CELEBATE LIFE…

…AND LOOK TRANSCIENCE INTO THE EYE

The essence of art is that it can always be rediscovered. Pina Bausch’s KONTAKTHOF from 1978, one of the key works of the later dance theatre icon, is redefined by Meryl Tankard’s production ‘Kontakthof – Echoes of “78”, which premiered last Tuesday at the Wuppertal Opera House, in which the axis of time and transience is stretched wide and anew. Tankard could not have been concerned with KONTAKTHOF being danced by older people – Pina Bausch has already staged this herself, as well as with young people – but rather with opening our eyes to the dimensions of life and the loss that is inextricably linked to it and must be accepted or at least endured.

Salomon Bausch, Chairman of the Pina Bausch Foundation and son of the choreographer, had long been pursuing the idea of bringing the work back to the stage with the original cast, 46 years after its premiere. In Meryl Tankard, part of the cast of 78 and herself a successful choreographer and filmmaker for many years, he has found the ideal partner for this endeavour. Especially in view of the fact that there is magnificent, wild and powerfully filmed camera footage of this piece by Rolf Borzik, Pina Bausch’s congenial companion and mentor who died far too young.

TESTIMONIES OF A LOSS IN POST DIGITAL AGE

For many who are less familiar with the early years of the company, these camera images convey a new realisation: an overwhelming individuality, immediacy and uniqueness of the ensemble at the time and of all those artistically involved becomes clearly visible. They are testimonies that give rise to the awareness of an irretrievable loss, which is not thematised here but is palpable in a post-digital age. It is the embodied creation from oneself in a time before the permanent availability and information of non-personal (life) experiences.

When the protagonists of this film material look into the (often petty bourgeois) audience of the time, which had been throwing tomatoes in Wuppertal for far too long and even made death threats against the choreographer, the resistance and anger of the late 1968 generation becomes palpable, which is also evident in the programme note of the premiere:

“Don’t be afraid to get lost in galloping, otherwise”…

Variety? a play of shows. Of the sad, the distorted, of tightness and screams, of fright and laughter and so much pleasure, so much whimsy and feeling and surprise and tenderness, dancing and whispering and whimsical songs

We show, and how we show, how we have to hide or search for something to see on what is covered, concealed, often with difficulty, we almost need visual acrobatics, as if we were in a pointing circus. Here in the dance hall, here is a circus, here is a supernatural circus, cinema.

Showing everything or that which is never self-evident, that which is deeply ramified within us, our self-evidence. With the eyes of Pina Bausch, we see like children. Without practising distances, reduced to no measure. The things we take for granted are incomprehensible.

“FOR TWENTY PFENNIGS…

…or two pennies, as befits a circus horse (but more like twenty pfennigs for an automaton), you can let yourself be taken for a ride on the spot; the best forms of movement have that going for them: you don’t get far and yet you get something out of it.

Dream up a rose garden or be Miss Grete on the Congo at night, you have free travel and free entry and don’t be afraid to gallop, otherwise it’s not worth it. And if you don’t get your money’s worth, just pay more, you know, a theatre ticket is expensive, it costs the state a lot and therefore you only pay half and the woman at the box office does a somersault, you see, she sits there with her mouth open…’ (from the original programme note from 1978)

TO DANCE WITH HIS YOUNG SELF…

Nine of the original twenty dancers could be seen live on the stage of the Wuppertal Opera House on Tuesday, while the other eleven lived every second in the tangible memory of the protagonists or stepped into the gaps left open for them by their older partners in the interplay of projections and stage events. The precision with which the dancers acted simultaneously with their young selves was fascinating. And this amalgam of human and projection was still believed in every gesture, every word and every look.

Echoes of ‘78’ owes its authenticity to excellent dramaturgy and outstanding editing of the film material (Kenny Ang and Meryl Tankard), which gave the performers the necessary space and time to unfold and an equally exquisite lighting design (Ryan Joseph Stafford) under quite difficult conditions in interaction with the projections.

AGELESS ELEMENTAL FORCE…

Tankard’s production makes loss and transience poignantly tangible without ever becoming weepy, even if a few tears were shed by some in the audience at the end, some of which were probably due to the laughter, which was mainly caused by Jo Ann Endicott. This woman is not only hilarious, she is also a dancing elemental force and seemingly completely ageless. This statement may be made without diminishing the performance of the others, all of whom acted at the highest professional level.

A LOOK AT ONE’S OWN TRANSIENCE…

Tankard has cleverly shortened the original by a good fifty minutes. Presumably also because the dancers no longer perform in the second part of the evening, but in front of the highly dynamic projections, which reduces the force of the composition in favour of the individuality of the performers, but also demands more strength.

Meryl Tankard was not interested in breathless action, but at best in action that makes you breathless when you pause. This results in images that celebrate life, but also allow the audience to look into abysses and transience – including their own.

The huge projections, especially in the first part, make the living appear like miniatures. A trick that creates humility.

STANDING OVATIONS…

At the end, there was a long round of applause and a well-deserved standing ovation for the dancers: Elisabeth Clarke, Josephine Ann Endicott, Lutz Förster, John Giffin, Ed Kortlandt, Beatrice Libonati, Anne Martin Arthur Rosenfeld and Meryl Tankard, who was also applauded for her staging.

This touching and convincing production can be seen again in Wuppertal until Sunday, after which it will go on tour around the world for two years, thanks to the co-producers Sadler’s Wells, Pina Bausch Foundation and Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch.

Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bauscht: Amare (The Hague), LAC Lugano Arte e Cultura, Festspielhaus St. Pölten, Seongnam Arts Center and China Shanghai International Arts Festival and hopefully there will be another reunion in Wuppertal.