Cafe Mueller

Carnations (1983) Video

Le Sacre de printemps (1975)

"The women stand hunched and shuddery, near naked in flimsy beige shifts which they draw up with childish, ungainly immodesty. They are gripped by terror because they know one of them will be the sacrificial victim to mark the end of winter - the Chosen One who dances to the death. The red dress she will wear is passed among them, a rag both fearful and fascinating. They huddle together for comfort, then disintegrate into panic-stricken scurries as destiny stirs under the surface. And when a woman is chosen (Aurelie Dupont) by the male leader, the music briefly unleashes the colossal power of its drums, like the cracking of the Russian ice in spring. It signals the release of pent-up sexual longing, the men and women flying like shards into each other's arms.
What makes Bausch's Rite so extraordinary is the balance between visceral realism and intervals of vivid, orchestrated geometry: the phalanxes of unison dance, the circle of dancers revolving with stately vastness to the music slow's section, like the cycle of the seasons, like life. And then there are Bausch's emotional images: the crowd waiting before the victim like spectators at a bullfight; the girl's frozen terror as she is forced to walk by the man, who pushes her, half holding her up, her feet resisting hopelessly against the loose soil."

Nadine Meisner
The Times (London)
18 June 1997

Arien (1985)

"Realism as processed in Miss Bausch's artistic blender has interesting results. The idea of filling a stage surface with water seems like a gimmick. But by the end, we are so used to dancers sloshing through the water, getting their evening gowns wet, even gliding on a rubber raft or holding a party in this huge puddle, that we barely take notice of the fact that they are completely drenched at the end.
Like previous Bausch pieces seen here, the decor - again by Rolf Borzik - creates a mood-setting and metaphorical environment. Water has symbolism of different kinds. But here it is used not so much as an aquatic universe as a physical property to affect the dancers' movements and how we perceive them.
Thus after the dancers play children's games of various sorts and the men dress up the women in fantastic make-believe costumes, the inner truth of a person is blatantly revealed when one of the women with a painted face rushes under a downpour - the red makeup streams down her face and onto her chest."

Anna Kisselgoff
The New York Times
3 October 1985

Carnations (1983)

"For all its humor (and there is a considerable dose), "Carnations" asks how love is possible in the world in which we live. The occasional sight of two German shepherds on patrol with their trainers at the rear of the stage shows Miss Bausch at her most metaphorically direct. The motif of the world as police state is never lost. Repeatedly, the performers are asked to show their passports by a ubiquitous master of ceremonies-secret police official. Add four professional stuntmen who don't have to strain to look thuggish and whose duties, among other things, include jumping down from two high scaffolds, and a deliberately disquieting element comes into play. The sinister and the mellow constantly mesh."

Anna Kisselgoff
The New York Times
7 July 1988

Biography

Pina Bausch was born July 24, 1940 in Solingen, Germany.  Her parents August and Anita Bausch, owners of a café, named her Phillippine and she was the third child in the family.    In 1955, at the age of 14, Pina started her dance training at the Folkwangschule in Essen, Germany.  The director of the school was Kurt Jooss, who was a major influence in the German Expressionist dance movement.  In 1958 Pina Bausch graduated from folkwangschule and continued her studies at Julliard in New York City.  She was awarded a scholarship for her education at Julliard.  While there her teachers consisted of jose Limon, Antony Tudor, Paul Sanasardo, and Paul Taylor.  In New York, she danced in the Paul Sanasardo and Donya Feuer Dance Company, New American Ballet, and Metropolitan Opera Ballet that was being directed by Antony Tudor.  In 1962 Pina Bausch joined the Folkwang Ballett Company, that was directed by Kurt Jooss, a soloist and an assistant to Kurt Jooss.  The first time Pina choreographed for the Folkwang Ballett was in 1968.  In 1969 she succeeded Kurt Jooss and began the artistic director of the Folkwang Ballet Company.  In 1973 she became the artistic director of the Wuppertal Opera Ballet that was later named the Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch.  During the time that Pina Bausch was in direction of the Tanztheater Wuppertal, she choreographed her most extravagant works that made her a profound choreographer during her time.  For example; Le Sacre du printemps(1975) was choreography that had the dancer perform on a stage covered in dirt, Carnations(1983) was a production that called for the stage to be completely covered in silk carnations, and Arien(1985) was a performance that asked for the dancers move in ankle-deep water on the stage.  In 1980 her husband Rolf Borzik died of leukemia.  He was the primary set and costume designer for Pina Bausch.  In 1981 she met her life companion Ronald Kay, which later she had her son Rolf with.  Pina Bausch died June 30, 2009, five days after she received her diagnosis of an unstated cancer.

Much of Pina Bausch’s choreography in her early life was very controversial and emotion based movement, compared to her later work that was more romantic based.  In the early 2000’s Pina received many awards from several different theaters and foundations.  She was a major contributor to the expansion of the genre tanztheater or dance-theater that was originally created by Rudolf von Laban in the 1920’s.  Dance-theater is movement that is based on the complete freedom and removal of ballet vocabulary and creation of movement from the dancer’s emotional expression.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtqrqjERhkQ