Pina Bausch: Talk To Her By Pedro Almadova
Born in Solingen, Germany, in 1940, Pina Bausch is a contemporary dance theatre performer and choreographer. She was the founder and creative director of the ‘’Tanztheatre Wuppertal’’ company and had been since early 1973. She was a huge contributor and leading influence in the evolution of ‘Dance Theatre’ Some of her best known dance- theatre works include the melancholic Café Muller (1978) in which the dancers ran around the stage crashing and stumbling into pieces of furniture, another one being Frühlingsopfer (The Rise of Spring), a frantic piece which combined innovative use of emotion and set, the entire stage was covered in soil. Relationships,was quite a prominent theme in her works, Bausch had a precise way of drawing emotions from her dancers that she could later use when creating her performances. Male- Female interaction also played a large part in how Pina created and devised some of her work; this theme is evident throughout and is especially highlighted through her movie Talk to Her, which was directed by Pedro Almadova.In this essay I will look further into how Pina drew the emotions from others, collected their feelings and thrived from them, I will look at the ways she has inspired
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other devisers and will see the clear devising tools that define the work of Pina Bausch. Pina Bausch has said that she never considered herself as a choreographer, or as what she does as choreography, but as someone who is able to conduct feelings and emotions and turn them into something expressive. In the early twentieth century contemporary physical practise was becoming more popular, taking influence from twentieth century dance, mime, theatre and circus performances. The expressionism that was created was one that destroyed the precision and uniformity of balletic movements. Although many dancers such as Isadora Duncan, Ruth St Dennis, Mary Wigman and many others were often inspired by past styles of dance from previous generations they ‘inherited no practise: the techniques and choreographic forms they developed were maps and reflections of the possibilities and propensities of their own intriguing bodies’ (Dempster 1998: 223), this was the beginning of a time when dancers didn’t have to have everything in time with the music and their arms at a certain angle, they were able to tell stories and experiences through gestures instead.
Growing up Pina studied and worked with many different teachers, which taught her different genres of dance, amongst them was the acclaimed expressionist choreographer Kurt Jooss, however her main focus from a young age was not expressionism but was primarily Ballet which is clearly evident in her work, with the fluidity and the sharp, precise movements that are entwined together to create aesthetic masterpieces.
The main method that Pina uses whilst creating a piece is to ask the dancers involved questions, personal questions that will push them to reveal personal experiences and emotions that are attached to the experience or time. From this, she is taking memories and feelings and turning them into something visual. In Nelken (Carnations), Pina had asked each dance member to tell their experiences and personal feelings about their first love, some of the dancers did not answer straight away when questioned, they thought, contemplated and rehearsed and others responded instantly. From learning the emotions of her dancers she in that gains their trust, she takes the emotion and builds upon it and uses repetition to highlight it and expand all aspects of it and make the point of that certain emotion clear. Pina Bausch uses symbolism so perfectly throughout the entire performance, starting with the pink blossom scattered over the floor and the women in pretty dresses to show the stereotypical vision of ‘love’, men lifting up their skirts to have that embarrassment or humiliation associated with a ‘first love’, childlike hopping through the pink plastic carnations, childhood games, parents rebuke, when you watch the performance again and again you can see that the whole performance isn’t just a performance but it’s almost like looking into every single performers mind and seeing their similar experiences they had with their first love being pushed together to create a relatable piece for the audience to watch and connect with. ‘The performers are committed and precise, flinging themselves into the humiliations’ (Nelken, The Independent, Anderson 2005)
As well as being able to see the emotions through the performers, Pina Bausch is very well known for her incredible use of stage, set, space, time, and music to help portray something that movement cannot do on its own.
Her set is never there to overpower what is being performed but is there to highlight and emphasise the motions and movements. Pina’s work is often delivered in montages and lighting and timing compliment the performers. When watching her work you can tell that every tiny aspect of the performance has been thought about so thoroughly, but when it comes to Pina’s actual devising technique she and her troupe of dancers give nothing but emotion, every move they make has been choreographed not physically but mentally, within a story, and this is clear to
see.
Another technique that could be used to define the work of Pina Bausch is repetition, previously mentioned, Pina uses the repetition as a way of highlighting one specific feeling but by playing it over and over and over again she makes it almost uncomfortable, confusing or extremely abstract at times, depending on what the emotion is. Creation 1978 (Café Muller), a scene where a man and a woman are locked together in a tight embrace only to be continually repositioned by a third man, so the woman keeps falling out of the arms of the first man and then crashing onto the floor, but as this motion repeats itself and it gets faster and faster it becomes more and more vicious, the woman is throwing herself out of the man’s arms and comes crashing to the floor each time, which shows that the anger is self-inflicted, it is almost quite uncomfortable to watch as you want to look away from this woman throwing herself on the floor, hurting herself, but you are doing the same to yourself by watching it and it is really made powerful from the repetition.
Pina was often criticised for pushing emotions a little hard in performances and making specific emotions too obvious, however, Pina to a certain extent was never worried about the exact movement of her dancers,“I'm not so interested in how they move as in what moves them” – she was creating a type of circuit, a connection from a thought to an action, and when the dancers would come to perform the movements, the emotions would be there performing with as much life as the action, then also not only connecting the troupe of dancers together but also the audience watching. Critics also always draw attention to her choice of themes, angst, loneliness, alienation, rejection, male and female relationship issues, however they do not look into the tenderness, hope and humour which are evident in the majority of Pina’s performances.
Pina has inspired many artists, none who can quite capture the emotion the same way that she did, but you can see in the performances that they have taken inspiration from her. By drawing out their own emotions and pouring them into a piece of art that they put on stage.
After looking into the way that Pina Bausch chose to choreograph and the different ways in which she created her work, there are two main techniques that could be said to define her work, one being her use of emotions and the other being repetition, and then both in conjunction with timing, spacing, costume and set create unusual but understanding performances. I discovered that she doesn’t want to rebel against a formal choreography, yes she takes risks onstage but she is simply choosing to look past a ‘dance routine’ and dig deeper to reveal actions, actions that are just a more direct way of speaking to an audience. This creative style of dance reaches any audience and becomes a type of language, as words can only say so much.
other devisers and will see the clear devising tools that define the work of Pina Bausch. Pina Bausch has said that she never considered herself as a choreographer, or as what she does as choreography, but as someone who is able to conduct feelings and emotions and turn them into something expressive. In the early twentieth century contemporary physical practise was becoming more popular, taking influence from twentieth century dance, mime, theatre and circus performances. The expressionism that was created was one that destroyed the precision and uniformity of balletic movements. Although many dancers such as Isadora Duncan, Ruth St Dennis, Mary Wigman and many others were often inspired by past styles of dance from previous generations they ‘inherited no practise: the techniques and choreographic forms they developed were maps and reflections of the possibilities and propensities of their own intriguing bodies’ (Dempster 1998: 223), this was the beginning of a time when dancers didn’t have to have everything in time with the music and their arms at a certain angle, they were able to tell stories and experiences through gestures instead.
Growing up Pina studied and worked with many different teachers, which taught her different genres of dance, amongst them was the acclaimed expressionist choreographer Kurt Jooss, however her main focus from a young age was not expressionism but was primarily Ballet which is clearly evident in her work, with the fluidity and the sharp, precise movements that are entwined together to create aesthetic masterpieces.
The main method that Pina uses whilst creating a piece is to ask the dancers involved questions, personal questions that will push them to reveal personal experiences and emotions that are attached to the experience or time. From this, she is taking memories and feelings and turning them into something visual. In Nelken (Carnations), Pina had asked each dance member to tell their experiences and personal feelings about their first love, some of the dancers did not answer straight away when questioned, they thought, contemplated and rehearsed and others responded instantly. From learning the emotions of her dancers she in that gains their trust, she takes the emotion and builds upon it and uses repetition to highlight it and expand all aspects of it and make the point of that certain emotion clear. Pina Bausch uses symbolism so perfectly throughout the entire performance, starting with the pink blossom scattered over the floor and the women in pretty dresses to show the stereotypical vision of ‘love’, men lifting up their skirts to have that embarrassment or humiliation associated with a ‘first love’, childlike hopping through the pink plastic carnations, childhood games, parents rebuke, when you watch the performance again and again you can see that the whole performance isn’t just a performance but it’s almost like looking into every single performers mind and seeing their similar experiences they had with their first love being pushed together to create a relatable piece for the audience to watch and connect with. ‘The performers are committed and precise, flinging themselves into the humiliations’ (Nelken, The Independent, Anderson 2005)
As well as being able to see the emotions through the performers, Pina Bausch is very well known for her incredible use of stage, set, space, time, and music to help portray something that movement cannot do on its own.
Her set is never there to overpower what is being performed but is there to highlight and emphasise the motions and movements. Pina’s work is often delivered in montages and lighting and timing compliment the performers. When watching her work you can tell that every tiny aspect of the performance has been thought about so thoroughly, but when it comes to Pina’s actual devising technique she and her troupe of dancers give nothing but emotion, every move they make has been choreographed not physically but mentally, within a story, and this is clear to
see.
Another technique that could be used to define the work of Pina Bausch is repetition, previously mentioned, Pina uses the repetition as a way of highlighting one specific feeling but by playing it over and over and over again she makes it almost uncomfortable, confusing or extremely abstract at times, depending on what the emotion is. Creation 1978 (Café Muller), a scene where a man and a woman are locked together in a tight embrace only to be continually repositioned by a third man, so the woman keeps falling out of the arms of the first man and then crashing onto the floor, but as this motion repeats itself and it gets faster and faster it becomes more and more vicious, the woman is throwing herself out of the man’s arms and comes crashing to the floor each time, which shows that the anger is self-inflicted, it is almost quite uncomfortable to watch as you want to look away from this woman throwing herself on the floor, hurting herself, but you are doing the same to yourself by watching it and it is really made powerful from the repetition.
Pina was often criticised for pushing emotions a little hard in performances and making specific emotions too obvious, however, Pina to a certain extent was never worried about the exact movement of her dancers,“I'm not so interested in how they move as in what moves them” – she was creating a type of circuit, a connection from a thought to an action, and when the dancers would come to perform the movements, the emotions would be there performing with as much life as the action, then also not only connecting the troupe of dancers together but also the audience watching. Critics also always draw attention to her choice of themes, angst, loneliness, alienation, rejection, male and female relationship issues, however they do not look into the tenderness, hope and humour which are evident in the majority of Pina’s performances.
Pina has inspired many artists, none who can quite capture the emotion the same way that she did, but you can see in the performances that they have taken inspiration from her. By drawing out their own emotions and pouring them into a piece of art that they put on stage.
After looking into the way that Pina Bausch chose to choreograph and the different ways in which she created her work, there are two main techniques that could be said to define her work, one being her use of emotions and the other being repetition, and then both in conjunction with timing, spacing, costume and set create unusual but understanding performances. I discovered that she doesn’t want to rebel against a formal choreography, yes she takes risks onstage but she is simply choosing to look past a ‘dance routine’ and dig deeper to reveal actions, actions that are just a more direct way of speaking to an audience. This creative style of dance reaches any audience and becomes a type of language, as words can only say so much.