To the Limit: Pina Bausch on Film @ Yerba Buena Center for the Arts May 6, 2010

TO THE LIMIT: PINA BAUSCH ON FILM
May 6, 13, 23, 27—30
Pina Bausch, the visionary German choreographer and dancer whose profoundly innovative and unsettling work transcended traditional barriers between dance and theater, died last year, just five days after being diagnosed with cancer. She worked closely with her dancers, drawing on their own fantasies, experiences and fears. Bausch often said that she was not as interested in how people move as in what moves people. In remembrance, we present this series of films about her, as well as documentations of her performances.

Thu, May 6, 7:30 pm
On Tour with Pina Bausch (Un Jour Pina a Demandé)
By Chantal Akerman
Chantal Akerman’s rarely-seen intimate portrait of Bausch captures the virtuoso’s intensity and artistry, her unique troupe and how she mined Dada, Expressionism, Existentialism and her imagination to create her powerful style. NOTE: Sparse dialogue in French and German, no English subtitles. (1983, 57 min, digital video). Preceded by: Lissabon-Wuppertal-Lisboa by Fernando Lopes, documenting the company’s residency in Lisbon. (1998, 35 min, digital video)

Thu, May 13, 7:30 pm
The Complaint of the Empress (Die Klage der Kaiserin)
More than a performance documentation, this is Bausch’s directorial debut, collaborating with her dancers as well as non-dancers in a scenario of an inhospitable world in which to love and to live as lover becomes an art. There is no formal narrative, yet the film evokes powerful moods and mysterious associations. (1989, 99 min, digital video)

Sun, May 23, 2 pm
Two Performance Films: Walzer & Café Müller
Two documentations of performances by Bausch’s Wuppertal Dance Theater. Café Müller is one of Bausch’s most famous works, reflecting her experiences in her family’s café in post-war Germany, where she spent many hours watching adults struggling to survive in a devastated society. Walzer is an irreverent, lesser-known work from 1982. (1982 & 1978, 104 min total running time, digital video)

Thu-Sat, May 27 - 29, 7:30 pm
Dancing Dreams (Tanzträume)
By Anne Linsel & Rainer Hoffmann
US Premiere!
A sensation at the 2010 Berlin Film Festival, in Dancing Dreams Bausch selects 40 teenagers who had never even heard of her to be part of the dance performance Kontakthof. The film follows ten months of rehearsals and opening night, as the young dancers discover Bausch’s genius and their own bodies. (2010, 89 min, 35mm)

Sun, May 30, 2 pm
Bluebeard (Blaubart Beim Anhören Einer Tonbandaufnahme von Bela Bartoks Opera)
A recording of one of Bausch’s darkest and controversial works, which marked the beginning of her challenge to the boundaries between dance and theater through collaborative improvisation and verbal expression. (1977, 107 min, digital video)

Special thanks to Royd Climenhaga, Alla Kovgan, Sylvie Richard, Claire Verlet and Marie-Laure Voilette.

Screening Room
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
701 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA 94103

Public Info: 415-978-2787 or www.ybca.org/tickets/production/view.aspx?id=11076

Tickets: $8 regular; $6 students, seniors, teachers & YBCA members

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Images can be found at http://www.ybca.org/about/press