Bausch, Pina

(1940- )

   Choreographer, director. Bausch began traditional dance studies at the Folkwang School in Essen when she was 15 years old. She then studied dance at the Juilliard School in New York, later getting engagements with the New American Ballet company and the Metropolitan Opera. Bausch returned to work in Essen in 1962 and began choreographing in 1968. In 1973 she founded the Dance Theater of Wuppertal. In the 1980s three of her productions were invited to the Berliner Theatertreffen.

   Bausch has been awarded dozens of international prizes and citations, firmly planting her within the firmament of the European and German cultural establishment. Among her awards are the Federal Service Cross (1986), the European Theater Prize (1999), and a knighthood in the French Legion of Honor (2003). Her work is furthermore the subject of several books, articles, and scholarly inquiry, although her dance theater pieces initially provoked widespread condemnation among critics due to the violent nature of her Naturalistic choreography. In many of her works, seemingly brutal encounters take place on a habitual basis: men slam women into walls, women kick men in the groin, and everybody gets involved in a kind of kinetic spectacle. Bausch has also been accused of using choreography to espouse a deeply cynical view of human relations. In one instance, a couple is tightly curled into an erotic embrace, when suddenly a second man appears to reposition them; every time he does so, the woman falls violently, and repeatedly, to the floor. Bausch's performers must be trained dancers, though they also at times speak abbreviated dialogue.