its depictions written by Lexi Mondot Tanztheatreʼs relationship with traditions of dance presentation during the 70s was
challenging. It catapulted debates about dance and performance theory in both America and Germany. Some credit the tumultuous lives of this generationʼs parents from World War II in Germany to be responsible for the political and social saturation in dance and performance art at this time. Pina Bausch was pushing up against the boundaries of dance traditions, as she combined theatrical and other performative influences that was “aiming at something new in both form and content”(Servos, 36). Pina Bausch coined the term ʻdance theatreʼ (Tanztheatre in German) as a “synonym for a new and independent genre”(Servos 36). This new form was something exciting and riveting. It shook up both audiences and critics, in both form and the raw emotion presented. According to Cody, in its second decade, Bauschʼs Wuppertal Tanztheater had become known for “its depictions of the violence in the relationship between the sexes, the plight of the individual subjected to annihilating institutional authority, and the anguish inherent in attempting to enter the physical memory of childhood” (116). Cody goes on to explain how the development of these works has pushed critics and viewers, because of its potent past within the work. He talks about the use of music from the 30s and 40s in her work can be an indication that the angst within her political and social views is a reference to the world left behind by her parentʼs generation in Fascist Germany. The social and political health of Germany at this time surely contributed to the deestablishing of dance and theatrical standards. For Pina, the standards became more about finding a way to communicate the raw emotion than to create an aesthetically pleasing piece. In her earlier works, she did make what New York Times art critics called “pure dance” however, she was playing with non-narrative movement forms. She was also sometimes labeled into the post-modern dance form, although she really was breaking the boundaries in a different way than Post-modern dancers. On a basic level, she was still using lighting, props, costumes, and movers like western theatrical dance had carried on doing for years, although; she did not honor the standards in content, or material, nor movement vocabulary of traditional western dance at the time. First off, Pina would not depict linear plots like in Western Traditional dance at the time. She relied on heavy symbolism, props, gesture and witty interactions between bodies. In a way, she was making realistic depictions of humans organized in space. According to Servos, itʼs referred to as the ʻGestus of indication,ʼ the conscious exhibition of processes, the technique of alienation, as well as a special use of comedy... together with the motifs borrowed from the world of everyday experience, these serve to illustrate ʻpeople as they really areʼ”(40). Secondly, Pina moved away from a pure dance form. Unlike many theatrical dance choreographers in the west and America, Pina chose personality over body type. She was more interested in creating work from peopleʼs inner emotions that could be bared and expressed, than to work with identical dancers with the same body type, fighting to make beautiful shapes and stories together. Pina wanted realness. Servos calls this a “transference from an aesthetically abstract level to one of everyday physical experience” (39). He explains that this is not just about a defining a style, but about bringing content to the stage that is ʻrealʼ and not just an “attractive illusion”(Servos 39). Another factor of Tanztheatreʼs relationship to the traditions of dance presentation was the large step it took away from the established Modern Dance Aesthetic of America. Just decades before, Isadora had been challenging the aesthetics of Western dance, so that dance artists would be taken seriously as creators. However, Isadora fought to be considered a high art with movement based in flow, nature, grace, and classical music. What Pina was making was simply raw, real, broke the fourth wall and asked the audience to take in absurd visuals, such as a hippo on stage. She pushed and attacked the audienceʼs senses like Artaudʼs cruelty of Theatre. She bombarded them with ʻrealʼ and raw emotion like the Actors of Stanislavsky. It was epic like Brechtʼs theory of theatre. This doesnʼt seem like Ballet, Modern Dance Tradition, nor even post modern. It didnʼt fit, or even have a place within a genre for most critics in America. According to Wanner, confused critics claimed “This is not enough movement, it isnʼt dance anymore...dancers are expected to perform steps.” Even the dancers themselves found themselves very challenged by these ideas. Some were not able, or simply unwilling to cooperate because they wanted to ʻdance.ʼ The dancers had trained their bodies for years to be able to perform at a certain level and physical strength, and when they were asked to reveal their own narratives, personal stories and problems from which to create emotive expression, they exploded. After one dancer broke down and yelled to Pina, Pina was ready to quit. She had faced so much resistance to putting reality on stage in place of aesthetically pleasing gesture, that she became scared. Eventually, she did continue, and today this movement “looks like and is defined as one of the possibilities of what dance is, only because Pina broke those boundaries” (Wanner). There were others, however who have also pushed for a multi-media dance art such as the French Groupe Emile Du-Bois, and Butoh performers (Birringer 85). The inability to label artwork into a specific category can make critics uncomfortable, and also it can make a writerʼs job difficult. What is it that we are seeing when we watch Tanztheatre? It is itʼs own genre- tanztheatre, but what does that mean, and what is is like. Many journals, reviews, and books have captured and labeled elements of her work, through the directors; Brecht, Artaud, and Stanislavsky (Manning, 60). Price explains that even those who are very attracted to Pinaʼs work, “limit their theoretical approach to...rely upon Brechtian Vocabulary”(322), but that they miss the true distinguishing factor of her work. Her binary opposition does not “reproduce and either/or dichotomy... Bauschʼs productions are both dance and theater”(Price 322). However, she still enjoys “shatterine the illusion of theater”(Price 326) like Brecht. Her dancers donʼt try to make it look easy to move, or effortless, but the audience is exposed to their pain, anguish and she pushes them to the limit. You can see them become drenched in sweat as the piece goes on, and dirt or water begins to stick to them and weight them down. Manning claims this is more like Theatre of Cruelty than Brechtian Theatre. In Artaudʼs theatre of cruelty simultaneously distances and engages the spectator. Manning claims that Pinaʼs work does the same. She says, “this push and pull leaves many spectators exhausted by the end of the evening, overwhelmed by the emotional complexity of the experience. Bauschʼs theatre of cruelty effects a peculiar cathersis for the experience of the work leaves spectators drained, but with no sense of resolution”(60). Finally, Pina gives her dancers agency. Their words, feelings and emotions donʼt only influence the piece, but create the pieces. It comes from a deeper method, that Manning had compared to Stanislavsy Method principles. Tanztheatre is able to connect and breach the gap between spectator and performer, fourth wall and the west, by forcing interactions with the inner inspirations of movement instead of spectacle and illusion. She asks the dancers to address “interactions with the intensity and pain of remembered experience”(Manning 60). It is because of the strength and belief in her own style and method, that Pina has broken through these boundaries to allow us exposure to multifaceted forms of dance, theatre and performance art. Works Cited Birringer, Johannes. "Pina Bausch Dancing Across Borders." The Drama Review: TdDR 30.2 (1986): 85-97. JSTOR. Web. 12 July 2010. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/1145729>. Cody, Gabrielle. "Woman, Man, Dog, Tree: Two Decades of Intimate and Monumental Bodies in Pina Bausch's Tanztheater." The Drama Review: TDR 42.2 (1998): 115-31. JSTOR. Web. 12 July 2010. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/1146702>. Manning, Susan A. "An American Perspective on Tanztheater." The Drama Review: TDR 30.2 (1986): 57-79. JSTOR. Web. 12 July 2010. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/1145727>. Price, David. "Politics of the Body: Pina Bausch's Tanztheater." Theatre Journal/ Women And/in Drama 42.3 (1990): 322-31. JSTOR. Web. 12 July 2010. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/ 3208078>. Servos, Norbert. "Pina Bausch: Dance and Emancipation." 5: 36-45. Print. Wanner, Buck. "Pina Bausch and Ballet Frankfurt." Dance History I. Hollins University, Roanoke, VA. 17 Apr. 2012. Lecture.
0 Comments
|
Lexi MondotI dance. with love. Archives
November 2012
Categories |