Ella Baff On Choreographer Pina Bausch
Remarks Followed Biff Screening of Wim Wenders Film
By: Ella Baff - Feb 03, 2012
As a benefit for the Berkshire International Film Festival (BIFF) there was a screening of the Wim Wenders 3D film Pina: Dance, Dance, Otherwise We Are Lost. Following the film there were comments by Ella Baff the artistic director the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival. What follows are Baff’s transcribed and edited remarks.
Wim Wenders said that he would never go to a dance performance. His girlfriend made him go. He said that within five minutes of seeing a performance of work by Pina Bausch he was in tears. Because it dealt so strongly with the relationships between men and women. In this film you see that this was a very strong motif throughout all of her work.
They talked about the possibility of their doing a film together but he just couldn’t see a way into it. Then he saw a 3D film of the rock group U2. In terms of making a film about Pina Bausch’s work, the dimensionality of it, both the interior landscape as well as the challenge of filming dance, period, it just had to be in 3D.
One of the things I noticed about the movie, which was so brilliant to me, not only was he working in 3D technically, but he also understands the multi-dimensionality of the staged space. He exploits locations for their dimensionality. You see archways and rooms that extend. Then there is that quarry scene where you think the dancer is just going to fall right over the edge.
They shot on locations around her base and theatre. I thought it was brilliant to take the movie to locations out of the theatre. Then I found out the theatre was closed. I’m not sure why. I read that it was closed very soon after she died. Which seemed very strange to me.
However that happened, in any case, I thought it was brilliant to take it out into the landscape. Where he could play not only with the dimensionality of it but also could play with the interior landscapes she created in the vignettes. In her work she always set something up. She would start with a simple movement and it would build into stories which were often about the inside, the interior landscapes of human relationships. They could be built with a lot of tension but also a tremendous amount of humor.
For me she was one of the artists who helped to form my aesthetic world view. I feel like I grew up with her and she always presented tremendous challenges for anyone who produced or presented her work. In Europe there is a lot more funding to do large, elaborate productions.
Years later, when I was running a very large performing arts center, we had large theatres and a big stage to co commission large works. It was called Nur Du (Only You).
(It was a commission by a consortium of western and southwestern arts presenters. The work premiered on October 3 1999 at Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley, then traveled to Los Angeles; Tempe, Arizona; and Austin, Texas. Nur Du was the first work Bausch created outside Europe. It was based on themes of the American West.)
At the time she had been investigating a lot of different kinds of locations. It investigated internal and external landscapes. She decided to make this piece in California. She was a very quite person. She said very little. She was very funny if you got to know her a little bit. Even with people who were close to her, and you see that in some of the dancers’ comments in the film, she was a person of few words. But tremendous insight.
So what was this work going to be about? Did we have enough equipment? What about the budget? Would we fit it on the stage? She was famous for these monster works. There were stories of union workers picking leaves off things for hours and hours.
It turns out the piece was about California and particularly Northern California. Then I heard that there were going to be fake but giant redwood trees on stage. I said, ok, fine, it’s Pina. Then I found out she wanted to fly in a whale. Peter Pabst, who was her designer, they were all very calm when they said this. “Well, Pina would like to have a whale” Peter said. Then, it’s a story I will tell after I retire. It was an amazing work.
The last time I saw her was a few months before she died. There is an Indian classical dancer Shantala Shivalingappa who has performed at Jacob’s Pillow a number of times. She also performed with Pina for ten years although she does not appear in the film. She was also in town. We went to BAM and after the performance the three of us went out to dinner.
We had to find a place in Brooklyn where Pina could sit in the back room and smoke. Because she’s German. Not that all Germans smoke. We had to find a place where we wouldn’t get kicked out. She had a lovely smile. You see it in the movie. We talked about all kinds of things. She looked very gaunt. I thought she must be working really hard and looked very tired. But she always had that downtown look. So I didn’t think that much of it but unfortunately she died just a few weeks later.
I always asked her to make something smaller so she could come to Jacob’s Pillow. She only came one time in 1968. At that time, and perhaps some of you remember, Ted Shawn had many different artists come on one program. It was a quite a night as described in our archive. We do have a few photographs, which are very rare, of Pina Bausch performing at Jacob’s Pillow. She and her partner, a very celebrated French dancer, had not rehearsed in a month. He arrived very, very late. When he arrived at 10 PM they just went right on stage and performed. There was a very important dance critic in the audience that night. Walter Terry who everyone was terrified of.
Anyway, it all went well and it was something she and I were able to chuckle about when I met her years later.