当前位置：正文
99fortune Revisiting Pina Bausch’s World of Love and Longing in Aging Bodies
Toward the end of Pina Bausch’s “Kontakthof,” a woman stands alone onstage, eyes cast down, disconsolate. One by one, men approach, gently caressing her shoulders, tweaking her nose, stroking her hair, rubbing her legs and stomach. Slowly, the relentless accumulation of these gestures transforms them from affection to assault; tenderness has mutated into aggression, pity into victimization.
“Kontakthof” — the title refers to a courtyard, originally in a red-light district — was created in 1978, five years after Bausch became the director of the Wuppertal Ballet in western Germany, and promptly renamed it Tanztheater Wuppertal. The three-hour-long “Kontakthof,” set to German popular songs of the 1930s, jazz and tango, was a pivotal piece for the young company, entrenching the potent mix of drama and movement that Bausch called Tanztheater, and leading to broader international recognition for her work. (She died in 2009.)
In the 46 years since its creation, “Kontakthof,” with its themes of loneliness and longing, desire for love and fear of rejection, has remained a mainstay of the company’s repertory. And it has migrated beyond the company, performed by the Paris Opera Ballet as well as by amateur casts of teenagers and seniors.
Image
Now it will have another incarnation: “Kontakthof — Echoes of ’78,” opening on Nov. 26 at the Wuppertal Opera House. Conceived and directed by Meryl Tankard, it features nine of the original dancers, including Tankard. The performers, ages 69 to 80, will dance the roles they created while footage from that first production, filmed by Rolf Borzik, plays alongside them onstage.
Salomon Bausch, the choreographer’s son and head of the Pina Bausch Foundation, said he had at first imagined a version using as many of the 1978 cast members as possible, with newer dancers to fill out the cast of 20. But Tankard came back with another idea.
We are having trouble retrieving the article content.
Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.
Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.
Thank you for your patience while we verify access.
Already a subscriber? Log in.
Want all of The Times? Subscribe.99fortune