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One Day, Pina Asked For… On Tour With Pina Bausch (Un jour, Pina m’a demandé) + Water Motor

One Day, Pina Asked For… On Tour With Pina Bausch (Un jour, Pina m’a demandé)

Introduced by choreographer and performer Karla Shacklock.

To make this film, the influential artist and filmmaker Chantal Akerman followed Pina Bausch and her company of dancers, the Tanztheater Wuppertal, for five weeks while they were on tour in Venice and Avignon. Her objective was to capture Bausch’s unparalleled art not only on stage but behind the scenes. The film includes rehearsals and extracts from Bausch’s works Komm Tanz mit mir (1977), Kontakthof (1978), Walzen (1982), 1980 (1983), and Nelken (1983).

Chantal Akerman, 1982, 57 mins

Water Motor

Water Motor, which has been described by Yvonne Rainer as “one of the best dance films ever made”, is a portrait of Trisha Brown by one of the most prolific documenters of post-war avant-garde dance in the US.

“The image fades in. For two seconds Trisha is there standing motionless, then she starts to dance her solo Water Motor, indeed moving as quickly as water. The movements are so fast and intricate that you feel you are missing half of it. When the dance is finished Trisha is standing motionless as in the beginning but closer to the camera and the image fades to black. The image fades in again on Trisha doing the same dance, but this time in slow motion (shot at 48 frames per second) and the movement takes on a luscious quality that informs the viewer of what was missed before.” (Babette Mangolte)

Choreography and solo performance by Trisha Brown

Babette Mangolte, 1978, 7 mins