Ackermann, director of the Goethe-Institut in Beijing, believes that "she gave the Germans pride, the Germans after World War II once could not recognize their own identity in isolation; we are now very proud to say 'I'm German', and Pina Bausch has a great deal to do with the night. "
Invited by the Center Ballet and the Goethe-Institut (China), she will lead her Wuppertal Dance Theatre in its first public performance at Beijing's Tianqiao Theatre from Sept. 20 to 23 this year in the repertoire of The Rite of Spring, Café Muller.
Pina Bausch and her dance theater
The name of Pina Bausch is undoubtedly unfamiliar to most Chinese at night. The 67-year-old artist has traveled to Japan, as well as to Hong Kong and Taiwan, but her wish to perform on the mainland came true only after years and years of being talked about.
If one were to recall the moments in which the nation remembered her most, one would have to mention Almodóvar's Spanish film "Speak to Her". The film opens with a woman dancing among cafe tables and chairs to Purcell's "Let Me Cry", a woman who is Pina Bausch, whose work is "Cafe Muller," soon to be performed in Beijing.
Pina Bausch is a benchmark for modern dance in Germany and around the world. After taking over a solid classical ballet practice in her early years, she went to New York to study modern dance, and then returned to Germany in the 1960s to join the world-famous Essen Dance Company, which was founded by the German mimeographer Kurtius, and has been engaged in performances and creations for many years.
In the 1970s, a form of "dance theater" emerged in Germany, integrating dance and theater, and in 1973, Pina Bausch built her own "Wuppertal Dance Theater". In the following decades, she created dozens of annual works, including representative works: "The Rite of Spring", "Bluebeard", "Muller's Café", etc., which laid the foundation for her leading position in the "Dance Theater". The term "Dance Theater" was first used by Pina Bausch's mentor, Kurtius, in the 1920's, with the aim of creating a kind of dance in which classical ballet and new dance were linked, and which could perfectly express the plot. But Pina Bausch gave a new concept to "dance theater", which y influenced the world of dance, theater, and even shook the entire body theory.
Conversation with Pina Bausch
Pina Bausch, who is 67 years old, has shown a high degree of nobility and elegance on stage, especially when she lit a cigarette inadvertently, which is a great style of the night.
At first, she sat in stern silence, not smiling, but when it came to dance, she began to talk eloquently. That is, the "Rite of Spring" so 20 years ago, in her opinion, have new ideas, "each performance is a new test, for the un-American audience, see our every performance is unparalleled, not again and again chance encounter."
Reporter: What kind of "dance theater" do you understand?
Pina: Dance theater is not the traditional sense of Shang? Fishnet υ? dance, on the contrary, dance theater is to give a stage, let the dancers to express themselves, with the body, with all kinds of the most pungent form of expression, and even searching for words. Dance Theater is not a traditional ballet, but an everyday tool that expresses not "private" or "my" passions, or the traditional Prince and Princess repertoire, but "us", as a universal idea. ", as a common sense of "our" passion, for example, when we move, not words and pictures type of moving, but can be directly through the process of dance to present out, because the moving itself is dynamic, rhythmic movement. People will have the desire to express themselves, not necessarily to speak. And people will be the night dance theater to get moved, this move itself contains the "moving" possibility.
Reporter: The play you brought this time, premiered in the 70's, will not let the audience feel a little out of date?
Pina: I don't think "outdated", because the "old play" is still developing and transforming, and is part of our overall work.
Pina: I don't think it's "outdated" because the "old play" is still evolving and transforming, and it's part of our work as a whole.
The music for "The Rite of Spring" is by Stravinsky, and there are some certainties in the theme of the music, so we're bound by the limitations of the play. The Rite of Spring, with its many dancers, is full of power and passion, emphasizing emotions, themes and moments. Café Müller is different, with only six dancers, and has an ineffable instrument, so that the audience only has to project what they feel is the main thing. It is wrong to count both works as old, they are always of the moment, always transforming.
Reporter: Are you worried about the reception of the un-American audience?
Pina: The audience should project back into the work what they consider to be the main tools and read their own understanding into it at night. I think the audience needs to think for themselves, and there's no substitute for that. But I would like to add a little disclaimer: Café Muller is about alienation and loneliness, as well as the sorrow and hope of love. I still hope that people don't think about it, but just feel it. The unattractive audience is a part of the dance theater.
Reporter: What are your artistic aesthetic principles?
Pina: I don't have any aesthetic principles, if I don't want to say there are any principles, it is to remove all the aesthetic principles, every performance is an aesthetic adventure. When one is not watching, one is free to think, there are no fixed principles. Of course, I have always insisted that people don't think when they are watching, they just feel. I also consider myself an unattractive audience in the process of choreographing and directing, and I feel it y myself. The audience is not passive in my performances, but is part of the work. The relationship between the audience and the dancer is not a simple one of being watched. The audience in each performance carries different emotions, for example, some of the audience may have just lost their love, I don't want to give a specific emotion, but I want people to interact with each other, what do the details of the dancer's movements evoke? What passion of the audience will be driven up through the process of watching? These are the things I'm looking for. (Old companion Pete Best filled in) The only discipline is: remove all the tools with decorative, people think of as beautiful.
Reporter: Tell us about the influence of choreography on your work.
Pina: choreography is very important, given the dancers in the dance Tan Qi? Situation, this situation also brought in addition to the sense of infection. Choreography is not a simple decoration, but to create a sense of space, affecting the behavior of the dancers. We work with many cities in the process of works, doubly strengthened this perception of choreography. I strongly agree with my choreographer, Pastor, who believes that choreography is an unrepeatable encounter between those on and off stage in an extraordinary moment and space, and that each choreography is a part of the performance piece. And I often feel that our dancers are full of courageous people, because our choreography will give some divergent designs, such as a stage full of carnations, sprinkle 10 tons of salt on the stage, although it will cause the dancers a lot of hardship, but they are not deterred by the night.