Pina

The old gal still knows how to put on a show; as she should, in this case, as it's a show she's been putting on for more than a quarter century.

The first half consisted of Bausch's signature piece Café Müller, in which she still performs, though alas not tonight. Stark and minimalist, it portrays a series of trapped and desperate characters going through inescapable aimless motions amongst the empty chairs and tables of a posh café in the aftermath of some nameless apocalypse, to the intermittent accompaniment of Purcell arias. It's a thin and yet profoundly sad piece, somehow spinning out almost no real dance content into a tapestry of aching sorrow and loneliness, with a marvellous final handover. I liked the whole thing a lot, but there's certainly a sense it which it's a victim of it's own success: having seen so many things so heavily influenced by this, I almost -- not quite -- felt like I'd seen it all before.

The second half's even older The Rite of Spring makes the perfect contrast, a huge, exciting dance spectacle guaranteed to bring an audience to its feet. It seems, after Café Müller, an unexpectedly traditional piece -- classical, almost -- representing its source in a fairly literal, if unusually intense, way. But that's what the Rite needs and deserves: a full-blooded, exciting, respectful reading, richly emotional, enraptured, savagely driven to the very bitter end. Although we can discern in it the seeds of the later Pina we know and love -- and her many, many theatrical descendants -- this piece is much less about that than is Café Müller, and much more about doing right by Stravinsky. It's far and away the best Rite of Spring I've seen. As to Nijinksy's version, who can say? But just imagine the rioting that might have ensued if the 1913 premiere had been like this.

YouTube has rather ropey clips of both dances, but you can find them yourself. Here, instead, let's cast our minds back to Nelken:

Posted by matt at February 21, 2008 11:53 PM