Pina Bausch Ahnen

Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch: Ahnen

Running hot on the heals of Auf dem Gebirge hat man ein Geschrei gehört (On the Mountain A Cry Was Heard), also at Sadler’s Wells, Ahnen continues Tanztheatre Wuppertal’s revivals of the lesser seen pieces from their repertoire of works choreographed by the late Pina Bausch. This appears to be the principle strategy as they search for a choreographer to lead the first new work since Bausch’s death in 2009.

Ahnen, though, is a delightful taste of Bausch’s output from the late 1980s, and is one of her most surreal of theatrical worlds – replete with striking visual and musical contrasts. From the opening appearance of a kilted and leather-jacketed punk, striding with brooding intent across the stage, to the final image of a fully-dressed woman floating in a glass tank, this is a piece that exemplifies the shifting intangible sensations of Bausch’s work.

As with many of Bausch’s other works, Ahnen is notable for its scenography, in this case, centred around a series of giant cacti dotted across the stage. This conjures up the sense of a vast exterior landscape, redolent of American deserts and reinforced by the use of the full depth of the stage. Figures glide upstage of the cacti, pausing half in view before moving on. The glimpses of these human figures marks them out as frail creatures striving to survive amongst the arid and inhospitable world.

In amongst this vast suggested landscape, accentuated by subtle changes in the lighting, Bausch stages small pockets of domestic interiors. Occupied by solitary figures these interiors feel divorced from the outside world. As if in a kind of stasis, their occupants gaze into the distance as they perform mundane domestic tasks – hemmed in by these actions as much as the walls of their abode. As if to underline this, the domestic chores are disrupted by absurd actions, such as the moment in which a group of men surround a woman, gently brushing her exposed skin with pieces of bread.

As if to underline the tensions between the landscape and the domestic, upstage a solitary dancer works tirelessly to fashion a house of red-brick. In vain she builds this supposedly secure shelter, even as the lack of mortar hints at its inevitable temporary nature.

Whilst the tension between internal and external worlds is a common element of Bausch’s work – indeed the disjunction between the two is one its guiding components – there is a less familiar element to Ahnen. This is particularly noticeable in the less conventional costumes, such as the silent, semi-nude male figure in pale blue cowboy boots and large white circular headdress. With these come certain echoes of the First Nations of the American landscape, and inevitably these images raise further questions. It is these questions that tie the work back to Bausch’s preoccupations, that of the history and fragility of the people who inhabit her landscapes. It is this fragility that ensures Ahnen is another of her captivating and beguiling works.

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About Thomas JM Wilson

Thomas JM Wilson has been writing for Total Theatre since 2001. His own performance work lies at the borders of dance and theatre, with a particular interest in solo performance. He is an Associate Artist of Gandini Juggling, working as Archivist and Publications Author. He also currently teaches on Rose Bruford's BA European Theatre Arts, and is a co-editor of the Training Grounds section of the journal Theatre, Dance and Performance Training.