Choreographer Pina Bausch dies at 68
BERLIN, June 30 (UPI) -- German choreographer Pina Bausch, described as Europe's most influential force in modern dance, has died at age 68, her company said Tuesday.
The director of the Wuppertal Tanztheater, the dance company founded by Bausch in 1973, made the announcement, The Times of London reported. Earlier reports had indicated Bausch was suffering from cancer.
The Times said Bausch was one of the world's most provocative and beloved choreographers, who employed bravery and imagination in her work, never settling for easy options while conducting an uncompromising search for truth in art.
Critics said she tapped a unique style of theatrical psychological investigations, often ignoring logical storytelling and de-emphasizing sophisticated movements in favor of expressing painful emotions such as melancholy, anguish and alienation, The Times reported.
Her work "Arien" covered the stage with water, while in "Nelken" the stage was filled with carnations, the newspaper said.
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A Stage for Social Ego to Battle Anguished Id
by ALASTAIR MACAULAY
Published: June 30, 2009 / The New York Times
Because dance does not use words, and much of its spell lies in aspects of contrast, rhythm and coordination, it is only occasionally taken seriously as drama. With the greatest choreographers of recent decades, it has been, and yet even Martha Graham, George Balanchine and Merce Cunningham — to name but three — have not won the acceptance as theater artists that they deserve. As dramatists, they at least equal the playwrights who have been their contemporaries. But this is still too seldom said.
The productions of the German choreographer Pina Bausch, however, always and immediately made a striking impact as theater, and the audiences they attracted included many who were by no means dance specialists. Choreography as a term does not suffice to define her work, which frequently used the spoken word and relied on elaborate scenic effects. Anyone who saw her pieces will recall how the women of her “Rite of Spring” covered themselves in earth; how in “1980” the stage was a lawn; how “Carnations” (“Nelken”) began as a field of, yes, carnations (gradually trampled as the work proceeded); and how “Palermo Palermo” began with the coup de théâtre of a tall wall, across the stage, toppling forward and falling apart.
...
In thinking of the Bausch works that might have been, you imagine aspects of beauty, humor, big-scale visual imagination, as well as darkness, sarcasm and intensity. And the simplest way to feel her loss is to reflect that now there will be no more Bausch pieces for us to argue about. The scene is smaller without her.
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Pina Bausch on Wiki
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café muller(Dominique Mercy, Malou Airaudo)
April 21, 2009 Copyright permission from CCTV
Choreographer Pina Bausch
BERLIN, June 30 (UPI) -- German choreographer Pina Bausch, described as Europe's most influential force in modern dance, has died at age 68, her company said Tuesday.
The director of the Wuppertal Tanztheater, the dance company founded by Bausch in 1973, made the announcement, The Times of London reported. Earlier reports had indicated Bausch was suffering from cancer.
The Times said Bausch was one of the world's most provocative and beloved choreographers, who employed bravery and imagination in her work, never settling for easy options while conducting an uncompromising search for truth in art.
Critics said she tapped a unique style of theatrical psychological investigations, often ignoring logical storytelling and de-emphasizing sophisticated movements in favor of expressing painful emotions such as melancholy, anguish and alienation, The Times reported.
Her work "Arien" covered the stage with water, while in "Nelken" the stage was filled with carnations, the newspaper said.
-
A Stage for Social Ego to Battle Anguished Id
by ALASTAIR MACAULAY
Published: June 30, 2009 / The New York Times
Because dance does not use words, and much of its spell lies in aspects of contrast, rhythm and coordination, it is only occasionally taken seriously as drama. With the greatest choreographers of recent decades, it has been, and yet even Martha Graham, George Balanchine and Merce Cunningham — to name but three — have not won the acceptance as theater artists that they deserve. As dramatists, they at least equal the playwrights who have been their contemporaries. But this is still too seldom said.
The productions of the German choreographer Pina Bausch, however, always and immediately made a striking impact as theater, and the audiences they attracted included many who were by no means dance specialists. Choreography as a term does not suffice to define her work, which frequently used the spoken word and relied on elaborate scenic effects. Anyone who saw her pieces will recall how the women of her “Rite of Spring” covered themselves in earth; how in “1980” the stage was a lawn; how “Carnations” (“Nelken”) began as a field of, yes, carnations (gradually trampled as the work proceeded); and how “Palermo Palermo” began with the coup de théâtre of a tall wall, across the stage, toppling forward and falling apart.
...
In thinking of the Bausch works that might have been, you imagine aspects of beauty, humor, big-scale visual imagination, as well as darkness, sarcasm and intensity. And the simplest way to feel her loss is to reflect that now there will be no more Bausch pieces for us to argue about. The scene is smaller without her.
-
Pina Bausch on Wiki
-
café muller(Dominique Mercy, Malou Airaudo)
April 21, 2009 Copyright permission from CCTV
Choreographer Pina Bausch
