering or utter silence. All life is here and we are encouraged to consider. It’s often repetitive and sometimes startlingly incongruous. At one point we shift from Strauss to Tom Waits – again adding to temporal uncertainty.

Slipping in and out of darkness and of time; exploring relationships through proximity and bodies moving in different ways; sensing emotion and questioning ideas of reality; this is very much a show where it benefits the watcher to drink things in and reflect at their leisure. The more time you sit with it, the more it reveals to you, and doing so is a truly special experience.

Directed, Lighting Design and Costumes by: Saburo Teshigawara
Artistic Collaborator: Rihoko Sato
Technical Coordination / Lighting Assistant: Sergio Pessanha
Wardrobe by: Rika Kato
Produced by: Karas

Waltz plays at Coronet Theatre until Saturday 22 March.