Press Release: Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch at Sadler's Wells in April 2015

[Jan McNulty]

Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch

Auf dem Gebirge hat man ein Geschrei gehört & Ahnen                                             UK PREMIERE

Wednesday 15 - Sunday 26 April 2015

Tickets: £12 - £60

Ticket Office: 0844 412 4300 or www.sadlerswells.com

 

Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch returns to Sadler’s Wells from Wednesday 15 - Sunday 26 April 2015, presenting the UK premieres of Auf dem Gebirge hat man ein Geschrei gehört (On the Mountain A Cry Was Heard) and Ahnen.

 

The two works the company performs for this visit are both from the 1980s and capture Bausch at the height of her powers.1984’s Auf dem Gebirge hat man ein Geschrei gehört (On the Mountain A Cry Was Heard) is set upon a soil-strewn stage and features music from Billie Holiday, Edith Piaf and Henry Purcell.

 

Ahnen, first performed in 1987, has a similarly diverse score, and takes place in a thorny desert-scape. Peter Pabst’s incredible set designs for these productions include 40 fir trees, 20 cubic metres of potting soil, a large aquarium and real snow on stage.

 

Pina Bausch was born in Solingen in 1940. She received her dance training at the Folkwang School in Essen under Kurt Jooss, where she achieved technical excellence. Beginning her work as a choreographer in 1968, Pina Bausch invented tanztheater as it is known today.

 

Bausch’s initially controversial fusion of radical theatre, surreal art, drama and danced body language, gradually achieved international recognition for the company. Her original approach to theatre and dance influenced the international development of dance and inspired not only a generation of choreographers, but also theatre makers, visual artists and filmmakers. Awarded some of the greatest prizes and honours world-wide, Pina Bausch is one of the most significant choreographers of our time.

 

During 36 years as Artistic Director of Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch, she nurtured an ensemble of vivid imagination and grand scale and developed an artistic canon renowned for its diverse cultural influences and rich visual style. Since her death in 2009, the company continues to tour all over the world and presents between 12 and 14 different pieces by Pina Bausch each season.

 

Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch is now under the artistic directorship of Lutz Förster, a close colleague of Pina Bausch and long-term ensemble member who first performed with Bausch in her 1975 production Sacre du Printemps. From 1978 he became a permanent member of the ensemble and soon emerged as one of its most outstanding dancers and performers. Förster became artistic director of Tanztheater Wuppertal in April 2013.

 

Peter Pabst is a highly respected set and costume designer who has worked in theatre, opera, dance, film and television. His first set for Pina Bausch was in 1980 (for the production 1980), and over the course of their close collaborative relationship Pabst designed and realised 25 "play-rooms" for Bausch. He was awarded the Kainz Medal of the City of Vienna, was appointed Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in France, and awarded the title of Professor by the Minister President of NRW.

 

 

About Sadler’s Wells

Sadler's Wells is a world leader in contemporary dance, committed to producing, commissioning and presenting new works and to bringing the very best international and UK dance to London and worldwide audiences. Under the Artistic Directorship of Alistair Spalding the theatre’s acclaimed year-round programme spans dance of every kind, fromcontemporary to flamenco, Bollywood to ballet, salsa to street dance and tango to tap. Since 2005 it has helped to bring over 90 new dance works to the stage and its international award-winning commissions and collaborative productions regularly tour the world. Sadler’s Wells supports 16 appointed world class Associate Artists, three Resident Companiesand an Associate Company and nurtures the next generation of talent through its National Youth Dance Company, Summer University programme, Wild Card initiative and its New Wave Associates.

 

Located in Islington in north London, the current theatre is the sixth to have stood on the site since it was first built by Richard Sadler in 1683. The venue has played an illustrious role in the history of theatre ever since, with The Royal Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet and English National Opera all having started at Sadler’s Wells.

 

Sadler’s Wells is an Arts Council National Portfolio Organisation and currently receives approximately 9% of its revenue from Arts Council England.