Dear Friends of the Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch

The 2019/20 season was an exciting one. If you remember, it opened in Wuppertal on 3rd October with the re-staging of Pina Bausch’s final work "…como el musguito en la piedra, ay si, si, si…" ("…Like Moss on the Stone...") and the moving A night for Pina in memory of Pina Bausch. It was the 10th anniversary of her death on 30th June 2009. Tours to Italy, Israel and Belgium followed. We revived Wiesenland, which was performed by an intergenerational cast, and undertook a complete re-staging of the iconic piece Bluebeard, which had not been part of the repertoire for almost 30 years. Beatrice Libonati, Jan Minarik, Héléna Pikon and Barbara Kaufmann worked with the younger members of the ensemble and a cast of freelancers, many of them graduates of the Folkwang University of the Arts, to painstakingly reconstruct the piece. We took the production to Sadler’s Wells in London, which, like the Théâtre de la Ville in Paris, has been a second home for the company for many years.

We also developed a 7th edition of Underground, an artistic format that is very close to my heart because it shows how important openness, experimentation, exploration and even failure are for art and for any creative endeavour that engages with the world we live in. The series has proved to be a great forum for showcasing new works both by members of the ensembles and by guest artists. This year, it took place in spectacular venues: thanks to an inspiring collaboration with the sculpture park Waldfrieden, we were able to present performances and installations in one of the great glass pavilions built by Tony Cragg to house his sculptures. We also collaborated with the international screen dance festival Tanzrauschen.

As part of Searching & Finding, the Tanztheater Wuppertal’s creative learning programme, we developed a number of very exciting projects involving pupils from a variety of different schools and age groups. The projects included “Die Kugel des Kopfes, das Dreieck der Nase” (A ball for a head, a triangle for a nose) with the Von-der-Heydt Museum on the occasion of its Oskar Schlemmer exhibition, which was also part of the state of North-Rhine Westphalia’s Jekits campaign. The collaborative project "A Midsummer Night’s Dream" with and for children and young people and involving many other partners such as the Wuppertaler Bühnen, Symphony Orchestra and Opera, was among those that sadly had to be postponed.

In February of this year, we were busy preparing for The Seven Deadly Sins, Pina Bausch’s Brecht/Weill evening, with international guest stars in the singing and acting roles. Two series of performances had been planned, one in Wuppertal and one in Paris, the city that had welcomed Pina Bausch in her early years and continued to support her throughout her career.

Even at the beginning of March, none of us could have imagined that we would not see each other for months, that dancers would not be allowed on stage, that technicians would not be able to assemble sets together, and that you would not be sitting in the auditorium, spell-bound by one or other of our performances. The change was drastic and sudden, and we’ve all had to adapt to the shutting down of public life in our own private ways. Since mid-March, our lives have been in the grip of a nightmare scenario that is painfully and inescapably confronting us with our vulnerability and our dependence on affection, closeness, care, lively communication, shared experiences, joy and enthusiasm. All of these are easily lost. Only then do we realise how essential the experience of togetherness is for our wellbeing, our mental health, our souls – not to mention the harm that the virus can do to our physical health.

We miss you: we miss interacting with you, your encouragement, your applause, your opinions and your criticism. We miss the nervousness and excitement before a performance – and of course the process of rehearsing together, taking class every morning, engaging with Pina Bausch’s pieces. We have lost a premiere that we had been looking forward to – Encounters. The new evening would have been the polar opposite to the lockdown: an encounter with the Other, the foreign, the unknown. Five choreographers, a visual artist, musicians and dancers wanted to embark on the adventure of creating a collaborative performance. An evening in which the choreographers Helena Waldmann, Monika Gintersdorfer, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Richard Siegal and Rainer Behr would have worked with dancers from Tanztheater Wuppertal and colleagues from the ensembles Eastman, Ballet of Difference and Gintersdorfer/Klaßen on an entirely new piece. But this is not the only thing we have lost. Many performances from our repertoire have also had to be cancelled, as well as visits to our partner venues and a big tour of the USA.

This sad season is now coming to an end and we are confident that in the coming season, 2020/21, more things will become possible again. My colleagues in the Tanztheater’s different departments, Roger Christmann and I have been developing several scenarios for a variety of situations: for normality, should it return by August; but also for the possibility that our artistic practice on stage and in the studio continues to be limited by restrictions and coronavirus-related safety measures. The new season will see a mix of familiar pieces and the return of some of Pina Bausch’s works that have not been performed for a long time. It will also include an evening featuring two new premieres and a number of smaller formats. One of these will take place in the foyer of the Schauspielhaus, which looks set to be transformed into the new Pina Bausch Centre in the late 2020s.

Please be patient – we will know more at the beginning of the next season and will be able to give you more specific information then. In the meantime, please keep following us on our social media channels. See you soon!

Bettina Wagner-Bergelt
Artistic Director, Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch

Here is a short documentary film about the company’s research trip to Chile, which resulted in the piece "…como el musguito en la piedra, ay si, si, si..." (Like Moss on the Stone), Pina Bausch’s final piece before she passed away in 2009.

Last performed in Wuppertal on 3rd October 2019 to mark the 10th anniversary of her death, the ensemble lovingly calls it "the Chile piece".

On 27th July 2020, Pina Bausch, the founder of the Tanztheater Wuppertal, would have celebrated her 80th birthday.

Together – that was happiness. We miss her.

Bettina Wagner-Bergelt and the ensemble

Dancing at Dusk - A moment with Pina Bausch’s The Rite of Spring

Former members and dancers of the Tanztheater selected 38 dancers from 14 different African countries for the restaging of Pina Bausch's The Rite of Spring - a Pina Bausch Foundation, École des Sables and Sadler's Wells production.

From 1 – 31 July 2020, the film Dancing at Dusk - A moment with Pina Bausch's The Rite of Spring will be made accessible worldwide via the Sadler's Wells Digital Stage, offering insights into a production that has not yet been shown on stage.

Tickets at a price of €5.50 can already be purchased or reserved online via Sadler's Wells’ Digital Stage. The proceeds will be used to support the artists and the production.