Fans will be lining up at BAM to see Pina Bausch’s final choreographed work October 18-27 (photo by Laurent Philippe)
“ . . . COMO EL MUSGUITO EN LA PIEDRA, AY SI, SI, SI . . .”
BAM Howard Gilman Opera House
30 Lafayette Ave. between Ashland Pl. & St. Felix St.
October 18-27
718-636-4100
www.bam.org
www.pina-bausch.de
For more than thirty-five years, German choreographer Pina Bausch changed the face of dance theater, creating unique, memorable, mind-bending works for her innovative and influential company, Tanztheater Wuppertal. Going from the simple to the sublime, the experimental to the monumental, Bausch staged pieces that combined movement and music with dialogue and humor in thrilling ways. Bausch died in 2009 at the age of sixty-nine, leaving behind a lasting legacy captured in such seminal works as Café Müller, Kontakthof, Danzón, Masurca Fogo, Nefés, and Vollmond (Full Moon) as well as her longtime friend Wim Wenders’s Oscar-nominated 3-D documentary, Pina. From October 18 to 27, the final piece she choreographed, “…como el musguito en la piedra, ay si, si, si…” (Like moss on a stone), will be performed at the company’s exclusive New York home, BAM. There is nothing quite like experiencing a piece by Bausch, who infused her creations with unexpected twists and turns, social commentary and sexuality, and an overriding love of life, in all its forms. This final work was inspired by the folk music and legends of Chile, featuring a cast of sixteen, with set design by the great Peter Pabst and costumes by Marion Cito. It should be a fond farewell to a true legend.
Anna Wehsarg and Rainer Behr share a tender moment in “…COMO EL MUSGUITO…” (photo by Stephanie Berger)
Update: Clouds of both happiness and sadness hung over BAM’s Howard Gilman Opera House as Tanztheater Wuppertal performed the final work choreographed by Pina Bausch, who died in 2009 shortly before “…como el musguito en la piedra, ay si, si, si…” (Like moss on a stone) opened. Part of her international residency series, the evening-length piece was inspired by the company’s visit to Santiago, Chile, and features a wide-ranging score, including songs by Chico Trujillo, Victor Jara, Congreso, Mauricio Vicencio Alquinta, Rodrigo Covacevich, and Mecánica Popular as well as Madeleine Peyroux, Count Basie, and the Cinematic Orchestra. Under the leadership of artistic directors Dominique Mercy and Robert Sturm, who promise to keep the company moving forward, “…como el musguito…” is chock-full of Bausch’s trademark touches, both humorous and romantic, but it focuses more on pure dance than usual, with a large number of solos, duets, and trios taking place within the arc of a narrative that examines the never-ending battle of the sexes. On Peter Pabst’s white overlay that occasionally breaks apart into sections like ice floes, the men, in dark pants and shirts, and the women, in elegant, colorful gowns and long hair, kiss, grope, bark, tell jokes, line up on the floor, and run around in circles. Chairs, poles, water, rocks, potatoes, and trees appear onstage, then disappear in a series of sketches that are reminiscent of Laugh-In, only with much better choreography. One of the many joys of Bausch’s work was its unpredictability, and that is as true as ever with “…como el musguito…,” which offers surprises galore. Tanztheater Wuppertal is part of BAM, part of the Brooklyn family, as this long-sold-out run once again proves. As the performers left the stage, it was hard not to shed tears of joy and sadness, though it should be fascinating to see what the company comes up with next as they face the future without their founder, who changed the face of dance theater forever.
Pedro Almodóvar followed up his Oscar-winning Todo Sobre Mi Madre (All About My Mother) with the 2002 New York Film Festival selection Talk to Her, a remarkable story of two men who become friends as they take care of two female coma patients in a private facility. You won’t be able to take your eyes off wide-eyed Javier Cámara as the simple-minded and oddly dedicated male nurse Benigno, who oversees the needs of patient-dancer Alicia (Leonor Watling). Darío Grandinetti is excellent as writer Marco Zuloaga, who falls hard for bullfighter and eventual patient Lydia (Rosario Flores). There are long stretches of little or no dialogue, including a riotous silent film-within-the-film, and two performances by Pina Bausch’s Tanztheater, one featuring Bausch herself. A very clever Almodóvar slyly continues the art leitmotif by hiring a Spanish-speaking Geraldine Chaplin, daughter of the great silent-film star. Talk to Her, yet another treasure from one of the world’s most inventive filmmakers, is screening at the Walter Reade Theater as part of the ongoing series “50 Years of the New York Film Festival,” which continues with such fine works as Lars von Trier’s Dogville, Jia Zhang-ke’s The World, Cristi Puiu’s The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, and Jafar Panahi’s Offside. Individual tickets for the fiftieth anniversary of the New York Film Festival, which runs September 28 through October 14, go on sale to the general public on September 9.
From 1973 until her death in 2009, legendary dancer and choreographer Pina Bausch ran Tanztheater Wuppertal, the German company that changed the face of dance theater forever with such seminal productions as Rite of Spring, Café Müller, Danzón, Masurca Fogo, and so many more. In 1978 she staged Kontakthof, collaborating with Rolf Borzik, Marion Cito, and Hans Pop, set to music by Juan Llossas, Charlie Chaplin, Anton Karas, Sibelius, and other composers. In 2000, she revisited the piece with a cast of senior citizens, and eight years later she turned the roles over to a group of Wuppertal high schoolers, most of whom had never heard of her and had never danced before. Director Anne Linsel and cinematographer Rainer Hoffmann follow the development of this very different production in Dancing Dreams, speaking with the eager, nervous participants, who talk openly and honestly about their hopes and desires, as well as with rehearsal directors Jo-Ann Endicott and Benedicte Billet, who do not treat the teens with kid gloves but instead are trying to get them to reach deep inside of themselves and hold nothing back. When Bausch shows up to choose the final cast, telling the teenagers that she doesn’t bite, the tension mounts. Dancing Dreams is an intimate look at the creative process, about dedication and determination and what it takes to be an artist. It suffers at times from feeling too much like a reality television show, mixing American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance with the fictional Glee, but it also offers a last glimpse at Bausch, whose final interview is captured in the film. “You might think I’ve had enough of Kontakhtof,” she says at one point. “But every time it’s a new thing.” Dancing Dreams is screening May 1 & 2 as part of MoMA’s KINO 2011: New Cinema from Germany series, which runs April 27 – May 2 and also includes Gereon Wetzel and Jorg Adolph’s How to Make a Book with Steidl, Tom Tykwer’s Drei (Three), Friedmann Fromm’s Weissensee (The Weissensee Saga: A Berlin Love Story), Florian Cossen’s Das Lied in mir (The Day I Was Not Born), Philip Koch’s Picco, and a Next Generation presentation of short works.