Pina Bausch

Pina Bausch was a German dancer and choreographer whose work became a cornerstone of neo-expressionist dance, often referred to as Tanztheater. Born in Solingen in 1940, she began performing as a child in her parents’ restaurant, an experience that later influenced her piece Café Müller. She studied at the Folkwangschule under Kurt Jooss before continuing her training at the Juilliard School in New York, where her teachers included Antony Tudor, José Limón, and Paul Taylor. After performing with Tudor at the Metropolitan Opera Ballet and with Paul Taylor, she returned to Germany in 1962 to join the Folkwang Ballet as a soloist and assistant to Jooss.

Her first choreography, Fragments, was created in 1968, and the following year she succeeded Jooss as artistic director. In 1973, she was hired to lead the Wuppertal Ballet, which she renamed Tanztheater Wuppertal, operating with full artistic autonomy. Her work initially met with strong resistance from local audiences, who were accustomed to traditional ballet and found her themes and movements violent; they sometimes threw tomatoes or walked out.

Critics also noted the jarring, repetitive movements in her depictions of relationships. Her best-known pieces include Café Müller (1978), where dancers move with closed eyes among tables and chairs to Purcell arias, and The Rite of Spring (1975), performed on a stage covered entirely with soil. Bausch’s style blended dance with elaborate sound design and stage sets, and she involved her dancers in the creative process.

Her work explored trauma, particularly from relationships, and rejected classical ballet forms in favor of simple, plotless pieces. She also appeared in Federico Fellini’s film And the Ship Sails On (1983). The Tanztheater Wuppertal made its American debut at the 1984 Olympic Arts Festival. Shortly before her death in 2009, she collaborated with director Wim Wenders on a 3D documentary about her life.