Philippina "Pina" Bausch (27 July 1940 – 30 June 2009) was a German performer of modern dance

Modern dance

Modern dance is a dance form developed in the early 20th century. Although the term Modern dance has also been applied to a category of 20th Century ballroom dances, Modern dance as a term usually refers to 20th century concert dance.-Intro:...

, choreographer

Choreography

Choreography is the art of designing sequences of movements in which motion, form, or both are specified. Choreography may also refer to the design itself, which is sometimes expressed by means of dance notation. The word choreography literally means "dance-writing" from the Greek words "χορεία" ...

, dance teacher and ballet director. With her unique style, a blend of movements, sounds and prominent stage sets, and with her elaborate cooperation with performers during the composition of a piece (a style now known as Tanztheater

Tanztheater

The German Tanztheater grew out of German expressionist dance in Weimar Germany and 1920s Vienna. The term first appears around 1927 to identify a particular style of dance emerging from within the new forms of 'expressionist dance' developing in Central Europe since 1917. Its main exponents...

), she became a leading influence since the 1970s in the world of modern dance.

Early life

Bausch was born in Solingen

Solingen

Solingen is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located on the northern edge of the region called Bergisches Land, south of the Ruhr area, and with a 2009 population of 161,366 is the second largest city in the Bergisches Land...

, near Düsseldorf

Düsseldorf

Düsseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and centre of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region.Düsseldorf is an important international business and financial centre and renowned for its fashion and trade fairs. Located centrally within the European Megalopolis, the...

, the third and youngest child of August and Anita Bausch, who owned a restaurant with guest rooms.

Career

Bausch began dancing at a young age. In 1955 at the age of 14 she entered the Folkwangschule in Essen

Essen

- Origin of the name :In German-speaking countries, the name of the city Essen often causes confusion as to its origins, because it is commonly known as the German infinitive of the verb for the act of eating, and/or the German noun for food. Although scholars still dispute the interpretation of...

 then directed by Germany's most influential choreographer Kurt Jooss

Kurt Jooss

Kurt Jooss was a famous ballet dancer and choreographer mixing classical ballet with theatre; he is also widely regarded as the founder of dance theatre or tanztheater...

, one of the founders of German Expressionist dance

Expressionist dance

Expressionist dance is a European dance form that is part of the German Expressionist movement. Although considered a part of the modern dance movement, it is separate from modern dance per se. Other names for it that have fallen out of use include Moderner Tanz, Absoluter Tanz, Freier Tanz,...

.

After graduation in 1959, Bausch left Germany with a scholarship to continue her studies at the Juilliard School

Juilliard School

The Juilliard School, located at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City, United States, is a performing arts conservatory which was established in 1905...

 in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 in 1960, where her teachers included Antony Tudor

Antony Tudor

Antony Tudor was an English ballet choreographer, teacher and dancer.-Biography:Tudor, born William Cook, discovered dance accidentally. He began dancing professionally with Marie Rambert in 1928, becoming general assistant for her Ballet Club the next year...

, José Limón

José Limón

José Arcadio Limón was a pioneer in the field of modern dance and choreography. In 1928, at age 20, he moved to New York City where he studied under Doris Humphrey and Charles Weidman. In 1946, Limón founded the José Limón Dance Company...

, and Paul Taylor. Bausch was soon performing with Tudor at the Metropolitan Opera Ballet Company

Metropolitan Opera

The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...

, and with Paul Taylor at New American Ballet. When in 1960 Taylor was invited to premiere a new work named Tablet in Spoleto, Italy, he took Bausch with him. In New York she also performed with the Paul Sanasardo and Donya Feuer Dance Company, with which she collaborated on two pieces in 1961.

In 1962, Bausch joined Jooss' new Folkwang Ballett Company as a soloist and assisted Jooss on many of the pieces, before choreographing her first piece in 1968, Fragment, to music by Béla Bartók. In 1969, she succeeded Jooss as artistic director.

Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch

In 1972, Bausch started as artistic director of the then Wuppertal Opera Ballet, which was later renamed as the Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch. The company has a large repertoire of original pieces, and regularly tours throughout the world.

Her best-known dance-theatre works include the melancholic Café Müller (1978), in which dancers stumble around the stage crashing into tables and chairs, and a thrilling Rite of Spring (1975), which required the stage to be completely covered with soil.

Male-female interaction is a theme found throughout her work, which has been an inspiration for—and reached a wider audience through—the movie Talk to Her

Talk to Her

Talk to Her is a 2002 Spanish comedy-drama film written and directed by Pedro Almodóvar, starring Javier Cámara, Darío Grandinetti, Leonor Watling, Geraldine Chaplin, and Rosario Flores...

, directed by Pedro Almodóvar

Pedro Almodóvar

Pedro Almodóvar Caballero is a Spanish film director, screenwriter and producer.Almodóvar is arguably the most successful and internationally known Spanish filmmaker of his generation. His films, marked by complex narratives, employ the codes of melodrama and use elements of pop culture, popular...

. Her pieces are constructed of short units of dialogue and action, often of a surreal nature. Repetition is an important structuring device. Her large multi-media productions often involve elaborate sets and eclectic music. In Vollmond half of the stage is taken up by a giant, rocky hill, and the score includes everything from Portuguese music to K. D. Lang.

In 1983, she played the role of La Principessa Lherimia in Federico Fellini

Federico Fellini

Federico Fellini, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI , was an Italian film director and scriptwriter. Known for a distinct style that blends fantasy and baroque images, he is considered one of the most influential and widely revered filmmakers of the 20th century...

's film And the Ship Sails On. In 1984, the United States debut of the Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch was held at the Brooklyn Academy of Music

Brooklyn Academy of Music

Brooklyn Academy of Music is a major performing arts venue in Brooklyn, a borough of New York City, United States, known as a center for progressive and avant garde performance....

.

Personal life

Bausch was married to Dutch-born Rolf Borzik, a set and costume designer who died of leukemia in 1980. In 1981 Ronald Kay became her life-long companion and was the father of her son, Salomon.

Awards and recognition

Among the honours awarded to Bausch are the UK's Laurence Olivier Award and Japan's Kyoto Prize

Kyoto Prize

The has been awarded annually since 1985 by the Inamori Foundation, founded by Kazuo Inamori. The prize is a Japanese award similar in intent to the Nobel Prize, as it recognizes outstanding works in the fields of philosophy, arts, science and technology...

, while in 2008 the city of Frankfurt am Main awarded her its prestigious Goethe Prize

Goethe Prize

The Goethe Prize of Frankfurt-am-Main is a German literary award of high prestige named after Johann Wolfgang Goethe. It was initially an annual award, but became triennial...

. She was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

American Academy of Arts and Sciences

The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...

 in 2009.

In 2009, Bausch started to collaborate with film director Wim Wenders

Wim Wenders

Ernst Wilhelm "Wim" Wenders is a German film director, playwright, author, photographer and producer.-Early life:Wenders was born in Düsseldorf. He graduated from high school in Oberhausen in the Ruhr area. He then studied medicine and philosophy in Freiburg and Düsseldorf...

 on a 3D documentary, Pina

Pina (film)

Pina is a 2011 German 3D dance film directed by Wim Wenders. The film premiered Out of Competition at the 61st Berlin International Film Festival. The trailer features the song "Lilies in the Valley" by Jun Miyake...

. The film premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in 2011.

Works by Bausch will be staged in June and July 2012 as a highlight of the Cultural Olympiad preceding the Olympic Games 2012 in London. The works were created when Bausch was invited to visit and stay in 10 global locations – in India, Brazil, Palermo, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Budapest, Istanbul, Santiago, Rome and Japan – between 1986 and 2009. Seven of the works have not been seen in the UK.

Death

Bausch died at the age of 68 of an unstated form of cancer in Wuppertal

Wuppertal

Wuppertal is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located in and around the Wupper river valley, and is situated east of the city of Düsseldorf and south of the Ruhr area. With a population of approximately 350,000, it is the largest city in the Bergisches Land...

 five days after diagnosis. She is survived by her son Salomon and her partner.

Works since 1973

1973 Fritz         Iphigenie auf Tauris Iphigenie auf Tauris Iphigenia in Tauris is a reworking by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe of the ancient Greek tragedy Ἰφιγένεια ἐν Ταύροις, Iphigeneia en Taurois, by Euripides. Goethe's chosen Latinized title for his work, however, is a false analogy to the title of Euripides's tragedy, which really means "Iphigenia...  (Iphigenia in Tauris (Goethe)) 1974 Zwei Krawatten (Two ties)         Ich bring dich um die Ecke und Adagio – Fünf Lieder von Gustav Mahler Gustav Mahler Gustav Mahler was a late-Romantic Austrian composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. He was born in the village of Kalischt, Bohemia, in what was then Austria-Hungary, now Kaliště in the Czech Republic...  (I'll take you around the corner and Adagio) 1975 Orpheus und Eurydike (Orfeo ed Euridice Orfeo ed Euridice Orfeo ed Euridice is an opera composed by Christoph Willibald Gluck based on the myth of Orpheus, set to a libretto by Ranieri de' Calzabigi. It belongs to the genre of the azione teatrale, meaning an opera on a mythological subject with choruses and dancing... )         Frühlingsopfer (The Rite of Spring) 1976 Die sieben Todsünden (The Seven Deadly Sins) (libretto: Bertolt Brecht Bertolt Brecht Bertolt Brecht was a German poet, playwright, and theatre director.An influential theatre practitioner of the 20th century, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production, the latter particularly through the seismic impact of the tours undertaken by the... ; music: Kurt Weill Kurt Weill Kurt Julian Weill was a German-Jewish composer, active from the 1920s, and in his later years in the United States. He was a leading composer for the stage who was best known for his fruitful collaborations with Bertolt Brecht... ; ballet Ballet Ballet is a type of performance dance, that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century, and which was further developed in France and Russia as a concert dance form. The early portions preceded the invention of the proscenium stage and were presented in large chambers with...  with pantomime Pantomime Pantomime — not to be confused with a mime artist, a theatrical performer of mime—is a musical-comedy theatrical production traditionally found in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Jamaica, South Africa, India, Ireland, Gibraltar and Malta, and is mostly performed during the... , dance Dance Dance is an art form that generally refers to movement of the body, usually rhythmic and to music, used as a form of expression, social interaction or presented in a spiritual or performance setting....  and singing Singing Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...  (soprano und manly quartet); content: parable Parable A parable is a succinct story, in prose or verse, which illustrates one or more instructive principles, or lessons, or a normative principle. It differs from a fable in that fables use animals, plants, inanimate objects, and forces of nature as characters, while parables generally feature human...  about petit-bourgeois hypocrisy; musical style: late romantic period und jazz Jazz Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th... ; genre: parody Parody A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...  and musical Musical theatre Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an... ) 1977 Blaubart – Beim Anhören einer Tonbandaufnahme von Béla Bartók Béla Bartók Béla Viktor János Bartók was a Hungarian composer and pianist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century and is regarded, along with Liszt, as Hungary's greatest composer... s Oper „Herzog Blaubarts Burg Herzog Blaubarts Burg Herzog Blaubarts Burg is a film of the opera Bluebeard's Castle by the Hungarian composer Béla Bartók, written in 1911 to a symbolist libretto by the poet and later film theorist Béla Balázs. The film was made for West German television, Süddeutscher Rundfunk, and was produced by Norman Foster,... “ (Bluebeard Bluebeard "Bluebeard" is a French literary folktale written by Charles Perrault and is one of eight tales by the author first published by Barbin in Paris in January 1697 in Histoires ou Contes du temps passé. The tale tells the story of a violent nobleman in the habit of murdering his wives and the...  - with recording of Bela Bartok's "Duke Bluebeard's Castle")         Komm tanz mit mir (Come dance with me)         Renate wandert aus (Renate emigrates) 1978 Er nimmt sie an der Hand und führt sie in sein Schloss, die anderen folgen (He takes her by the hand, the others follow)         Café Müller         Kontakthof 1979 Arien (Arias)         Keuschheitslegende (Chastity Legend) 1980 1980 – Ein Stück von Pina Bausch (1980 A piece by Pina Bausch)          Bandoneon 1982 Walzer (Waltz)         Nelken 1984 Auf dem Gebirge hat man ein Geschrei gehört (A cry was heard on the mountain) 1985 Two Cigarettes in the Dark 1986 Viktor

1987 Ahnen (Suspect) 1989 Palermo Palermo 1991 Tanzabend II (Dance Evening) 1993 Das Stück mit dem Schiff (The Piece with the Ship) 1994 Ein Trauerspiel (A Tragedy) 1995 Danzón 1996 Nur Du (Only You) 1997 Der Fensterputzer (The Window Cleaner) 1998 Masurca Fogo 1999 O Dido 2000 Wiesenland (Meadowland)         Kontakthof – Mit Damen und Herren ab 65 (Kontakthof - with men and women of age 65 and higher) 2001 Água (Portuguese for water) 2002 Für die Kinder von gestern, heute und morgen (For the children from yesterday, now and tomorrow) 2003 Nefés (Turkish for breath) 2004 Ten Chi 2005 Rough Cut 2006 Vollmond (Full Moon) 2007 Bamboo Blues 2008 Sweet Mambo         Kontakthof – Mit Teenagern ab 14 (Kontakthof (?), with teenagers from 14 years and above) 2009 …como el musguito en la piedra, ay si, si, si … (…like the moss on the stone…)

Filmography

• 1980 Die Generalprobe. Documentary. Dir.: Werner Schroeter.
• 1983 What Are Pina Bausch and Her Dancers Doing in Wuppertal?. Documentary. Dir.: Klaus Wildenhahn.
• 1983 Plaisir du théâtre. TV mini-series documentary. Dir.: Georges Bensoussan.
• 1983 And the Ship Sails On. Drama. Dir.: Federico Fellini.
• 1983 Un jour Pina m'a demandé. TV documentary. Dir.: Chantal Akerman.
• 1990 The Complaint of an Empress. Dir.: Pina Bausch.
• 1990 3res 14torze 16tze. TV series. Episode dated 26 January 1990. Dir.: Cristina Ferrer.
• 1998 Lissabon Wuppertal Lisboa. TV documentary. Dir.: Fernando Lopes.
• 2002 Talk to Her
  Talk to Her
  Talk to Her is a 2002 Spanish comedy-drama film written and directed by Pedro Almodóvar, starring Javier Cámara, Darío Grandinetti, Leonor Watling, Geraldine Chaplin, and Rosario Flores...
  
  . Drama. Dir.: Pedro Almodóvar.
• 2002 Pina Bausch - A Portrait by Peter Lindbergh based on 'Der Fensterputzer. TV short. Dir.: Peter Lindbergh.
• 2004 La mandrágora. TV series. Dir.: Miguel Sarmiento
• 2006 Pina Bausch. TV documentary. Dir.: Anne Linsel.
• 2010 Dancing Dreams. Documentary. Dir.: Rainer Hoffmann, Anne Linsel.
• 2011 Pina – Dance Dance Otherwise We Are Lost
  Pina (film)
  Pina is a 2011 German 3D dance film directed by Wim Wenders. The film premiered Out of Competition at the 61st Berlin International Film Festival. The trailer features the song "Lilies in the Valley" by Jun Miyake...
  
  . Documentary. Dir.: Wim Wenders.

Obituaries

• Daily Telegraph quote: Pina Bausch, the German dancer and choreographer ... was the most influential figure in European contemporary dance for the past 30 years, creating a much-imitated fusion of radical theatre, surreal art, sexual drama and danced body language, known as Tanztheater.
• New York Times Pina Bausch, German Choreographer, Dies at 68
• The Guardian Pina Bausch 1940-2009, quote: We have lost dance's most visionary, influential figure, who redrew the map of the theatre arts.
• The Guardian Farewell to Pina Bausch, the dangerous magician of modern dance
• The Guardian Pina Bausch tributes: "She got the keys to your soul"
• l'Humanité The Death of the German Choreographer Pina Bausch
• l'Humanité Pina Bausch, She Who Made Dance Speak

External links

• Official Website
• Stanford Presidential Lectures in the Humanities and Arts Pina Bausch: Life and work, Mimi Tashiro, 1999
• Ballet Magazine Interview Valerie Lawson, 2002
• GOETHE-INSTITUT 50 Choreographers of Contemporary Dance, Jochen Schmidt, 2009
• The Guardian She made you feel thrilled to be alive