Pina Bausch

Pina Bausch

Born in Solingmen, Germany in 1940

-       American Theatre director

-       Artistic director of the SITI Company

-       Developed the technique ‘Viewpoints’

-       Has written several performance works

-       First production, Fragment, in 1968

-       Initially people did not understand her dancing and the dancers rebelled due to the ‘lack’ of dancing but intrigued people brought her fame

Died of lung cancer in 2009

Influences on Pina Bausch

-       Anthony Tudor; instructor of Julliard

-        Psychological dancing

-       La bahn (?)

Key Philosophies

-       Redefine dance; created ‘Dance Theater’

-       Doesn’t focus on the end point; creates it through the experiences of the dancers in her company

-       Connect with the dancers; what do they feel?

-       Radically different performances

-       A lot of solo pieces to zoom into specific characteristics

-       Themes

-       Interactions between men and women

-       Fascinating architecture

Manifestations of the Philosophy

-       Collaborated with…

-       Rolf Bersik

-        Met at school and the first person to agree that the current styling wasn’t right for her vision for the show

-       Marion Cito

-        After Bersik passed away, she took over the costuming

-        Started off as Bausch’s assistant

-        Explored balance between the elegant and everyday yet still rich and vibrant

-        Bertolt Brecht & Kurt Weill

l   Inspired Sean [couldn’t see the rest]

-       Techniques incorporated

-        Repetition

-        Different ethnicities; people speaking in their mother tongue

-        Speech (unorthodox for dances; ‘wasn’t true dance’)

-        Emphasis on the upper body

-       1978 Café Muller

-        Deserted café with scattered tables and chairs spread out the dancers stumble into

-       1978 Rite of spring

-        The stage is completely covered in soil

-       1978 Kostakhlof

-        Set in a drab municipal hall. All the actions are very minimalistic. The original voices was done with dancers aged 50 and up.

-       Theatre group established: Tanztheatre Wuppertal

-        Originated as Wuppertal Ballet, a traditional company near her birth town of Solingen

-        Performances were radically different

-        Works generate experiences they do not teach

-        Members of her ensemble were always different from one another, and never resembled previous ensembles