PRACTICAL EXERCISES SETTING THE STAGE Pina Bausch's choreographic process began a2 means toan end sim ple way to create something for herself to dance. In creating that fist ian je anne aelrin sf rseeecp meine nen the German expressionist roots handed down through her mentor Kart Joots to the paychologically dynamic balletic tration in which she was immersed with Antony Tador. Bausch had encountered other methodologies! approaches as wel, particularly from the burgeoning tape dees el ea dace Noe ie carly 1960s. But se didn’t et out to ceste anew approach to perfor mance or to specifically further or challenge an existing method, and to never worked to edablih anew technique or define a new way of stig ne inating prenenaaritag A the focus of the work with her company shifted, the emphasis Desame how wn wpproach naw mane ullsg ber and ber perernsor? in a wide range of theater and dance practices. Those expe- experiences ag ienoes are brought to bear on the material at hand, and the means by hich dhe creates new performance pieces are embedded ina long and rigorous rehearsal and developmental process. She keeps that process mostly behind closed doors, but her privacy is more to alow her per= formers the safety they need to risk failing in order to breach previous sHructures of work to arrive at something new and diferent, rather than any desire to keep her methods seeret Sill, defining working methods for Bausch i dificult, and comes more from interpolating backward from the pieces themselves in potential pathways of construction necessary to put thoce meri in place, Bausch has commented on that process in numerous interviews as well, and so by piecing together elements from both these sources itis Possible to uncover a working method for developing new performance Bausch doesn't offer any particular exercises or performance tech ‘iques to follow, but she does provide a bate to derive more specific *chearsal strategies for generating new material and approaching estab. lished works, Methodology is always a process of adaptation You take abit from here and some chunks from there and mold them to ft your {interests and your own particular context. Bausch’s work in partica- lar relies on drawing from the resources you have, and the primary resource is people. One of Bausch's greatest assets in her own developmental process 4s the time to sort through myriad azempts at new staged images and @ consistent company of highly trained performers, many of whom have been with her for years. Most of us don't have such luxuries, but exploring Bausch’: methods can sil open up productive resources for creating new work Bausch’s performance practice is bult on a process of uncovering connections to fundamental ideas and feelings She draws on the expe rience, both personal and professional, of her company in working toward that essential base, and her creative genius lies in her ability to construct intricate and delicate webs of fecling from the connections she uncovers, utilizing the human resources of those around her PROCESS OVER PRODUCT Bausch inverts the priorities of process and product in her rehears als. Rather than striving toward some terminating end, Bausch con Centrates on the getting there, how it is we arrive atthe attitudes we PRACTICAL EXERCISES 101102 PRACTICAL EXERCISES have and how we express that striving in our everyday lives, Just asthe rehearsal mirrors the process of probing the world to find our place in terms of and within it, the performance also mirrors the proces ofthe rehesral, so thatthe audience can approach the piece from the tame base of exploration from which the performers and choreogra pher started. Concentrating on the process as apposed to the product bas far reaching effects which realign the very base from which Bausch’s pisces bepin, Ballet and modern dance both essentially work through techniques of movement, utilizing a form that might lead toward the expression ofthe practioner’ ideas. The technique and the mestage of the piece stand ax separate entities with the former atthe service of the later, But the technique tands aa given, and the process becomes rewing on that technique in such a way that something might be exprewed. Smilry, when working on a play the atempt fs ually to use the base structure the eript provides axa means for moovering the heart ofthe pice, The script is used asa tool by the director and tctors to get uncledging Sear Boll of iene procemer ere primarly directed atthe final outcome of the performance isl. Bausch's work, however, starts with a base of ideas and feelings, vrbather derived from an open-ended question posed in rehearsal, or a structured source from which the developmental proces emerges, Once that exploratory process begins, it fllows its own necessity. This is ane reason why working in this way can be 20 time consuming, because you could keep working forever always unconering anew ele- rent ofthe question at hind. Bausch is known to keep working upto and often beyond what is lited as opening night, but the lomsing pret nce of that deadline, even iit is often soft inher ease (another lnxury most of ut cannot aferd), cm be avery powerful motivating ft, and contributes to the generation and organization of material at least as sionglyen any ober resores rout aber The end rod isnot denied, merely removed from the pinnacle of importance i usie ally maintains. "The real innovation of tanrtbester lies here, inthe realignment of ice nron oma zngangaf expremicn lndng fra fl predct foward a questioning of what needs to be expressed andthe eubsequent process of confrontation and discovery that takes place through rehears- als. As Richard Sikes states simply, “Bauseh’s contribution to dance is a process, not a product” (Sikes 1984; 53), Bausch’s work, therefore, provides no easy model to follow. Would be interpreters must push through @ rigorous proces similar to that which Bausch herself employs. But the process necessitates an individ ual viewpoint, so the work takes on the character of those who do it. This individual approach comes through in the viewing of the perfor. mmanee as well, where you bring your own world to the piece and see it from that vantage point. Ths is one reason Bausch often refuses to speak about the content of her pieces. As she says, “Everybody sees a Aifferent piece. Nobody can see the piece I see. I2ee all the details inthe rehearsals, and people see only one performance. I can't explain what see, but if could, you would understand me, not the piece” (quoted in Stendabl 1996: 68-69).To work with Bausch's developmental process ‘means to find your own way to do something on stage that has an effect. ‘You may arrive at something similar or something wildly different, but that depends in large part on who you are and the world in which you are contained. ‘The finished piece is not pre-imagined at a goal toward which to strive, but comes out as the process of its making, and that process is exposed. So within the piece there are compromises, warring pr crities chat have been made a part of the very structure of the work. The importance is not so much what each element is, but how they are made to belong, the connecting tisaue that holds the disparate ele- ‘ments together. In performance that tissue comes from the process of rehearsal, where variations are tried and elements eliminated until the piece emerges from the cacophony of thoughts and ideas, movements, and images thatthe initial queries suggested DANCE CONSTRUCTION AND THEATER IMAGES. ‘Tanatheater, as the name implies, is a merging of dance and theater ‘modes, but merely identifying the presence of more than one ele- ment in the production does not make it tanztheater. No matter how peacefully the components coexist in the more usual dance/theater PRACTICAL EXERCISES 10310s PRACTICAL EXERCISES paradigm, they are al essentially diferent, cach bringing ts own se of conditions and expectations to be fulilled or thwarted at any particn- lar instance. Tanatheater relies on the infection and co-optation of one form by another, flly wing both forms’ representational potential so that they are fused into @ cohesive whole. Story ballets have always applied dance technique to theatrical form and structural principles to create a theatrical dance where theater and dance coexist more intimately than by simple juxtaposi- tion. Bausch and other proponents of tantheater invert the scenario, applying theatrical developmental strategies to what is essentially & dance structure of bodily engagement and expression. Bausch uses principles of dance construction and theatrical methods to explore an {ssue, and the audience is let in on the exploration. Rather than using those methods to tell the audience something, she creates an open metaphor forthe audience to complete. ‘Bausch uncovers the very heart ofthe process of dance, the motiating seapulse from which movement begins, and thatimpulse is always person ‘n a specific situation, The piece as performed becomes the arrangement of those moments as discovered in rehearsal from the performers’ own experience and presented within physical and dramatic terms Bausch’ challenge and grestanovation was to find way to maintain dance agenda through choreographic principle of construction while incorporating theatrical techniques of expressing individual subjective experience. The expressive element is reoriented to be areal person in areal event. As Meryl Tankard recalled her response to the questioning rmode of her audition for the company, It was the first time a director had encouraged me to project my own pertonality onthe stage, and it opened a whole new world, had nothing against being asyiphin a tutu and toe-shocs, but the whole classical repertory suddenly seemed like a rauseum’ (quoted in Galloway 1984: 41). Itis this revelation of sub- jective experience in Bausch's pieces ~ derived from and represented through the performer's body — that i the basis for tanztheater and that provides the point at which dance and theater come together to form tanztheater. Beyond utilizing any given performer's specific dance or theater training, Bousch's process asks for a realignment of how that training s sere, Dc merged toe nsasoes at tah wretch aa eee ce ea le an peptone lotr deieatnreue nin ne es, Simca susie ek cree ong Crop set olerakcntelar fowretoneera Petia eee e eae. Gon models afar std dane nse pean eee lek pore er ae snap corre eas ete cee ee ee See tds cincweweainliohakignsiieseaiee tele alae ee eee eee poy in gel pe feerphalaen tne plghyaion net ta bighgn eddon uncan cey taihnd fons nantes soe RECONFIGURING PRESENCE Bausch’ pieces create 2 world of immediate presence thi dircly engages the audience, ahr thin a presented wold Gat comes orn» structed idea oftime and space. Thee inital exercises are designed to set up a ground of interaction and presentation that helps the performer to ter into tha dyamicrelaionshp of direct presence, ENTERING INTO TIME AND SPACE ‘cw andes Iated bere eels x rel in dng presence nine tnd eps They ilps edereee af ope cope to allow performers to find points of interaction and connect ean euch fn. Ones tho grow sx, pecormeta hers Tae a iSiehre gi tates ones ge nhbesinrseenion fidget Eek. PRACTICAL EXERCISES 105