The 2015/2016 season will see the realisation of developments initiated by the Tanztheater Wuppertal ensemble in 2014/2015.
Peter Jung, Wuppertal’s mayor said, “along with the state, North Rhine-Westphalia, we have come a long way towards generating a plan to preserve Pina Bausch’s legacy while at the same time ensuring that dance in Wuppertal continues to develop in the future.
"With Stefan Hilterhaus from PACT Zollverein we have engaged a renowned dance expert who has devised a strategic plan for coming years in close collaboration with the ensemble. Dance will continue to have a home in Wuppertal—a physical home, with a Pina Bausch Centre in the heart of our city.”
The Pina Bausch Centre will be one of the 13 key projects forming part of the Wuppertal 2025 strategic plan, says Wuppertal council chief executive Dr Johannes Slawig. The fact that both national and regional funds have been made available demonstrates that this is a matter of “national heritage.”
For the 2015/2016 season, the Tanztheater Wuppertal has invited three choreographers to work with dancers from the ensemble, each presenting works in a three-part show to mark the opening of the season in September. This shows that “alongside preserving Pina Bausch’s legacy the company is open to new ideas and concepts,” Slawig commented.
The selection of the choreographers for this first series of new pieces was made in consultation with Alistair Spalding, chief executive and artistic director of Sadler’s Wells Theatre, London, with which the Tanztheater Wuppertal has collaborated for many years on touring productions, with Myriam De Clopper, artistic director of deSingel in Antwerp, where the company has also performed, and Stefan Hilterhaus.
Alistair Spalding described it as “an honour and a privilege” to be allowed to devise the new, mixed programme for the coming season. “Our aim in devising this programme was to give the dancers of Tanztheater Wuppertal the possibility of a variety of different experiences in the creation period.
"The artists that we have chosen come from a broad range of backgrounds and experience and they will all bring their own specific approaches to the process. We are looking forward to seeing that process evolve and the results in September.”
Tim Etchells, Cecilea Bengolea & François Chaignaud and Theo Clinkhard will each create works for the three-part show.
Tim Etchells, writer, director and performer from the United Kingdom, artistic director of performance group Forced Entertainment, is fascinated by the rules and systems governing language, and works with texts created during the rehearsal process.
Cecilea Bengolea and François Chaignaud have been working together since 2005 and in 2008 they formed a company. They gain inspiration from difference. Cecilea Bengolea (originally from Argentina) combines elements of club culture such as twerking and dubstep with influences from Jamaican dancehall. François Chaignaud (originally from France) is a classically trained dancer using historical references as a starting point, with a focus on vocal polyphony.
Theo Clinkhard, from the United Kingdom, worked with various ensembles before founding his own company in 2012, and has also worked with dancers from the Tanztheater Wuppertal as part of a workshop. He is interested in the communicative potential of the body and the ways in which dance can make empathies between the dancers visible—or between dancers and audience.
Alongside the new works, the Tanztheater Wuppertal will be presenting ten different pieces by Pina Bausch, seven of them in Wuppertal, and will be touring to St Pölten, Antwerp, Monaco, London, Adelaide, Paris, Amsterdam and, for the first time ever, to Luxemburg and Wellington.
Highpoints of the season will included the open air performance at the Arènes de Nîmes featuring Café Müller and Sacre du Printemps, with the Orchestre des Siècles under the musical direction of Xavier Roth and the first new production of one of Pina Bausch’s more recent works by another ensemble, directed by dancers from the Tanztheater Wuppertal.
The Bayrisches Staatsballett from Munich will be adding Für die Kinder von gestern, heute und morgen from 2002 to its repertoire, a Pina Bausch Foundation project in close collaboration with the Tanztheater Wuppertal. The premiere will be 3 April 2016, the opening night of the annual BallettFestwoche in the Nationaltheater, Munich.
Lutz Förster, artistic director of the Tanztheater Wuppertal, emphasised that this move is also crucial to the future of the company. “We are very excited and very pleased that this project, already envisaged while Pina Bausch was still alive, can now be realised, and that, in collaboration with the Pina Bausch Foundation, new challenges and roles for the Tanztheater Wuppertal will be opened up.”
Six new dancers will be joining the ensemble for the coming season: from Canada/Sweden, Emma Barrowman, previously with the Staatsballett München, and Michael Carter, previously a member of the Compañia Nacional de Danza, Madrid, from the US Jonathan Fredrickson, previously with Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, and three graduates of the Folkwang University of the Arts, Blanca Noguerol Ramírez from Spain, Julian Stierle from Germany and Tsai-Wei Tien from Taiwan.