Coffee with Pina

Who was Pina Bausch? And why would anyone want coffee with her?

Feature by Phil Gatt | 30 Oct 2009

There are many dance companies who talk about "Dance Theatre". There are dramas that call themselves Physical Theatre. No European choreography is complete with a sudden break of movement, interrupted by dialogue. Even the National Theatre of Scotland sets dance sequences inside its plays. None of this could happen without Pina Bausch.

 

Bausch began as a dancer, but her choreography explored the link between dance and dialogue. From her base in the Tanztheater de Wuppertal, she initiated a revolution that is still evolving. She instigated the company in 1973. By her death this June, she had linked text and body, breaking down the barrier between language and movement.

A gentle feminist, much of her work looked at the relationship between the sexes in both lyrical and urgent ways. In the film Coffee With Pina, the documentary format is twisted to create a beautiful study of a passionate creator and an engaged thinker. Although her style emerged from post-war Germany, and is clearly in the same tradition as the expressionists and earlier genre-busters like Mary Wigman, Bausch's impact has become international. This showing of Coffee is the perfect introduction to her genius.

CCA, £5

4 November, 7pm

http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2009/jun/30/pina-bausch-dies-dancer