Pina Bausch

Philippine "Pina" Bausch was a German dancer and choreographer who was a significant contributor to a neo-expressionist dance tradition now known as Tanztheater. Bausch's approach was noted for a stylised blend of dance movement, prominent sound design, and involved stage sets, as well as for engaging the dancers under her to help in the development of a piece, and her work had an influence on modern dance from the 1970s forward. She created the company Tanztheater [Wuppertal Pina Bausch|Tanztheater Wuppertal], which performs internationally.

Early life and education

Philippine Bausch, later known as Pina, was born in Solingen, Germany, on 27 July 1940. Her parents were August and Anita Bausch, who owned a restaurant with guest rooms, where Pina was born. The restaurant provided Pina with a venue to start performing at a very young age. She would perform for all of the guests in the hotel and occasionally go into their rooms and dance while they were trying to read the newspaper. It was then that her parents saw her potential. These experiences at the restaurant would be a great influence for her choreography of Café Müller.
In 1955, Bausch was accepted into Kurt Jooss's Folkwangschule in Essen.
After graduation in 1959, Bausch left Germany with a scholarship from the German Academic Exchange Service to continue her studies at the Juilliard School in New York City in 1960, where her teachers included Antony Tudor, José Limón, Alfredo Corvino, and Paul Taylor.

Career

Bausch was very soon performing with Tudor at the Metropolitan Opera Ballet Company, and with Paul Taylor at New American Ballet. When, in 1960, Taylor was invited to premiere a new work named Tablet in Spoleto, Italy, he took Bausch with him. In New York Bausch also performed with the Paul Sanasardo and Donya Feuer Dance Company and collaborated on two pieces with them in 1961.
In 1962, Bausch returned to Essen to join Jooss' new Folkwang-Ballett, as a soloist and assistant to Jooss. In 1968, she choreographed her first piece, Fragmente, to music by Béla Bartók. In 1969, she succeeded Jooss as artistic director of the company.
Her 1968 piece for the Folkwang Ballet, Im Wind der Zeit, took first place for choreography in a competition at the International Summer Academy of Dance in Cologne in 1969. She continued to collaborate with the Sanasardo Company, showing some of her choreography in the United States, through which she met Dominique Mercy and, who would become founding members of her company.

Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch

Bausch was hired by, director of the Wuppertaler Bühnen, Wuppertal's municipal performing arts organization, to run the Opernhaus Wuppertal ballet beginning with the 1973/74 season. Bausch was given artistic autonomy, ran the company independently and renamed it the Tanztheater Wuppertal. The company has a large repertoire of original pieces, and regularly tours throughout the world from its home base of the Opernhaus Wuppertal. The company has continued since Bausch's death, touring her repertoire and new choreography.
Bausch faced substantial initial criticism after taking over as director of the Wuppertal Ballet in 1973. The audience in Wuppertal were more used to traditional ballet repertoire like Swan Lake, and found the themes and movements of Bausch's works violent. The audience often threw tomatoes, walked out of performances, and sent Bausch threatening letters. Critics also often commented on the jarring repetitive movements Bausch used to depict the abusive men/women relationships. American critic Arlene Croce famously described Bausch's work as "pornography of pain".
Her best-known dance-theatre works include the melancholic Café Müller, in which dancers stumble around the stage crashing into tables and chairs, to arias by Henry Purcell. Bausch had most of the dancers perform this piece with their eyes closed. The six dancers continually lift, drop, and chase each other. The thrilling Frühlingsopfer required the stage to be completely covered with soil.
In 1983, she played the role of La Principessa Lherimia in Federico Fellini's film And the Ship Sails On.
The Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch made its American debut in Los Angeles as the opening performance of the 1984 Olympic Arts Festival.
In 2009, Bausch collaborated with film director Wim Wenders on a 3D documentary, Pina, but died suddenly two days before the shoot was due to start in June 2009. After consultation with her family and company dancers, the film went ahead, documenting her life and work in a different way. The film premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in 2011.

Style

Bausch's approach was noted for a stylized blend of dance movement, prominent sound design, and involved stage sets, as well as for engaging the dancers under her to help in the development of a piece. Her work, regarded as a continuation of the European and American expressionist movements, incorporated many expressly dramatic elements and often explored themes connected to trauma, particularly trauma arising out of relationships.
The term "dance theatre" can be traced back to Rudolf Laban's theories. While Laban used the phrase in comparison with movement choirs, he didn't specify the content of dance theatre. It was his students such as Kurt Jooss and Mary Wigman who further developed their own theories regarding tanztheater. Having Jooss as a teacher and mentor, Bausch's pieces were largely influenced by the German expressionist dance tradition of Ausdruckstanz. Her pieces were simple and rejected the classical forms of ballet. The dances generally had little to no plot, no progression, and no sense of a specific geographical place.
When studying in New York, Bausch sought influence from Martha Graham, José Limón, and Anna Sokolow. These American influences can be seen in Bausch's choice of gestures and phrasing. For example, a defining characteristic of Bausch's work is the continuous repetition of movements, as seen in Rite of Spring
Male-female interaction is a theme found throughout her work, which has been an inspiration for—and reached a wider audience through—the movie Talk to Her, directed by Pedro Almodóvar. Her pieces are constructed of short units of dialogue and action, often of a surreal nature. Repetition is an important structuring device. She stated: "Repetition is not repetition,... The same action makes you feel something completely different by the end." Her large multi-media productions often involve elaborate sets and eclectic music. In Vollmond, half of the stage is taken up by a giant, rocky hill, and the score includes everything from Portuguese music to k.d. lang.

Stage design

A distinct aspect of Pina Bausch's works is the stage design, which were designed by Rolf Borzik and then Peter Pabst after Borzik's death in 1980. Bausch's sets altered the stage floor itself and were often filled with elements of nature. In Rite of Spring, the stage is covered in dirt, In Vollmond, there is a large boulder on the stage with buckets of water as props, and in Nelken , the stage is covered in carnations. The set pieces were often used as obstacles to challenge the dancers and enhance the emotion aspect of their performance. Pabst states that "A set should never be impressive on its own, only via the actors". In Café Müller, the dancers need to navigate through the chairs and tables with their eyes closed. In Vollmond, dancers are required to dance on wet floors and climb onto the boulder.

Recognition and honours

Bausch was awarded the Deutscher Tanzpreis in 1995.
In 1999, she was the recipient of the VII Europe Theatre Prize. As part of the reasons for being awarded the prize, the citation says:
In 2000, Pina Bausch and her company were nominated in the categories Best New Dance Production and Outstanding Achievement in Dance at the Laurence Olivier Awards for the conception of Viktor at Sadler's Wells Theatre in London. In 2009, they won Best New Dance Production for Café Müller and The Rite of Spring. Bausch and her company were nominated several times for the Outstanding Achievement in Dance award, with Bausch winning it in 2006 for Nelken and Palermo, Palermo.
Bausch won the Kyoto Prize in Arts and Philosophy in 2007.
In 2008, the city of Frankfurt am Main awarded her its prestigious Goethe Prize.
She was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American [Academy of Arts and Sciences] in 2009.

Personal life

Bausch was first married to Polish-born, who she met in the late 60s at the Folkwang School, and who became costume and set designer for Tanztheater Wuppertal until his death from leukaemia in 1980. Later that year, she met Ronald Kay, and in 1981 they had a son.

Death and legacy

Bausch died on 30 June 2009 in Wuppertal, North Rhine Westphalia, Germany, aged 68 of lung cancer five days after diagnosis.
Her work had an influence on modern dance from the 1970s forward.
The same year, choreographer and experimental theatre-maker Dimitris Papaioannou created a piece called Nowhere to inaugurate the renovated main stage of the Greek National Theatre in Athens. The show's central and most prolific scene was dedicated to the memory of Bausch, and involved performers linking arms and stripping naked a man and woman.
In 2010 the dance company performed Out of Context – for Pina, which was dedicated to Bausch's memory. The show was directed and conceived by the company's founder Alain Platel, for whom Bausch was a friend and mentor.
In 2010 the choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and dancer Shantala Shivalingappa premiered their work Play, which was dedicated to Bausch's memory. Bausch was the main impetus for the piece as she had brought Cherkaoui and Shivalingappa to collaborate in 2008 to perform for the final edition of her festival.
Wenders' documentary, Pina, was released in late 2011 in the United States, and is dedicated to her memory.
Works by Bausch were staged in June and July 2012 as a highlight of the Cultural Olympiad preceding the Olympic Games 2012 in London. The works were created when Bausch was invited to visit and stay in 10 global locations – in India, Brazil, Palermo, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Budapest, Istanbul, Santiago, Rome, and Japan – between 1986 and 2009. Seven of the works had not been seen in the UK.
Bausch's style has influenced performers such as David Bowie, who designed part of his 1987 Glass Spider Tour with Bausch in mind. For the tour, Bowie "wanted to bridge together some kind of symbolist theatre and modern dance" and used Bausch's early work as a guideline.
Florence and the Machine's vocalist, Florence Welch, has been influenced by Bausch's work. She said in a 2022 interview: "Pina has been one of the biggest influences on my life, especially on my performance style... Her work speaks to me in a way that is really hard to put into words, and I think that is the point of dance."

In popular culture

Promotional trailers for the third season of American Horror Story: Coven included a clip for the episode "Detention" and were likely influenced by Bausch's work Blaubart. Stills from the performance and the episode show a group of women seemingly defying gravity as they cling to the walls high above the ground, toes pointed down and hands pressed above them. The photo of Bausch's performance was previously released on Reddit as well as Twitter with the implication that it was from a Russian mental institution, but its source was quickly identified.

Works

The following table shows works since 1973. Several of Pina Bausch's works were announced as Tanzabend because she chose a title late in the development of a work. The typical subtitle from 1978 was Stück von Pina Bausch. The translations are given as on the website of Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch. Some of the German titles are ambiguous. "Kontakthof" is composed of Kontakt and Hof, resulting in "courtyard of contact," which is also a technical term for an area in some brothels where the first contact with prostitutes is possible. "Ich bring dich um die Ecke," literally "I'll take you around the corner," can mean "I'll accompany you around the corner" but also colloquially "I'll kill you." "Ahnen" can mean "ancestors," but also "to foresee", "bode", "suspect."
The details about the music for the works until 1986 follow a book by Raimund Hoghe who was dramaturge in Wuppertal.

Year	Title	Subtitle	Translation	Music	Notes
1973	Fritz	Tanzabend		by Gustav Mahler and Wolfgang Hufschmidt
1973	'	Tanzoper	Iphigenia in Tauris	Gluck's opera '
1974	Zwei Krawatten		Two ties		Choreography of a revue
1974	Ich bring' dich um die Ecke	Schlagerballett	I'll do you in	Dance music after old Schlager	ambiguous title
1974	Adagio	Fünf Lieder von Gustav Mahler	Adagio / Five songs by Gustav Mahler	Mahler's Five songs
1975	'	Tanzoper		Gluck's opera '
1975	Frühlingsopfer	Wind von West Der zweite Frühling Le Sacre du Printmps	The Rite of Spring	Stravinsky's ballet
1976	Die sieben Todsünden	Die sieben Todsünden der Kleinbürger Fürchtet Euch nicht	The Seven Deadly Sins	', music: Kurt Weill, libretto: Bertolt Brecht	Ballet with pantomime, dance and singing
1977	Blaubart	Beim Anhören einer Tonbandaufnahme von Béla Bartóks Oper Herzog Blaubarts Burg, Stück von Pina Bausch	Bluebeard / while listening to a taped recording of Béla Bartók's opera Duke Bluebeard's Castle, a piece by Pina Bausch	Bartók's opera '
1977	Komm tanz mit mir	Stück unter Verwendung von alten Volksliedern	Come dance with me, piece using old folk songs	old folk songs
1977	Renate wandert aus	Operette von Pina Bausch	Renate emigrates	Schlager, Songs, Evergreens
1978	Er nimmt sie an der Hand und führt sie in sein Schloss, die anderen folgen...	Stück von Pina Bausch	He takes her by the hand and leads her into the castle, the others follow...		Schauspielhaus Bochum
1978	Café Müller			by Henry Purcell
1978	Kontakthof		Court of contact	Schlager of the 1930s, a.o.	ambiguous title
1979	Arien	Stück von Pina Bausch	Arias	by Beethoven, Comedian Harmonists, Mozart, old Italian arias, sung by Benjamino Gigli, a.o.
1979	Keuschheitslegende	Stück von Pina Bausch	Legend of chastity	by Nino Rota, Robin/Styne, George Gershwin, Georg Boulanger, Peter Kreuder, Barnabas von Geczy, a.o.
1980	1980 – Ein Stück von Pina Bausch		1980 A piece by Pina Bausch	Old English folk songs, Shakespeare songs, Comedian Harmonists, Judy Garland, a.o.
1980	Bandoneon	Stück von Pina Bausch		Tangoes, sung a.o. by Carlos Gardel
1982	Walzer	Stück von Pina Bausch	Waltz	by Edith Piaf, Tino Rossi, a.o.
1982	Nelken	Stück von Pina Bausch	Carnations	by Franz Schubert, George Gershwin, Sophie Tucker, a.o.	New version in 1983 at the Theaterfestival München
1984	Auf dem Gebirge hat man ein Geschrei gehört	Stück von Pina Bausch	On the mountain a cry was heard	by Heinrich Schütz, Henry Purcell, Felix Mendelssohn, Irish pipe music, Billie Holiday, Tommy Dorsey, Fred Astaire, a.o.
1985	Two Cigarettes in the Dark	Stück von Pina Bausch		by Monteverdi, Brahms, Beethoven, Bach, Hugo Wolf, Purcell, Ben Webster, Alberta Hunter, Minnelieder, a.o.
1986	Viktor	Stück von Pina Bausch		Folk music from Lombardy, Tuscany, Southern Italy, Sardinia and Bolivia, medieval dance music, Russian Waltz, music from New Orleans, dance music of the 1930s, music by Tchaikovsky, Buxtehude, Dvořák and Khachaturian, a.o.
1987	Ahnen		Suspecting		ambiguous title
1989	Palermo Palermo
1991	Tanzabend II		Dance Evening II
1993	Das Stück mit dem Schiff		The Piece with the Ship
1994	Ein Trauerspiel		A Tragedy
1995	Danzón
1996	Nur Du		Only you
1997	Der Fensterputzer		The window washer
1998	Masurca Fogo
1999	O Dido
2000	Wiesenland		Meadowland
2000	Kontakthof – Mit Damen und Herren ab 65		Kontakthof – with men and women of age 65 and up
2001	Água		Portuguese for "Water"
2002	Für die Kinder von gestern, heute und morgen		For the children of yesterday, today, and tomorrow
2003	Nefés		Turkish for "Breath"
2004	Ten Chi
2005	Rough Cut
2006	Vollmond		Full Moon
2007	Bamboo Blues
2008	Sweet Mambo
2008	Kontakthof – Mit Teenagern ab 14		Kontakthof, with teenagers 14 years and up
2009	... como el musguito en la piedra, ay si, si, si...		... like the moss on the stone...

Filmography

1980 Die Generalprobe. Documentary. Dir.: Werner Schroeter
1983 What Are Pina Bausch and Her Dancers Doing in Wuppertal?. Documentary. Dir.: Klaus Wildenhahn
1983 Plaisir du théâtre. TV mini-series documentary. Dir.: Georges Bensoussan
1983 And the Ship Sails On. Drama. Dir.: Federico Fellini
1983 Un jour Pina m'a demandé. TV documentary. Dir.: Chantal Akerman
1990 The Complaint of an Empress. Dir.: Pina Bausch
1990 3res 14torze 16tze. TV series. Episode dated 26 January 1990. Dir.: Cristina Ferrer
1998 Lissabon Wuppertal Lisboa. TV documentary. Dir.: Fernando Lopes
2002 Talk to Her. Drama. Dir.: Pedro Almodóvar
2002 Pina Bausch – A Portrait by Peter Lindbergh based on 'Der Fensterputzer'. TV short. Dir.: Peter Lindbergh
2004 La mandrágora. TV series. Dir.: Miguel Sarmiento
2006 Pina Bausch. TV documentary. Dir.: Anne Linsel
2010 Dancing Dreams. Documentary. Dir.: Rainer Hoffmann, Anne Linsel
2011 Pina – Dance Dance Otherwise We Are Lost. Documentary. Dir.: Wim Wenders
2011 Understanding Pina: The Legacy of Pina Bausch. Documentary. Dir.: Kathy Sullivan and Howard Silver