Can an exhibition do justice to the work of world-famous choreographer Pina Bausch? No, says her son, Salomon Bausch. But he worked together with a Bonn museum to do it anyways.
Life without dance was unthinkable for choreographer Pina Bausch. Her company, founded in Wuppertal in the 1970s, made her a star in the world of choreography. A museum in Bonn now presents insights into her life.
It has been seven years since Pina Bausch's death. But her dance company continues to be world renowned, with performers from around the world inspiring and instructing each other - as per her wishes. "We don't just travel," Bausch once said," We are already a world of our own."
As founder and head of Tanztheater Wuppertal, Pina Bausch changed the world of dance with her interpretations. In her acceptance speech for the coveted Kyoto Award in Japan in 2007, Bausch said, "I still have so much ahead of me." It wasn't long after that she passed away, aged 67. The Bundeskunsthalle Bonn opens its exhibition on her life and work this week, celebrating her achievements.
"I can't express a building or anything like that through dance," Pina Bausch once told German journalist Roger Willemsen in an interview. "I am dependent on having to go where the People are." This picture shows Bausch's 1960 performance of "Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor" at the Juilliard School in New York, based on a choreography conceived by Doris Humphrey in 1938.
Pina Bausch came to the industrial German city of Wuppertal in the mid 1970s. It didn't take long for her Tanztheater Wuppertal to gain global recognition for its poetic interpretation of everyday situations through dance. Bausch is recognized as one of the most important contemporary choreographers. "There are many very simple things which only a very good dancer can do," she once said.
Pina Bausch is pictured here in a choreography by Antony Tudor in Berlin 1962. "All I've ever wanted to do was dance," Bausch once said. "When I choreographed, I did it because I wanted to express something through dance that meant something to me."
The exhibition in Bonn houses a recreation of Bausch's erstwhile rehearsal space. "Our rehearsals take place at the Lichtburg theater, a cinema building left from the 1950s. On my way there, I always encounter so many sad-looking, tired people at the bus stop along the way. I try to incorporate those feelings in our productions," said Bausch.
German choreographer Pina Bausch, born in 1940, revolutionizedthe world of modern dance, though she insisted that she had never planned to define a new style or direction in performance. "The formarose on its own out of the questions I had," Bausch said. "I'm not really interested in human movement, but much more in what moves humans."
Pina Bausch's work lives on, moving from stage to stage around the globe. You can catch her lively choreographies like "Frühlingsopfer" (Spring offering) or "Vollmond" (Full moon) on tour - or come to her Tanztheater Wuppertal in Germany.
The exhibition in Bonn presents the highlights of Pina Bausch's career while also examining her methods. Her close relationship with the dancers in her ensemble remained a cornerstone of her work and built the base of much of her inspiration, as was the case in her in the 1983 production of "Nelken" (Carnations) at the Palais des Papes in Avignon, France.
The Bundeskunsthalle Bonn published a book on Pina Bausch to coincide with the exhibition. Packed with evocative quotes and speeches from Bausch, it explains the core of her method. "It is important to me to present the essence of my dancers on stage, so people can know them. In these choreographies, you have to be yourself. No one is required to act." The exhibition continues until July 24.
Pina Bausch lived to dance. That's something visitors to the exhibition in Bonn's Art and Exhibition Hall, "Pina Bausch and the Tanztheater" can experience close-up. At the heart of the exhibition is the recreation of her company's rehearsal room, which was known as the Lichtburg and was located in a 1950s-style cinema in Wuppertal.
For Josephine Ann Endicott, a thin Australian dancer with reddish hair, Pina was her one and all, she told DW. "She discovered me in London, while I was rehearsing at Covent Garden. She wanted to have me."
That was in 1973, when Bausch was looking for dancers for her own company. Endicott said she was fascinated by her aura. "Her blue eyes were so pretty and pulled me in."
Endicott was a member of Pina Bausch's company in Wuppertal until August 2015. Due to exhaustion, she had to take a break during that time. "Pina would challenge you. When you do that for too long, at some point you can no longer manage it," said Endicott, who has since retired from dance.
The rehearsal room is at the center of the Bonn exhibition. The corrugated walls have been covered in moss green fabric and elongated lamps provide dim light. Costumes are hanging on racks off to the side.
Josephine Ann Endicott gives a dance lesson at the exhibitionImage: picture-alliance/dpa/M. Skolimowska
Exhibiting the intangible
Salomon Bausch, the choreographer's son, curated the show together with theater expert Miriam Leysner. They began with one question: Can Pina Bausch's work be shown in an exhibition at all? No, of course not, said Salomon Bausch, adding that you have to go to the theater to truly see her work.
But the two curators found other ways of showing things that are not visible on stage. "It was important to us to integrate individuals who have experience with and knowledge about her pieces," said Bausch.
That's why the rehearsal room was reconstructed. It serves as a venue for discussions and lectures, as well as short dance courses and workshops. Together with members of the dance company, visitors can learn elements from Pina Bausch's pieces. Many of her works comprised of individual, short scenes.
"She asked the dancers questions which they could answer with words or movements," Miriam Leysner explained. "We found the questions in her production files, handwritten on pieces of paper."
These pieces of paper are on display in cases outside of the cinema-turned-rehearsal room. Along with them, programs, rehearsal plans, stage designs, stage directions and video recordings of performances are included among the exhibits. The items come from the archives of the Pina Bausch Foundation.
The legendary choreographer and dancer kept meticulous records of her work. "That made it possible for the pieces to remain in the repertoire for such a long time," explained Salomon Bausch.
Dancing with burgers
When Pina Bausch received the prestigious Kyoto Prize in 2007, she held a speech in which she reviewed her life and work. The exhibition is based on her speech, also showing photos from her many travels and experiences, as well as the people who were important in her life.
Dancer Josephine Ann Endicott points out what's absent from the exhibition. "You know, the noise and the smell are missing," she said in the reconstructed rehearsal room. "In Wuppertal, there is a McDonald's below the room, which you can always smell."
The exhibition "Pina Bausch and the Tanztheater" runs though July 24, 2016, in the Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany in Bonn.
More on the legacy of Pina Bausch:
Pina Bausch: A revolutionary choreographer
Life without dance was unthinkable for choreographer Pina Bausch. Her company, founded in Wuppertal in the 1970s, made her a star in the world of choreography. A museum in Bonn now presents insights into her life.
It has been seven years since Pina Bausch's death. But her dance company continues to be world renowned, with performers from around the world inspiring and instructing each other - as per her wishes. "We don't just travel," Bausch once said," We are already a world of our own."
As founder and head of Tanztheater Wuppertal, Pina Bausch changed the world of dance with her interpretations. In her acceptance speech for the coveted Kyoto Award in Japan in 2007, Bausch said, "I still have so much ahead of me." It wasn't long after that she passed away, aged 67. The Bundeskunsthalle Bonn opens its exhibition on her life and work this week, celebrating her achievements.
"I can't express a building or anything like that through dance," Pina Bausch once told German journalist Roger Willemsen in an interview. "I am dependent on having to go where the People are." This picture shows Bausch's 1960 performance of "Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor" at the Juilliard School in New York, based on a choreography conceived by Doris Humphrey in 1938.
Pina Bausch came to the industrial German city of Wuppertal in the mid 1970s. It didn't take long for her Tanztheater Wuppertal to gain global recognition for its poetic interpretation of everyday situations through dance. Bausch is recognized as one of the most important contemporary choreographers. "There are many very simple things which only a very good dancer can do," she once said.
Pina Bausch is pictured here in a choreography by Antony Tudor in Berlin 1962. "All I've ever wanted to do was dance," Bausch once said. "When I choreographed, I did it because I wanted to express something through dance that meant something to me."
The exhibition in Bonn houses a recreation of Bausch's erstwhile rehearsal space. "Our rehearsals take place at the Lichtburg theater, a cinema building left from the 1950s. On my way there, I always encounter so many sad-looking, tired people at the bus stop along the way. I try to incorporate those feelings in our productions," said Bausch.
German choreographer Pina Bausch, born in 1940, revolutionizedthe world of modern dance, though she insisted that she had never planned to define a new style or direction in performance. "The formarose on its own out of the questions I had," Bausch said. "I'm not really interested in human movement, but much more in what moves humans."
Pina Bausch's work lives on, moving from stage to stage around the globe. You can catch her lively choreographies like "Frühlingsopfer" (Spring offering) or "Vollmond" (Full moon) on tour - or come to her Tanztheater Wuppertal in Germany.
The exhibition in Bonn presents the highlights of Pina Bausch's career while also examining her methods. Her close relationship with the dancers in her ensemble remained a cornerstone of her work and built the base of much of her inspiration, as was the case in her in the 1983 production of "Nelken" (Carnations) at the Palais des Papes in Avignon, France.
The Bundeskunsthalle Bonn published a book on Pina Bausch to coincide with the exhibition. Packed with evocative quotes and speeches from Bausch, it explains the core of her method. "It is important to me to present the essence of my dancers on stage, so people can know them. In these choreographies, you have to be yourself. No one is required to act." The exhibition continues until July 24.
