Who is Pina Bausch?

Through her Tanztheater de Wuppertal, Pina Bausch revolutionised dance. From its foundation in 1973 until her death in 2009, she used the company to connect dance and language, restlessly discovering new ways to communicate and effectively inventing a new genre, Dance Theatre, that eventually inspired the rise of physical theatre. Emerging from the dynamic cultural ferment of post-war Germany, and imbuing her work with a fierce feminist intelligence, Bausch encouraged her dancers to leap over the gap between performer and audience, explored new ways of presenting classic themes and established a distinctive approach to choreography that is both elegant and direct.

Agua is both typical and unique: inspired by her time in Brazil, she shaped the work around her dancers, developing the piece through a thorough immersion in the nation's cultures and communities. While her approach was consistent across her works, the final forms are idiosyncratic and unique. In Agua, the company are colourful, vibrant and lush; by contrast, her vision of The Rite of Spring is dusty and lusty.

Following Bausch's death, not a single member of her hand-picked company has left, as they maintain her memory and legacy. The Tanztheatre holds a unique body of work, a living testament to a legendary dancer, recognised in the same elite as Merce Cunningham, Martha Graham and Isadora Duncan.