The Next Step for the House of Pina Bausch

By Daniel J. Wakin
The New York Times
Published: July 8, 2009
A version of this article appeared in print on July 12, 2009, on page AR5 of the New York edition.

The sudden death of the German choreographer Pina Bausch last month left a wrenching hole in the lives of the dancers who dedicated themselves to her work in Wuppertal, a small city east of Düsseldorf. And it raised an essential question for all dance companies that exist to serve a lone creative voice: What happens when that voice is silenced?

Officials of her company, Tanztheater Wuppertal, say that in the short term the dancers will continue to tour and to give performances of Bausch dances at their home, at least through the end of next season.

Next weekend the company performs in Moscow. It returns to the stage in Wuppertal in September and will have stops through June in São Paulo, Brazil; Cairo; Paris; Madrid; Berlin; Santiago, Chile; Seoul, South Korea; London; Munich; Tokyo; Istanbul; and Athens. Some of those programs will include what turned out to be Ms. Bausch’s last work, an untitled piece created for a festival in Chile, to be performed there in January.

“We’re continuing,” Cornelia Albrecht, the company’s managing director, said from Spoleto, Italy, where it is performing. “This is according to the wish and idea of Pina.” Ms. Albrecht pointed out that the dancers had decided to move forward with a performance in Poland on the day she died, June 30. “It was a nearly heartbreaking decision, but I think it was the right one,” Ms. Albrecht said. “Her life was dance. What could we do better and more respectful than dancing her work?”

The larger question is how long Tanztheater Wuppertal can survive. Ms. Albrecht said the dancers and staff members would sit down in the coming months to discuss the question.
“You never can say forever or never,” she said. “These are big words. Let’s see what the future will bring.” According to Ms. Albrecht, speaking only days after Ms. Bausch’s death, “the company is ready to preserve the heritage of Pina.”

In the meantime government officials of Wuppertal and the surrounding state, North Rhine-Westphalia, which provide almost all of the company’s financing, have said they will continue to provide money, at least for now, Ms. Albrecht said. In exchange the company promises to give 30 performances in Wuppertal each season.

Statements by public officials confirm Ms. Albrecht’s optimism. “The whole world wants the work of Pina Bausch more than ever now,” said Hans-Heinrich Grosse-Brockhoff, the state’s culture secretary. “We’ll continue spending.”

He predicted that demand abroad for the company’s visits would remain high. “So there is no reason for us to say, ‘We’ll pull back now,’ ” Mr. Grosse-Brockhoff said.
Ms. Bausch spoke about preserving her dances but left no definitive plans. “I can only say she had a strong interest that her work would also be available for the public in the future,” Ms. Albrecht said. The question that remains is how to preserve it so that she could “recognize herself in it,” Ms. Albrecht added.

Mounds of physical records exist, including videotape of the dances, audio, scripts, photographs, sets and Ms. Bausch’s notes. A well of memory among her dancers is also a resource.
Ms. Albrecht declined to discuss who would provide the artistic leadership. Ms. Bausch had assistants who would communicate her wishes to the dancers, and a number of the dancers are veterans of long standing. “At the moment the company is strong enough,” Ms. Albrecht said.

Unlike the American choreographer Merce Cunningham, 90, whose company recently outlined a detailed plan under which it would fold but a trust would maintain its choreographer’s work, Ms. Bausch did not see any immediate need for such a plan. “People were looking at that as something that would need to happen eventually, not something that was pressing,” said Rena Shagan, who has organized four North American tours for the company.

Mr. Cunningham’s plan calls for a final two-year tour when he dies or makes the decision to shut down the company; severance pay for the dancers; and the transfer of licensing rights to the trust, to ensure that other companies mount authentic Cunningham productions. A dispute over rights dragged the Martha Graham Dance Company into financial difficulties.

Ms. Albrecht said, again, that it was too early to discuss who would have the rights to Ms. Bausch’s dances. But she did say, firmly. “As long as the company exists and is in good shape, we can dance the works of Pina Bausch.”

With a few exceptions the company has been the only one to dance her works.

Ms. Bausch’s family, communicating through her personal assistant, Sabine Hesseling, declined to be interviewed.

The next question is the feasibility of operating what would essentially be a Bausch museum. Ms. Bausch created a work every year and supervised revivals, often spending weeks with her dancers during extended runs at festivals and favorite outlets, like the Théâtre de la Ville in Paris.

That theater’s administrator, Michael Chase, shied away from saying whether the theater’s commitment to the company would be the same without Ms. Bausch. In any event, he said, it was too early to tell. “It’s hard to think of the future without Pina,” he said. She visited the theater every year for three decades. “For many of us,” Mr. Chase added, “it felt like Pina would be here forever.”

Another unknown is whether all the dancers, many of whom came from around the world to be with Ms. Bausch, will stay in Wuppertal. “It’s not the most attractive place in the world,” Mr. Chase said, at least in comparison with Paris, London or New York, where dancers have other opportunities. Ms. Albrecht said the dancers had decided not to give interviews for now.

Ms. Bausch was also a frequent visitor to the Brooklyn Academy of Music, her home in the United States. Joseph V. Melillo, the academy’s executive producer, said there was a “legitimate argument to be made” for the company to keep going: namely, to expose newcomers to the Bausch canon. “There’s an argument that can be made for the opposite,” he added.
His own opinion? “I think the company will continue.”