Why has Pina Bausch’s work lived On?

Her work wasn’t really timeless or classic; in fact, just the opposite. The work she created serves as a reaction to specific times and interrupted any idea of what was classic before. With gestures, movements, qualities, concepts, and emotion, she transcended the boundaries of what dance can be. Her movements have meaning and feeling so clear to her and her dancers that it pushes forward a story sometimes without any narrative at all. Gestures flow into movements that range from classical forms to an attachment to the floor that is entirely the opposite. Her dancers exude energy and physicality in ways that have not been replicated since. Her pieces were larger than life and still held every aspect of life on the stage.

Pina’s movement is the epitome of dancing with abandon. In moments, everything is given, offered to the audience with no expectation. The dancers do not dance for themselves; they are dancing for you and they are dancing for Pina. The movement is wild yet calculated. The intense precision of feeling and imagination. Nothing is faked. The audience experiences with the dancer. The work is intoxicatingly unpredictable; each performer is important and every moment has a purpose, even if you don’t know what it is. More importantly, you don’t feel that you need to know everything all at once. Arms and torso are tools of expression grounded in reality by the legs. Attention to detail in the choreography dictates how every touch, step, and look are to be relayed. Clarity of intention is never lost. Unlimited intimacy between performers creates bonds of trust and freedom and allows the performers to reach new extremes in commitment and reality. Partnering becomes commentary on relationships and character. Costumes invite intrigue and emphasis, but do not distract from the body. The textures in the sets compliment the textures of the performers’ movements. There are images, there is a collective, and there are individuals all sharing the same stage.

I watch her work and I never question why anything is happening; I trust that Pina knew exactly what she was doing. Nothing is superfluous. You enter into her world and can trust that everything you need will be given to you, beautifully and with abandon.