Comments on: In Memory of Pina Bausch

By: Golnaz

Golnaz — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 07:17:56 +0000

Hi Jillian,

Do you know any short-term dance theatre workshops one could attend? I’ve been surfing net, but haven’t found anything useful yet.

best
G.

By: Amy Cox

Amy Cox — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 12:46:54 +0000

It was the early 90’s. I had been in New York only a year or so. Pina Bausch’s company was in town and word got out of an audition that would take place in one of the BAM studios. There were atleast 200 of us in this room. We did a long ballet bar and a few exercises in center and across the floor. Pina sat quietly on her chair, smoking her cigarette and looking. I was blown away by her attention. I still get chills thinking of it. Before the first cut, which was quite a significant one, I had the impression that she had seen and evaluated to some degree, every dancer in the room. It was the most precise and sensuous experience really, to feel you had been seen and effected by such a pair of eyes. In the years following I familiarized myself with her choreography firsthand. It really matched w those eyes. Incredible precision, passion and respect for theater and the humbling, graceful and revealing act of performance.

By: Mariah Maloney

Mariah Maloney — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 18:33:08 +0000

Pina’s work inspired me as a young preprofessional artist, as a professional artist and as a transitioning artist… I always looked forward to her work and remember the work with crystal clarity and energy. She comforted me in times of uncertainty and she inspired me in times of great influence and change in my life. Her dancers embodied her work with a deep human texture and emotion. Each performance felt fresh and as if it were her first premiere of her first groundbreaking work… As she is no longer with us I am wondering where to look for this never ending inspiration. I have not figured it out and in this moment I am still in shock and miss her and the possibility to see her next creation. The gifts she so generously contributed to our lives are forever remembered. My hope is that she lives in all of us and we are released to the kind of creativity and awesome exploration and realizations of our creative voices as she was. Pina give us guidance come to our studio be with us in our moments of uncertainty, inspiration and daily living as it goes.

By: BrendaBaden-Semper

BrendaBaden-Semper — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 18:11:29 +0000

Pina’s work is a transforming experience; it takes us further into a context of a new sense-awareness. In her Cafe Mueller, her wide strides move easily from place to place and the light, compact, straight carriage of her arms bear her to walls of lamentation, moving the observer to a sense of sadness, pity and fear. Or the walls may be in a mythological context the clashing of the Sympleglades in the Bosphorus where the dove glides through safely although its tail feathers are caught. Memories that have struggled free, a dovetailing of memories gliding and retrieving; pain around a place of love. May your memories of Pina bring you a deep comfort.
~

By: Lynn Barr

Lynn Barr — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 18:53:26 +0000

Pina and I were in the same studio of Paul Sanasardo and Donya Feuer when we were both very young.She left and went to Germany and thereafter I went always to see all her pieces at BAM and in Paris and brought my students to marvel at her work and be changed forever after seeing them. What an extrodinary human being…one night after a performance I went backstage and there were lines waiting to see her and I remininded her of the old days at Paul’s studio, she gently hugged me for about 5 minutes ignoring all who were waiting.There will never be another Pina!

By: rj

rj — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 18:20:35 +0000

I was at the opening night of the Los Angeles Olympic Arts Festival in 1984 - Pina’s U.S. debut, and the first of my many encounters with her work. The program was first “Cafe Muller” (just the thing for opening the Olympics!) then “The Rite of Spring”, with a 40-minute initermission for peat moss spreading. Initially puzzled and disturbed by “Cafe Muller”, I found weeks later I couldn’t get it out of my mind. Pina, you have enriched so many lives with your glorious irrationality!

By: carmen

carmen — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 18:01:38 +0000

i went to see pina’s work every year she came to BAM with my mom. it was a cherished tradition. i adored her dances and will miss being inspired by her work.

By: Judy

Judy — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 18:00:15 +0000

I remember seeing Pina Bausch and her dance theater in the early 80’s. The mountain of roses, the wit and parody. The energy. I felt like I conquered something after the performance, I knew I witnessed greatness and something new and exciting and it changed my life. This one evening has remained with me for decades as I felt love for the experience. I am so very grateful for the passion, brilliance, humor, love of dance, life and art of this woman. Pina Bausch - Thank You! I love your work.

By: Andrea Haenggi

Andrea Haenggi — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 04:19:48 +0000

Hi DTW community,
I sent the following letter to New York Times arts editor Sam Sifton, after reading the dance critic Alastair Macaulay’s disturbing critique of Pina Bausch.

Dear Sam Sifton:

I was greatly disturbed to read ‘A Stage for Social Ego to Battle Anguished Id,’ Alastair Macaulay’s cramped and ungenerous appraisal of the career of Pina Bausch. It is one of the most egocentric articles I have ever read.

No matter what Mr. Macaulay thought of Pina Bausch’s long and exemplary career, she was an artist who carried forth a tradition — German expressionism via Kurt Jooss — and whose work influenced a generation of movers throughout the world.

If he wants to appraise her, Mr. Macaulay should at least teach us something about her heritage, the work that influenced her, her most influential works, the ways in which she transformed her tradition, and the ways in which she undeniably changed the landscape of modern dance and theater.

Mr. Macaulay’s assertion that her large-scale pieces had a “lack of dance precision” indicates a lack of understanding of what precision is. What does it mean to be precise? Does it mean to be direct? Or can movements that are indirect be nonetheless precise. It seems to me that Mr. Macaulay’s dance vocabulary is limited if he cannot see that Pina Bausch was extremely precise, just in a different way than certain ballet companies are.

If you would like to read a sensitive summation of the work and life of Pina Bausch, check out Deborah Jowitt, in the Village Voice at http://www.villagevoice.com/2009-07-01/dance/in-memoriam-pina-bausch-1940-2009/.

Sadly, this appraisal is another indication that The New York Times has deserted the dance community in New York, that its critics are more interested in asserting their own opinions than informing the audience of the weight and magnitude of a particular artist.

Sincerely,

Andrea Haenggi

By: DJ McDonald

DJ McDonald — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 04:47:00 +0000

have been fortunate enough to both see Bausch dance (in “Cafe Muller at BAM in ‘84) and to perform with her company there in 3″ of water as a supernumerary (the back end of the hippo to be precise) in “Arien,” in ‘85.

An appreciation and intimate remembrance of those days can be found on my blog. (click on my name above)