Sadler’s Wells
Contrary to some claims, the late Pina Bausch did not invent Tanztheater.
Contrary to some claims, the late Pina Bausch did not invent Tanztheater. Nor did all her productions stick to the mind-boggling aesthetic she is universally known and remembered for. Just look at the Iphigenie auf Tauris she created in 1974, shortly after being appointed director of dance for the Wuppertal theatres.
Although the germ of what eventually bloomed as Bausch’s own Tanztheater is detectable in this dance–opera, pure dance still reigns supreme; the choreography is not as rhapsodic as it is in her later creations, and the only words one hears are those delivered — more or less beautifully — by the singers.
Gluck’s work, presented here in the German or ‘Vienna’ 1781 version, was indeed the first opera-based performance that Bausch created with great success.
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