Ballett Frankfurt to be shut down by politicians [syndicate]

[valentina culpa]

> The Guardian Profile: Pina Bausch
> Dancing in the dark 
> 
> John O'Mahony
> Guardian
>
> Saturday January 26, 2002

>
> ¶¶ 22-24

>
>
> In 1973, Bausch was offered the post of director of the Ballett der
> Wupperthaler Buhnen. At first Bausch was reluctant - Wuppertal was grey and
> provincial and its inhabitants renowned for their conservative tastes:
> "Here, there was only a classical tradition," she says. But she was
> ultimately seduced by the immense potential of building up her own company as
well as assurances of total artistic freedom, and began conscripting core
members.
>
> Her first production in Wuppertal was a strange little piece called Fritz,
> that was so eccentric and outlandish that even now she balks at reviving
> it: "There was hardly any music. It was like a suffocating atmosphere,"
> says Jo Ann Endicott, who danced the role of the daughter in the piece. "It
> choked the audience it was so overpowering and strong, and nobody at the
> time was used to her style. There were weird characters and Pina herself
> played this huge grandmother who sat for most of the time in a chair, and then
suddenly arose, big and pale and imposing."
>
> After a reaction that spanned disbelief and open hostility, when the
> sparsely attended performances were interrupted by the jeers of outraged
> spectators, Bausch wisely retreated for her next pieces, the "dance-operas"
> Iphigenie auf Tauris and Orpheus und Eurydike (1975), both straightforward and
overwhelming pieces of pure, diaphanous choreography.
>
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4342939,00.html