Re-staging

The Pina Bausch Foundation has been lending the staging rights to some of her pieces to be re-staged by various dance companies around the world. The process of re-staging Bausch’s pieces is conducted by a team of members and ex-members of Bausch’s company, with experience in these pieces. 

Re-staging a piece begins with the dancers learning the choreography, continues with its assembling and ends with the re-staging in the theater. 

The main challenge is to make sure the piece is lived by the dancers, not simply interpreted. This opens the possibility for the viewer to be touched and perhaps moved by the show.

My entry point into re-staging Pina’s work with dancers is movement. First, it is necessary to memorize the phrases that make up the choreography, without having to understand them or explain their meaning. Through endless repetition of the movement, the dancers find the origin and the motor of what they are doing. As the dancers get in touch with the origin and motor of the movement they open the possibility of connecting from a personal experience with the choreography. It is in this last stage that the dancers begin to live the movement that they have learned as their own. Then, you see human beings who feel, who fear, who want, who seek, who need, and that is when the choreography comes to life.

Rite of Spring