PINA BAUSCH - A tribute

PINA BAUSCH dies suddenly -
One of the few, true 20th Century Choreographic greats dies of cancer June 28th 2009.

I was personally completely heartbroken to hear the news of Pina Bausch's premature and sudden death at 68.

The small clip from her Sacre de Printemps has been visited 400,000+ times at Youtube alone, providing an insight into just how important she was to the dance world and the wider world of the arts.

She was unique and her passing leaves a yawning gap in the modern dance landscape.

So much of what she pioneered has gone on to be pastiched, reheated and drearily re-rolled in ever less vibrant and innovative ways by countless pale-imitators.

Too many of these have confused Ms Bausch's incisive musical and physical statements about the human condition with the un-dressing of tortured looking men and women in torn underwear and hedge-backwards hair.

This has managed to make an alarmingly large section of modern dance making, one of the few truly original 20th century artforms, look more and more like under-rehearsed concerts by Tourettes Formation Ballroom teams, by mistaking Bausch's forms for her content, and leaving the all too important audiences trailing in the wake with increasingly bemused indifference.

Who, in our current crop of physical-dance theatre creatives will have the chops to step-up, assume her mantle and take things forward again with the same quality and level of innovation?

Perhaps you have a view? Let me know your thoughts.