Pina Bausch's Final Piece
November 29, 2001

Pina Bausch, who passed away last month at age 68, was known for her reticence with the press. She did however give Dance Teacher a rare interview for the June 2008 issue:

DT: You’ve said that choreographing can be a torturous, frustrating process, with real highs and lows. Why do you do it?
PB: Because I would like to express what I really feel, what I know, but that has nothing to do with words. And, of course, it’s very hard, because you have nothing to hold on to, and everything you have done is done, so you have to always go further, or another way. On the way, you feel like you didn’t reach what you would like to, and you kind of fight for it, so it’s a very heavy process. We have a lot of fun, but you really go through everything. It’s a hard thing, and many times I’ve thought, “That will be the last piece,” but as soon as we première it, I’m already thinking about the other ones. So it brings me forward all the time, and the wish to do it is much stronger than the wish to stop.

 It’s hard to believe that her most recent work, Bamboo Blues, shown last fall at BAM, is indeed her last piece. 

 Check out this great footage of her work at DanceMedia.com. And here she is accepting her Dance Magazine Award.

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