Pina Bausch

Choreographer

Philippine "Pina" Bausch was born in Solingen in 1940. After her first experiences in the Solingen Children's Ballet, Pina Bausch began her dance training at the age of 14 at the Folkwang Hochschule in Essen under Kurt Jooss. In 1958, she was awarded the Folkwang Performance Prize and went to the Juilliard School of Music in New York as a special student in 1959. Pina Bausch's teachers included Antony Tudor, José Limón and the dancers of Martha Graham's company. Antony Tudor engaged Pina Bausch at the Metropolitan Opera. After two years, Kurt Jooss asked her to return to Essen. As a guest, she choreographed her first works for Wuppertal. For the 1973-74 season, Wuppertal's artistic director Arno Wüstenhofer engaged her as director of the Wuppertal Ballet, which she quickly renamed "Tanztheater". Her choreography of Igor Stravinsky's Le Sacre du printemps (1975), which the Bayerisches Staatsballett will include in its repertoire in the 2024-25 season, became a milestone. Pina Bausch's long-time partner, set designer and costume designer Rolf Borzik died in 1980. After his death, Peter Pabst (stage) and Marion Cito (costumes) took over his work. Numerous international co-productions were created with the Wuppertal company, such as Der Fensterputzer in Hong Kong, Masurca Fogo with Lisbon and Água with Brazil. Pina Bausch has received numerous prizes and honours for her work, including the Bessie Award in New York (1984). She was one of the most important dance makers of her generation and has had a lasting influence on subsequent generations of choreographers. The Bayerisches Staatsballett was the first ensemble to work on Pina Bausch's choreography Für die Kinder von gestern, heute und morgen for the Ballettfestwoche in April 2016. Previously, the piece, which premiered in 2002, had only been seen with the company of the Wuppertal Dance Theatre, which Pina Bausch directed until her death. Das Frühlingsopfer will be the second time that a production by Pina Bausch has taken to the stage of the National Theatre for the ballet festival week in 2025.

Information as of 2024