Pina Bausch

Tanztheater Wuppertal

 

The fact that Pina began by asking her performers questions around the themes of the play gave insight to both the raw emotions/ideas documented in writings and how people (i.e. her performers) perceive or react to them. Applying these raw emotions to a performance can be difficult because the actions that are typically represented of certain emotions such as anger and harsh, forcefully movements do not mesh too well in a theatre setting, and yet these expressive gestures combined with ballet created a beautiful play. Rather Bausch created another world in which it does not seek to teach, does not claim to know better, but instead produces experiences that relate to things every member of the audience knows; has experienced personally and physically.

The Fall Dance

With the first fall, I immediately thought of the faith/trust exercise done as ice breakers in work/social environments. However, the dancers appear to be in a romantic relationship. As to what stage of the relationship they are in is debatable. Firstly, they could be a few weeks to a few months in, and thus are still in a stage they are getting to know each other more hence the trust fall act. Yet, these two lovers could be in a phase that they are losing trust in one another due to circumstances unknown to us. There is a third option, in which these two are simply strangers getting to know one another, however, there are multiple falls and the attire and setting appear that these two are in a romantic relationship. The woman appears to fall at random times in testing if the man will be there to save her. The need for love, for intimacy and emotional security in a poetic way also encourages us to wonder what distances us from it all too.