Pina Bausch's Dance Theater

You are a sociologist and dance scholar.

What interests the dance scholar in the work of choreographer Pina Bausch?

It is obvious why a dance scholar would be interested in the work of one of the most important and radical choreographers of the 20th century. Pina Bausch was one of the greatest artists of the 20th century, even across the boundaries of different art forms. In her art, she underwent an important aesthetic paradigm shift in the 1970s, which influenced not only the history of dance but also theatre and film. It is hence little wonder that there are very many publications about Pina Bausch already. However, most of these are either rather journalistic accounts, illustrated books, or straightforwardly academic publications. But access to materials about Pina Bausch's work, as they are required for a serious scientific work about her, has been very difficult until recently. In other words: For a dance scholar there is still a lot of catching up to do in order to give this extraordinary artist the status she deserves both in the academic community and in cultural and art history.

What interests you as a sociologist in the work of the Tanztheater Wuppertal?

As a sociologist I'm interested in many things about the work of the Tanztheater Wuppertal, for example the biographies of German war children who became artists in the 1960s: Pina Bausch was born in 1940 and, like her artistic companions of many years, she grew up in Germany during the late war and post-war period, and this in Solingen, the so-called ›knife city‹, which was very much involved in the arms industry at the time and was badly destroyed at the end of the war.

Pina Bausch developed her first choreographies when the student movements of 1968 reached its peak. As a student at the Folkwang University she did not count herself among the politically active. But like other art students she sought changes in both the predominant aesthetics of the time and in the establishment of the art business. For her it was the break from classical theatrical structure, which in Germany was and often still is in place with opera, theatre and dance as a tripartite structure, and the subordinate role of dance engrained therein. In the young art world at the time, Pina Bausch was one of those who dared to make aesthetic and institutional breakthroughs. This connection between the experiences of a war and post-war childhood and revolts in artistic form and working methods is a sociological dimension that interests me.

In addition, I am fascinated by the Compagnie, by an ensemble that is very exceptional in comparison to other large international dance ensembles. The Tanztheater Wuppertal under Pina Bausch worked together for decades, people travelled together, some lived together. Some of the dancers are still on stage in their sixties. The Tanztheater Wuppertal at the time of Pina Bausch is not a community of convenience, but a kind of family, a model of an artists' community, which today in times of neoliberal cultural policy is perhaps already a historical model.

Finally, I am interested in the question of cultural policy and economy. Pina Bausch was one of the Goethe-Institut's biggest, as they say, exporters. The Goethe-Institut has been very supportive of the international guest performances and especially the international co-productions of the Tanztheater Wuppertal. In this way, Pina Bausch's art has had an enormous influence on dance development in many countries around the world. A large field of research is unfolding here between aesthetic approach, international cultural policy, and the global art market.

In the book you developed the concept of translation – what does this mean?

Translation is first of all a term from linguistics. But translation studies and postcolonial studies, as well as sociological approaches, have introduced the concept of translation into cultural studies and social science discourses in different ways. I have taken up these approaches and transferred them in this book into a practice theory of translation, a theory that can be fruitful for the arts, especially the performing arts.

I was able to develop this theoretical concept in this way because there are all kinds of processes of transfer in artistic work, in performances and their reception, such as the translation of life experience into dance and choreography, the forms of collaboration, the transfer of roles or pieces from the Tanztheater Wuppertal to another company, or from performance to text, to dance criticism, for example. In the various chapters of the book I have tried to trace the respective translation processes and practices, whether in terms of collaboration, the working process, the pieces, or their reception.

Pina Bausch has been very sceptical about the verbalization of dance.

You choose to rely on just this anyway. What is to be gained from this?

Yes, Pina Bausch was very sceptical about talking about her art. When asked in interviews what she herself thought and wanted to say about her pieces, she liked to answer that if she wanted to talk about her pieces, there would be no need to perform them. For her, dance was a language of its own. It was important to her that this language of dance always remains open, ambiguous. That's why she didn't like explanatory introductions to the pieces before the performances or discussions with the audience afterwards. She saw herself as the first spectator of her pieces, and all spectators should have the opportunity to perceive the piece openly from their perspective. Some of her companions see it similarly.

While this position focuses on the moment of performance and the subjectivity of perception, my concern as a scientist is to translate this art into something, into a text, and to put it into context. The point of my book is not to interpret the performances in a certain way. Rather, my book presents a way of reading, of getting to know the working methods and art of Pina Bausch and the Tanztheater Wuppertal, of understanding it in the context of its time and of locating it in terms of cultural history and the history of dance. This reading is based on the examination of comprehensive materials, interviews and rehearsal visits. I also tie in with current debates on theatre, dance and performance theory, which revolve around questions such as: What is a piece, what is a performance? How do groups of artists work together? What roles do the audience and dance critics play?

You describe Pina Bausch as an ›anthropologist of dance‹, as an ethnographer of interpersonal relationships. What do you mean by that?

In her work and in her pieces, especially since 1986 and the international co-productions, Pina Bausch has been searching for what connects us human beings with each other, not what separates us. This cross-cultural approach, searching for the essence of the human being, was already part of the company. Like many large dance companies, her company was also internationally positioned. But Pina Bausch did not only look for dancing skills, she very consciously looked for people from different cultures. Pina Bausch said: »We are the piece.« In her way of working, it was crucial that the dancers contribute their own cultural, social and situational world of experience. This distinguishes the Tanztheater Wuppertal from many other companies because the pieces are very much about interpersonal relationships, about everyday power relations, about basic human feelings such as fear, anger, sadness, hate, lust. Pina Bausch has done a kind of artistic research. She took an ethnographic approach to this, setting out with her company on so-called research trips and allowing the dancers to gain experience on the spot, observing, participating or non-participating, in the respective co-producing country, which was then processed in the rehearsal process and the piece.

What relevance does dance research have for the cultural memory of dance - and here specifically of dance theatre?

Dance studies, much like science as a whole, has a lasting effect. It has its own time. In contrast to journalistic writing, for example, dance criticism, which has to take place relatively quickly after a performance and cannot draw on extensive material or analyse small sections, the processes of scientific work are designed for longer periods of time. The generation and evaluation of material takes place in greater detail, and in this respect the results are of course different. The social contribution that dance research makes to dance consists in assigning it a place in the history of art and culture. Dance studies are a very young scientific field, unlike musicology or art history, for example, where this has been happening for decades, sometimes centuries. Here it is a young science that is carried by the effort to assign artistic dance, but also popular dance – for example in pop-cultures such as hip-hop or techno, or in folk dances – a place in art, everyday culture, and society.