German choreographer Pina Bausch bought an intensity and emotion to the world of 20th century contemporary dance, as a pioneer of the ‘Tanztheater’ style that channeled German Expressionism into a union of genuine dance and theatrical methods of stage performance. Injecting realist, bohemian elements to her work such as stages filled with flowers, unusual musical styles and complicated stage sets, Bausch pointedly detached her work from the constraints of traditional ballet. With her company Tanztheater Wuppertal, Bausch toured the world with her original acts.

A#2′s guest co-editor Gerdi Esch was first exposed to Pina’s work in the 1980′s at Antwerp’s De Singel performance hall, who described her work as such:

“For a moment my world came to a standstill. I had seldom seen so much intensity in a couple of hours time. Tenderness and violence, caresses and blows, sweet dreams and nightmares, fear and lust, beauty and decay,  I saw it all in a flash and it took my breath away.

In one interview I read that as a child she would sit under the table from where she could observe the adult world. That her theatre was born there. At a Pina Bausch performance I also feel like a child sitting under a table that looks at the world, and looks and looks.”

Above: Pina Bausch

Accompanying her praising words are these stills of Pina’s work taken by Maarten Van den Abeele -monochromatic and highly contrasting, punctuated by a single colour image, of vivid red petals covering the stage as a male dancer cradles two small dogs in his bare arms. The stark, raw humanity and the flowing, abstract nature of these images is an apt addition to Yohji’s magazine – echoing the substance of Pina’s work in a static medium without compromising its impact and aesthetic.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXVuVQuMvgA[/youtube]