Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch (Ballet company)
It began with controversy; in 1973 Pina Bausch was appointed director of dance
for the Wuppertal theatres and the form she developed in those early years, a
mixture of dance and theatre, was wholly unfamiliar. In her performances the
players did not merely dance; they spoke, sang - and sometimes they cried or
laughed too. But this strange new work succeeded in establishing itself. In
Wuppertal the seeds were sown for a revolution which was to emancipate and
redefine dance throughout the world. Dance theatre evolved into a unique genre,
inspiring choreographers throughout the world and influencing theatre and
classical ballet too. Its global success can be attributed to the fact that Pina
Bausch made a universal need the key subject of her work: the need for love, for
intimacy and emotional security. To this end she developed an artistic form
which could incorporate highly diverse cultural influences. In consistently
renewed poetic excursions she investigated what brings us closer to fulfilling
our need for love, and what distances us from it. Hers is a world theatre which
does not seek to teach, does not claim to know better, instead generating
experiences: exhilarating or sorrowful, gentle or confrontational - often comic
or absurd too. It creates driven, moving images of inner landscapes, exploring
the precise state of human feelings while never giving up hope that the longing
for love can one day be met. Alongside hope, a close engagement with reality is
another key to the work; the pieces consistently relate to things every member
of the audience knows; has experienced personally and physically. Over the
thirty-six years in which Pina Bausch shaped the work of the Tanztheater
Wuppertal, till her death in 2009, she created a an oeuvre which casts an
unerring gaze at reality, while simultaneously giving us the courage to be true
to our own wishes and desires. Her unique ensemble, rich with varied
personalities, will continue to maintain these values in the years to
come.
NORBERT SERVOS Translated by Steph Morris
© http://www.pina-bausch.de/en
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