The masterpiece created in 1978 is the third opus of the German choreographer to enter the institution’s repertoire, which plays it until December 31 at the Palais Garnier, in Paris.
By Rosita Boisseau
We’re there, we’re at Pina. For the moment, everything is calm. The tray is empty. The walls are painted in gray and white. A slightly dirty white, like the windows of the high window on the left, which will soon let the obliques of opaque light pass. A row of chairs is aligned with a platform hidden by a brown curtain. Micro feet are installed here and there. This old-fashioned village hall resembles the Lichtburg, a former cinema that has become the Pina Bausch rehearsal studio (1940-2009), in Wuppertal (Germany), and kept in its juice since the late 1970s.
This “house” is that of Kontakthof, masterpiece of the German artist, scheduled until December 31 at the Palais Garnier, in Paris. Created in 1978 – we pinch ourselves to believe him so much his acidic green and his daring crazy seem just out of his smoking brain -, the play enters the repertoire of the ballet of the Paris National Opera. After the coronation of spring, in 1997, Orpheus and Eurydice, in 2005, this evening at Dancing, in the decor of Rolf Borzik (1944-1980), is the third opus of Pina Bausch that the institution displays. At the antipodes of the classic technique required by the previous two, the spectacle investigates a string of edgy situations, stings a theatrical vein on edge that pulses quickly and beats strong. Suffice to say that the bet, for the dancers, as accustomed to them at contemporary productions, promised to be disproportionate.
So? Panache first. A slight tremor in the guibolles which, little by little, stabilize. Friday, December 2, the twenty-six interpreters-they are thirty-four in total to having been selected on ninety-three-took their momentum, strengthened their approach in stilettos or lace-up shoes, as well as their gaze on of the three hours of the room. The opening scene, during which everyone appears in front of the public by bombing the torso or buttocks as if to check in the mirror before parading, installs the subject. It is the market for the most beautiful to go dancing, the review of pretty hearts, the seduction circus that Pina Bausch, a formidable expert in men-female relations, sends Valdinger with a pitcher on a roller coach. Want to get wood horses? Too late, the turn only starts, and the machine is blocked.
dating trap
From the star Germain Louvet to Maxime Thomas, from Eve Grinsztajn, who will say goodbye to the company on December 31, to Letizia Galloni, via Héloïse Jocqueviel, Charlotte Ranson or Caroline Osmont, all fond. They end up (almost) by making people forget the many images of the interpreters before, including those of the incredible Jan Minarik (1945-2022) here played by Matthieu Botto, impeccable. Because Kontakthof’s photo album is thick. In 1978, Pina Bausch imagined that production could be resumed identically when the dancers are 65 years old. In 2000, she was 60 and slipped an announcement in Wuppertal newspapers to put the show up with fans over 65 years of age. Born Kontakthof, with ladies and gentlemen over 65, then, in 2008, a version with teens, immortalized by the film Les Dreams dancing, in the footsteps of Pina Bausch (2010), directed by Anne Linsel and Rainer Hoffmann, which popularized the room.
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