When World Cities 2012 — better known as the current Pina Bausch season — was first presented, questions were raised about the apparently random order of the various pieces. Yet a chronologically structured retrospective would have deprived the event of the theatrically stimulating game of juxtapositions that the reordered version possesses. As with her non city-specific works, Bausch’s city-specific creations can be grouped in two categories: the more and the less danced pieces. The pendulum swung dramatically throughout the four decades in which Bausch worked, though not frequently. So a chronologically structured retrospective would have suffered from clumps of similarly formulated compositions.
A vibrant chiaroscuro is key to the success of the current season. Last week, the vivid contrast between Der Fensterputzer (The Window Cleaner) and Bamboo Blues revealed Bausch’s multifaceted creativity.
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