Brooklyn Academy of Music, Brooklyn, NY.
March 10, 2023.

Pina Bausch’s Áqua took to the stage at Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) for a number of weeks this spring to the delight of most dancers lovers in NYC. The corporate, Tanztheater Wuppertal, has come to BAM since 1984, and final carried out in 2017. Over the span of virtually three hours, audiences have been transported to a whimsical world the place cares appeared absent, and the absurd felt approachable. Half theater, half dance and half movie, the present meandered via the lives of the characters’ feelings with none sense of urgency. For some, this was too lengthy. For others, a welcome break from the state of the world at present to a spot that’s no extra, or possibly by no means was.

For this viewers member, as a first-time viewer of the corporate, the present was an exquisite expression of how reside artwork connects with all of us in ways in which really feel very actual. There isn’t a plot and the characters develop into chameleons of their formers selves many occasions over. We don’t have to know what’s taking place or why as a result of no matter a plot would possibly exist, it’s secondary to feelings delivered by the performers. Feelings everyone knows about, and feelings we will all perceive drive the present.

Bausch’s work centered largely round emotion, as her course of typically singularly relied on that issue. Whereas all of the dancers on stage are distinctive, the dedication and authenticity they displayed had a better impression than any technical feat (though there have been many). Maybe the long-held observe of utilizing improvisation within the artistic course of is accountable for this end result – with improv, it’s largely unattainable to be disconnected from one’s self, and one’s emotional panorama.

Others have stated these performances have been however shadows of the corporate that beforehand carried out on this theater over time. After the sudden loss of life of Bausch in 2009, the corporate held on to her laser-like imaginative and prescient for so long as they might, however inevitably every dancer turns into farther from the supply as time strikes on. In reality, of all of the dancers on stage on this manufacturing, solely two ever labored immediately with Bausch. That stated, artwork is an ever evolving expression, and whereas this may not be the Áqua of the early Nineteen Nineties, it was nonetheless a devoted efficiency and one which captivated a lot of the viewers in attendance.

To take a seat and eat such a protracted work may be arduous, however this compelled consideration the complete time. There’s a distinct tonality to European dance work, this one with a way of caprice and a playfulness we don’t see as a lot with American choreography. When all the weather of this piece converged, it took the viewer to a spot of marvel and silliness that’s welcome in these darker occasions. One ought to look ahead to the following time Tanztheater Wuppertal returns to Brooklyn.