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Pina Bausch dies 30.6.2009
The dance theatre cannot be silenced
In an article by Dave Itzkoff
Pina Bausch is acclaimed as choreographer and exponent of the Neo-Expressionist form of German dance known as Tanztheater.
She died Tuesday in Wuppertal, 30.6.2009. She was 68. Death came five days after a cancer diagnosis, the Associated Press reported.
In a review of Ms. Bausch’s “Bamboo Blues” that was performed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in December, Alastair Macaulay wrote that her work could be “strikingly picturesque, always fluid in its comings and goings” as it “switches between episodes of sensual impulsiveness; coy, catwalklike audience-awareness; rushing scenes of harrowing need or anxiety; and diverse aspects of melancholia.”
In an interview last year, the elusive choreographer talked about how the many places she visited influenced her movement. Julie Bloom has more here.
A full obituary will follow on nytimes.com.
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There is a need to write more than a mere obituary especially in view of the risk that the dance theatre in Wuppertal is going to close down due to cut-backs in the cultural budget of the city. Wuppertal finds itself confronting a huge deficit. The crisis seems not only to be restricted to Greece. How to find a way out of this impasse once a famous director has passed away and others need to keep up both reputation through astonishing and outstanding performances and the legacy of being innovative through this particular form of performance called 'dance theatre'.
When viewed for the first time, dance theatre captures both the eye and the imagination as the figures not merely speak, but alter movement and evoke a spirit reminding as much of Al Capone style like underworlds as of smoked filled night cafes in Berlin before the war. Somehow to this world belong also the photography of Nelly Sachs or the paintings of Max Beckmann, especially when thinking of long cigarette smoking ladies with long fox tails hanging loosely over their shoulders as they flirt with all kinds of sins.
HF 18.5.2010
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