Pina Bausch is to dance theatre what Petipa is to classical ballet. A pioneer in contemporary dance, she forged new and exciting possibilities for the genre by opening up the traditional definitions of dance and theatre. Next week dance aficionados in Adelaide will get a rare opportunity to see Bausch’s work, Nelken, performed at the Adelaide Festival by Bausch’s troupe, Tanztheater Wuppertal. It’s the first time the German company has travelled to Australian since Bausch’s death in 2009. Read more about Nelken here.
Adelaide Festival’s dance program also includes ADT’s Habitus, which opened last week. We'll have Maggie Tonkin's review of that work up shortly. Canadian contemporary dance company the Holy Body Tattoo will open monumental this week. Packed with unrelenting raw energy and accompanied by pounding live music performed by Montreal’s post-rock juggernaut Godspeed You! Black Emperor, monumental explores the physical anxiety created by urban culture and the overwhelming human need for intimacy.
The dance program continues with Atlanta Eke’s Body of Work. Eke won the Keir Choreographic Award with this piece in 2014 and expanded the work to full-length for its premiere in Melbourne in 2015. A solo work performed by Eke, Body of Work operates as a hybrid; a synthesis of biological organism and technical machine blurring the lines between who choreographs and who is choreographed.
For more information about the Adelaide Festival head to www.adelaidefestival.com.au
Below: Monumental. Photo: Chris Randle.
