Pina Bausch

Born in Solingen, Germany in 1940, Pina Bausch began her dance studies at the age of 15 at the Folkwang School in Essen, where she studied with several teachers, including the renowned expressionist choreographer Kurt Jooss. In 1959 she graduated and was awarded the Folkwang prize for special achievement. With a stipend from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), Bausch went to New York in 1960 to study at The Juilliard School with Anthony Tudor, José Limon, Louis Horst, Alfredo Corvino, Margaret Craske, and La Meri, among others. At the same time she performed with the Paul Sanasardo and Donya Feuer Dance Company and the New American Ballet. Bausch later became a member of the Metropolitan Opera's ballet company and also worked with Paul Taylor. She has remarked that her two years in New York were among the most influential in her early life and that when she thinks of New York, she feels a sense of homesickness.

In 1962, Bausch returned to Germany where she became a soloist in the newly-formed Folkwang Ballett, working once again with Kurt Jooss, and also with Hans Zülig, and especially with Jean Cébron. Her choreographic career began in 1968 with Fragmente, followed by Im Wind der Zeit (In the Wind of Time), which later won first prize at the Second International Choreographic Competition in Cologne. Bausch has said that her impetus for taking up choreography was out of the frustration of wanting something to dance. From 1969-73 she served as artistic director of the company, while continuing to dance and choreograph. Bausch's work was gaining notice and after creating the bachannale for Hans-Peter Lehmann's production of Richard Wagner's Tannh?user for the Wuppertal Opera Company in 1972, she was offered the directorship of the Wuppertal Opera Ballet. Reluctant at first, Bausch agreed when she was permitted to bring dancers from the Folkwang-Tanzstudio with her. Not long after her arrival, the company became the Wuppertaler Tanztheater, and was later renamed the Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch.

In her new position, Bausch helped revive modern dance in postwar Germany which has its roots in Ausdrucktanz, or "expressive dance," which looked to everyday movements to express personal experiences, and which gained popularity in the 1920s. But with the rise of the Nazis and the war, modern dance lost its vigor, many of its creators like Kurt Jooss left, and German dance became isolated. After the war, there was little enthusiasm for Ausdrucktanz, while classical ballet flourished. With Jooss's return in 1949, the re-established Folkwang School provided one of the only places for formal training in dance other than ballet. But it was not until the late 1960s and 1970s that German modern dance began to regain momentum, in part due to the student movement in West Germany. Young dancers felt constrained by the formalism of German ballet and American post-modern dance, and rebelled against the Americanization of their country. Some returned to the expressionism of Ausdrucktanz and started to venture into new ground, combining it with elements from the other arts. Toward the late 1970s, the term Tanztheater or dance theater, began to be used to distinguish the work of these choreographers, one of them being Pina Bausch.

Remarks: The tickets for The Rite of Spring, Cafe Muller by Pina Bausch and Tanztheater Wuppertal are available now!