The Politics of the Body: Pina Bausch's "Tanztheater"

Author(s): David W. Price

Source: Theatre Journal, Vol. 42, No. 3, Women and/in Drama (Oct., 1990), pp. 322-331
Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3208078
Accessed: 19-03-2015 20:06 UTC

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 The Politics of the Body:
Pina Bausch's Tanztheater

David W. Price

Pina Bausch has been a dominantforcein the dance world formanyyears,but

her unique conceptionof Tanztheater has oftenbeen overlookedby drama critics
writingabout theoriesof the stage. AlthoughBausch's works have attractedthe
attentionof dance enthusiastsand critics,her laterproductionsoftenleave these
same criticsfrustrated,confused,or disappointedbecause thecurrentvocabularyof
dance theorycannot address the multifariousness of Bausch's productionsade-
quately.Even thosefewdramacriticswho have been attractedto Bausch limittheir
theoreticalapproach to Tanztheater and chieflyrelyupon a Brechtianvocabulary.'
Bauschhas been repeatedlycharacterized as a feminist
performanceartistand dram-
atistwho consciouslyuses Brechtian"epic" techniques.2WhatdistinguishesBausch,
however,is her developmentof an art formbased upon a binaryoppositionthat
does not reproducean either/or dichotomy;instead,Bausch's productionsare both
dance and theater.Hers is an artformthatrejectsa totalizingWagnerianvision in
favorof a dialecticaltheatricality.3
Bausch's Tanztheater quite literallysets in motiona dialecticbetweentwo conser-
vativecomponents:theperformance part,which,accordingtoJosette Feral,"is made
up of the realities
of theimaginary," and the theatrical
part, which is "made up of

David W. Priceis a Ph.D. candidatein Comparative

Literature
at theInstitute
oftheLiberalArts
at EmoryUniversity. He has previously
written
on theworkofMargueriteYourcenar and Christa
Wolf.

treatmentof Bausch's worksin English,NorbertServos wrote

'For example, in the only full-length
thatBausch's productionsbegin withthe "daily social experiencesofthebody," whichshe "translates
and alienates" onstage. See NorbertServos and Kurt Weigelt,Pina Bausch Wuppertal Dance Theater
or theArtofTraininga Goldfish: ExcursionsintoDance (Cologne: Ballet-BuhnenVerlag, 1984), 21.
2JanelleReineltdiscussed how otherfeministdramatistshave used Brechtiantechniques in order
to examine the "materialconditionsof gender behavior" in "Beyond Brecht:Britain'sNew Feminist
Drama," TheatreJournal38:2 (1986): 154.
3Sue-EllenCase has described both a radical feministtheatricalgroup and a materialistfeminist
theatricalgroup who use Brechtiantechniques in order to explore the issues of gender construction
in her book, Feminismand Theater(London: Macmillan, 1988), 67, 92-93. Bausch is differentin that
her works express both radical and materialistfeministperspectiveson gender constructionand do
not rely solely on Brechtianmethods of performance.

322

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 PINA BAUSCH'S TANZTHEATER / 323

specific
symbolic On Bausch's stagethedialecticbetweentheperformance
structures."'
and thetheatricalis playedout upon thebody,or,morespecifically, upon thebodies
of the dancers/performers. In each of her productionsBausch stages the social in-
scriptionof the body affectedby culturalsymbolicstructuresin oppositionto and
sometimesin collusionwitha somaticimaginary. In otherwords,Bausch'sTanztheater
examinesgenderconstruction and exploresthepossibilitythatgenderattributes are
both expressiveand performative.

Assessing Bausch's dialectical theater necessitates a theoreticalcombinatory

methodof sorts.Because Bausch makes the body the focalpointof her work,it is
naturalto turnto AntoninArtaud.As Susie J.Tharuhas noted,"Artaud's'Theatre
ofCruelty'is perhapstheearliestand certainlythemostexplicitattemptto establish
an aestheticof performance based entirelyon bodilyperceptionand expression."5
And because Bausch draws attentionto bodilygesturesby alienatingthosegestures
throughperformative acts of decontextualization,
it is logicalto referto Brecht.But
combining thetheoriesofArtaud and Brechtrequiresthatthosetheoriesbe discussed
no longerin modernistterms;rather,it is necessaryto speak of Artaudand Brecht
in a postmoderncontext.
In TheSenseofPerformance: Post-Artaud Tharuarguedagainstthemodernist
Theatre,
Artaudand championedwhat she called "the otherArtaud,"in whom "thepolitical
and epistemologicalimplicationsof his idea of the body as mediumand his sense
ofperformance as radicalact" can be discovered.6This other,"postmodern,"Artaud
presents the frenziedbody, whichbecomes a sign "thatreveals,throughits trans-
formationof the act into the spectacular,the senseor the lived meaning of that
gesture."' Brecht,too, exhibitsa postmoderndimension.As ElizabethWrighthas
argued, Brechtqualifiesas "a deconstructionist avantla lettre."8
In thisdiscussionI
am goingtomaintainthatBausch'sworkscombine thetheoretical approachesofBrecht
and Artaudand thatthe use of theirrespectivetheorieswill disclose Bausch's un-
resolveddialecticalexaminationof the politicsof the body-that is, how genderis
constructed.Bausch's dance theaterrevealsthe body as the site of a social inscrip-
tion-the body on which the writingof the politicsof genderreveals itselfin per-
formativeacts-and the body as the nexus of the nonlogocentric imaginary,which
revealsitselfthroughexpressiveacts.9In thisrespectI followRainerNagele in that

4JosetteFeral, "Performanceand Theatricality:The Subject Demystified,"trans. Terbse Lyons,

ModernDrama 25:1 (1982): 178.
5SusieJ.Tharu, TheSenseofPerformance: Post-Artaud Theatre,(AtlanticHighlands: HumanitiesPress,
1984), 82.
6Ibid., 11.
7Ibid., 60. It is precisely this expression of the body as a sign, whose gestures comprise the
significatory act and whose verymaterialityserves as the locus of inscription,which makes Artaud's
theoriescentralto any discussion of Pina Bausch's works.
8ElizabethWright,Postmodern Brecht:A Re-Presentation(London: Routledge, 1989), 1. Wrighthas
argued that Brecht'sLehrstiicke and the early plays contain his postmoderndimension. These "di-
alectical works" employ a method of representationthat "continuallyreveals the contradictionsin
the incidentsand the objects it singles out" (36).
9I borrow the oppositional terms expressive and performativeas used by JudithButler in her
excellent essay, "PerformativeActs and Gender Constitution:An Essay in Phenomenology and
FeministTheory," TheatreJournal40:4 (1988): 519-31.

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324 / DavidW.Price

I rejectthefamiliarmodernistview thatcontrastsArtaudand Brecht.Niigeleargued

that"Artaud'srebellion"providesforthe "reintroduction of the body in theatrical
space" and "Brecht's revolution
theatrical points in the same direction."'0Niigele
wrote:

Brecht's
Gestusparadigmaticallyshowsthedifference in thebody:Gestus is thesumof
concrete tonesofvoice,and rhythm
facialexpressions,
bodilygestures, and figures
of
withanyofthese.It contains
speech,butitis notidentical therelationto anotherbody
and Gestus.
Itis structured
bythesymbolic codeofa specific socialsituation.Thebody
does nothavetheidentityofitswholenessin itself.It providestheidealand theidol,
ofwholeness,
theGestalt, whichitonlyfindsinthedistribution alonga symbolic chain."

I hope to show thatby combiningthetheoriesofBrechtand Artauditis possibleto

perceiveBausch's stageproductionsas politicalperformancesthatexploretheques-
tionof genderfromradicalfeminist and materialistfeministperspectives.
Whatfollows,therefore, is an attemptto positionBausch at thecrossroadsof two
approachesto theater--firstby identifying the elementsofBrechtianand Artaudian
theoriesthat are commonlyrevealed in various Bausch productionsand then by
providinga detailedexaminationofa specificwork-CafeMfiller-inwhichthe the-
ories of Brechtand Artaud are combinedin order to examine criticallyBausch's
dramaticexplorationof the dialecticsof gender.Bausch, like otherdramatists(for
example,PeterWeiss,HeinerMfiller, EdwardBond, and others),combinesthetech-
niques ofBrechtand Artaud.Butthetensionproducedby thesemodes of theatrical
presentationin her worksreveals the unresolvedideologicaldebate which under-
scoresherrecurrent themeofthe constitution of genderand itsrolein relationships
betweenmen and women. Forifthe Brechtianelementsin Bausch's workserveas
a feministcritiqueof the patriarchalsocial structureextantin the West,the aspects
of her theaterthatecho Artaud's theoriessuggestan essentialistfeminismwhich
views men and women as fundamentally different and inherentlyirreconcilable.

I.
(Non)ContradictoryCombination:
Brechtand Artaud Bausch'sWorks
in
It is clear thatifthe viewersof Bausch's theateragree on nothingelse, theyare
in accordin theirrecognitionof Brecht'spresencein her works.Brechtdefinedthe
alienationeffectas "turningthe objectof whichone is to be made aware, to which
one's attentionis to be drawn,into somethingordinary,familiar,immediatelyac-
cessible,intosomethingpeculiar,striking and unexpected."12 Dance criticAnna Kis-
selgoffpractically echoed Brecht'swords when she analyzed a Bausch performance
and wrote,"She can make the commonplaceunimaginable.Justas obviouslyshe

Freud:EssaysonGoethe,
After
Niigele,Reading Habermas,
Hdlderlin, Brecht,
Nietzsche, Celan,
loRainer
and Freud(New York:ColumbiaUniversity Press,1987),112.
1Ibid.,113.
Brecht,Brecht
12Bertolt TheDevelopment
on Theater: trans.JohnWillett(London:
ofan Aesthetic,
Methuen,1964),143.

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 PINA BAUSCH'STANZTHEATER / 325

rendersthe absurd commonplace."'3JohannesBirringer observedthat"in Bausch's

workswe are confronted directlywith the gesturesof conventionsand internalized
normswe no longersee."'4 HiltonAls describeda scene in 1980in whicha woman
repeatedlyand mechanicallykissesa man suchthathis facebecomesa map oflipstick
Als
prints. pointed outthatwith thiskissinggesture,Bauschpenetrated"themeaning
of gestureas gestureand how that gestureis utilized in definingone's role."15
Raimund Hoghe discussed the finalscene fromKontakthof, in which several men
surrounda woman and "cover her body with touches." These "tendergestures
become blows" as the woman collapses beneaththe male acts of tenderness.16
The ramifiedelementsof alienationeffectand Gestuswhichlie beyondcharacter-
ization also exist in Bausch's theater.It is necessaryto look no furtherthan the
formulation ofepic theater,which,Brechtsaid, "is chieflyinterestedin theattitudes
whichpeople adopt towardsone another"17 to findtheessence ofBausch's recurrent
theme,which always has "to do with man-womanrelationships."18 "The work,"
Bauschsaid, " - likeeverything I do - is aboutrelationships,
childhood,fearofdeath,
and how muchwe all wanttobe loved."19In additionto similarthematicfoundations,
Bausch shareswithBrechtan enthusiasmformakingelementsof the theaterstand
out independentlyfromthe "narrative"oftheperformance. Servospointedout that
forBausch "thevarioustheatrical elementsdo notcombineintoa harmoniouswhole,
but instead retaintheirindependence."20Thus, in Kontakthof a dancer with a tape
recorderand microphoneamplifiesthe dialogues and monologuesof the men and
womenonstage.21 Similarly,in LegendofChastity a womanreadspassages fromOvid's
ArsAmatoria, one man singstheRiihmannsong "Ich brechdie Herzenderstolzesten
Fraun,"and fragmentsof RudolfG. Binding'snovel, LegendofChastity, are roared
onstage.22
Bauschalso producesalienationeffects Servoswrotethat"word
throughrepetition.
patternsand sentencefragments sound alien throughmonotonous,arbitrary repe-
tition,"23and repetitiveness
is somethingBausch defends,claiming,quite simply,
"We mustlook again and again."24In Bluebeard,forexample,theBluebeardcharacter
onstagelistensto Bela Bartok'sopera, "Duke Bluebeard'sCastle,"on a tape recorder.

13AnnaKisselgoff, "Dance: Pina BauschPresentsMountain,"NewYorkTimes,10 October1985,

sec. C.
1*Johannes "Pina Bausch:DancingAcrossBorders,"TheDramaReview30:2(1986):86-
Birringer,
87.
1sHilton Als, "Pinaund Kinder,"BalletReview12:4(1985):79.
16RaimundHoghe,"The TheaterofPinaBausch,"TheDramaReview 24:1(1980):66.
17Brecht,Brecht on Theater,
86.
"'Servosand Weigelt,PinaBauschWuppertal DanceTheater,227.
'gQuotedin StephenHolden,"WhenAvant-Garde MeetsMainstream,"
NewYorkTimes,29 Sep-
tember1985,sec. II.
20Servosand Weigelt, PinaBauschWuppertal DanceTheater,55.
21Hoghe, "The TheaterofPinaBausch,"68.
'Servos and Weigelt,PinaBauschWuppertal DanceTheater,146.
3Ibid.,55.
24Quoted in Birringer,
"Pina Bausch:DancingAcrossBorders,"91.

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326 / DavidW. Price

He listensto the opera and rewindsthe tape so as to replaycertainsectionsagain

and again fornearlyfourhours. The repetitionof the beautifulmusic of the opera
makes it sound alien, and the musicbecomes alienatedfurther when comparedto
the savage violenceinflictedupon women depictedonstage.
Bausch, like Brecht,takes pleasure in shatteringthe illusion of theater.Unlike
performers in classicalballet,Bausch's dancersdo not attemptto make theirmove-
mentsappear effortless. Bausch's dancers are physicallypushed to the limit,and
they exhibittheir exhaustion and pain quite openly onstage. Bausch also discards
the notionof the fourthwall. In Bluebeard she turnson the houselights."In doing
to
this,"according JackAnderson, "she impliesthatwe who watchinhabitthe same
In
world as her characters."25 Come Dance withMe the performers minglewiththe
audience, and in Bandoneon part of the set is dismantledin the middle of the per-
in
formancerightbeforetheaudience. Servoscontendedthat Bausch'seffort to break
down barriersbetweenaudience and performers she succeeds in met-
in Kontakthof
aphoricallypullingthe audience onstage when the dancers seat themselveswith
theirbacks to the audience and everyonewatchesa filmabout the matinghabitsof
pochards
.26

The catalogueofBrechtiantechniquescould continue.Whatis essential,however,

is seeinghow Bauschuses thesetechniques.WhenBauschstagestheactsofforeplay
between men and women and alienatesthese acts, she emphasizes the politicsof
the exchange,theviolentnatureof the acts,and the social contextfromwhichthey
emerge.In short,Bausch demonstrateshow sexual behaviorsare learnedand how
the body submitsto culturalinscription.In RenateEmigrates, forexample,a stage
fullof"menand womenstandoppositeeach otherand areinstructed bytwoteachers
... as to how to raisetheeyesinnocently, emitsighsand kisses."27Thattheteachers'
effortsend in failuresuggests Bausch's rejectionof culturalmodels of behavior.
However,Bausch clearlyrecognizesthemyriadformsof culturalinscriptions of the
body-forms which include artistic
representations of love in classical poetryand
popular novels and the recurrent misogynist thematics in high cultural formssuch
as opera. By shatteringthe illusion of the effortlessness of dance, Bausch draws
attentionto herdancers'physicality and in so doing stresses the illusion of a socially
constructedsubjectencased withina body thathas been formedby and conforms
to a givenculturalnorm.28 In otherwords,when Bausch uses Brechtiantechniques,
she demonstrates thatthegenderedfemalesubjectis theconfluenceofculturalcodes
and practicesthatare sociallyreinforced.
Butto interpret as Brechtiandramais to balance onlyhalfthe
Bausch's Tanztheater
equation. Thereare elements in Bausch's productionswhichcannotbe explainedas
typesof Gestusor alienatedeffects.Bausch crowdsher stage withso manyimages,

25Jack Anderson, "Plotless Dance-Drama thatDeals in Emotions,"New YorkTimes,26 August 1984,

sec. II.
26Servosand Weigelt,Pina BauschWuppertal Dance Theater,118.
27Ibid.,80.
28SeeWright,Postmodern Brecht,138-39 fora more detailed discussion of the illusion of the self
in the works of Bausch.

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 PINA BAUSCH'S TANZTHEATER / 327

movements,and objectsthatsome criticsfindit exasperating.Dance criticMarcia

Siegelhas listedtheBauschtrademarks -"fascinationwithcostume,... accumulation
of objects, . . . the eclecticand nonlinearchoice of music, verbal text,visual
reference"29 -and rejectedthem outright.She asserted that the misesen scdneare
"gigantic" and "irrelevant"and "completelyovertakethe production"and that
Bausch's works "are action based and essentiallyformless"and have "no plots,
progressions,developmentsor denouements."30 The theater,accordingto Bausch,
is in manyways a dreamscape,a place where the fantastic,the mundane,and the
absurdall occursimultaneously. Forexample,in Arienthestageis floodedwithwater
and at one pointa huge hippopotamuslumbersout amongtheperformers. In Legend
ofChastity,however, the dancers findthemselves confronted byhuge crocodiles. The
is
stage literally a fieldfullof flowersin whereas
Carnation, in Come Dance With Me
the back of the theateris a huge concave slide thatspills out onto a stage littered
withbirchbranches.As is readilyapparent,themiseensceneplaysan importantrole
in Bausch's theater,and she couples thiswitha willingnessto subordinatespeech
and text.In many of her productionscharactersspeak and recitetexts,but at no
timedoes she allow the words onstage to dictatethe actionnor does she feelcon-
strainedby librettosor stagingdirectionsfoundin sourcematerial.
Bausch's emphasison themiseensceneand her subordinationoflanguageare two
aspectsof her theaterthatalignherwithArtaud'stheoriesof the stage. Artaud,the
logophobeparexcellence, called for"the substitution, forthe poetryof language, of
a poetryin space."31 He declaredflatly,"thepossibilitiesforrealizationin thetheater
relateentirely tothemiseensceneconsideredas a languagein space and in movement"
(45). For Artaud, the stage had to be purged of psychologismsand social critique.
The plasticand the physical,not the psychological,were the true domain of the
theater(71). It should not be a surprisethat Pina Bausch, a traineddancer and
choreographer, would produce workthathas affinities withArtaud'svision of the
stage. It is not dance alone, however, thatlinksBausch's workto Artaud.His stage
was "indeed a theaterof dreams,"32 crowded with objectsand bodies seen as signs,
to
open interpretation, bereftof a narrativetext. If language existsat all, declared
Artaud, it must have the same importance thatit possesses in dreams(94). Artaud
wroteof actorswho were "animatedhieroglyphs"(54)--bodies thatmoved about
likelivingciphersin a typeofchoreographedcryptography. Artaud'stheatrical writ-
ing is what Derrida terms a
nonphoneticwriting, writing thatdoes not transcribe
speech, a "writingof the body itself."33
Perhaps thereis no betterway to describeBausch's Tanztheater
than throughthe
verytermsthathave just been used to describeArtaud'stheatricalvision. Hers too

29MarciaB. Siegel,"Carabossein a CocktailDress,"TheHudsonReview 39 (1986):111-12.

108.
30Ibid.,
31Antonin Artaud,TheTheater and itsDouble,trans.MaryCarolineRichards(New York:Grove
Press,1958),38. All references
to Artaud'swritings willbe to thistranslation
and willappearin
parentheses in thetext.
32JacquesDerrida,WritingandDifference,
trans.Alan Bass (Chicago:UniversityofChicagoPress,
1978),242.
33Derrida,WritingandDifference,
191.

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328 / David W. Price

is a hieroglyphic
theater, a writing
whichis quiteliterally ofthebody,a choreographed
The
cryptography. montage effectproduced by the combinationof operetta,film,
and cartoonsin a piece likeRenateEmigrates remindstheviewerofsome ofthebizarre
combinationsencounteredin dreams.The hippopotamusand crocodilespreviously
mentionedalso recallthe dreamworldand the absurd creaturesoftenseen there.
NearlyeveryBauschworkcontainsdream-like elements.ObserversofBausch'sworks
admitthatthereoftenappears to be an excess of signs on the stage, a surplusof
signifierswhich puzzle, disturb,and, in many instances,remainindecipherable.
Bausch, it seems, would agree with Artaud: the theateris "a kind of organized
anarchy,"(51) a confluenceof disparateimages,objects,and signs.
betweenBauschand Artaud.In his "FirstManifesto
Thereis also a fourthsimilarity
on The Theaterof Cruelty"Artaudwrote,"we shall not act a writtenplay, but we
shall make attemptsat directstagingaround themes,facts,or knownworks" (98).
Artaudescheweddramatictextsand onlyconsidereddevelopingthemestakenfrom
well-knownworks.In a similarfashion,Bausch rarelyworkswitha dramatictext.
Her Macbethpiece-He TakesHer bytheHandand LeadsHer intotheCastle,theOthers
Follow-reflects none of the play's dramaticor narrativestructures.Her piece, On a
Mountaina Crywas Heard,whichrefersto the slaughterof the innocentsdescribed
in Matthew, containsnothingabout the storyof the Christchild or the flightinto
Egypt. Even in two worksthatconstitutenotableexceptions,one in whichBausch
choreographedStravinsky's RiteofSpringand anotherin whichshe staged Brecht's
SevenDeadlySins,hermisesen scenedepartedfromestablishednorms.

By using Artaud'stechniquesin her productionsBausch necessarilycriticizesthe

logocentrismof the West,and by writingthe body in the contextof man/woman
relationshipsshe rejectsthe phallogocentrism of her culture.In a certainsense she
producesworksthatexemplifyLuce Irigaray'snotionof the femaleimaginary-an
imaginarywhichbringsintoplay "scraps" and "uncollecteddebris"and is not "too
narrowlyfocusedon sameness."34Bausch's productionsare a riotof diversity;her
formofcreativity challengesthenotionsoflinearity and reasoneddiscursivepractice
and offersin theirsteadan expansive,fluid,multiple,and diffuseformofexpression.
Her use of the body, particularly the femalebody as the site of performative acts,
suggests not only gender as a inscripted
culturally artifactbut also gender as irre-
ducibledifference whichdisclosesitselfthroughthe imaginary.

II.
Exemplum: Cafe Miller
CafeMiller may be the most suitableof Bausch's worksto illustrateher concept
of Tanztheateras a pointof juncturebetweenBrecht'sand Artaud'stheoriesof the
stage because it containsin a nascentformBausch's examinationof the gendered
body,whichbecomesincreasingly problematizedin laterproductions.In CafeMiller
men and women attemptto establishrelationshipswithone another,but all their

34Luce ThisSexWhich
Irigaray, (Ithaca:CornellUniversity
Porter
Is NotOne,trans.Catherine Press,
1985),28-30.

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 PINA BAUSCH'STANZTHEATER / 329

attemptsend in failure.The Brechtianelementsin thepiece are easy to discern.The

firstfigureseen is a femaledancerwho walks witha faltering gait,whichmakesher
appear crippled;she presses her body flatagainstthe wall. Anna Kisselgoffnoted
thatsuch physicalmaneuversare "textbookexamplesof movementsperformedby
schizophrenics.""3 The bodilymovementsuggestsisolation,despair,and mentalill-
ness, but these movementstake place in a social setting.In CafeMiller the tables
and chairsonstage serve as a metonymicexpressionof all public spaces in which
men and women meet. But, as Anne Ubersfeldhas stated,metonymycan be re-
metaphorized.36 When a woman wearinga red wig and a furcoat skips nervously
about among the furniture, the audience beginsto see the chairsas a typeof maze,
and when the"waiter"chargesontothesceneand literally clearstables,theaudience
understandsthatsocial structures hinderindividualfreedomof movementand ob-
structthedevelopmentofhumancontact.In CafeMillerthereis a stunningmoment
of stillnessin whichtwo men and a woman sit at a tableoverlookingthe body of a
second woman lyingin a heap on thefloor.This livingtableauperhapsbestconveys
the idea of alienationand estrangementbetween the sexes. As the performance
progresses,the audience begins to wonder how much the public foruminhibits
exchangesbetweenmen and women because it requireswomen to adopt schizoid
behaviors so that they are divided against themselvesand must in some sense
disfigurethemselvesin orderto be on publicdisplay.
Anothersequence shows a man and a woman being trainedby a second man to
go througha seriesofmovementswhichseem to be aimed at havingthe man carry
the woman. The couple receivesinstructioneightconsecutivetimes,but each time
the woman slides out oftheman's armsand ontothefloor.Even withoutguidance,
themanand womancannotsucceedin maintaining thecorrectposition.The couple's
franticmovementsand repeated attemptsconstitutewhat PatricePavis called a
gestualiteor way of behaving.37These repeated movementssignifythat behavior
betweenmen and women is learned,culturallycoded and determined,and just as
inadequate as it is inept.
Seen fromthisperspective,CafeMiillerarticulatesa formof materialist
feminism
thatemphasizes the social and culturalconditionsthatshape women's experience.
Yet,despitethe catalogueof Brechtiantechniquesalreadynoted,CafeMiUlercannot
be neatlycircumscribed withina Brechtianhorizonofinterpretation
because elements
of anothertheoryof theatercan be seen in the performance.A man liftsa woman,
spins herbody in a halfarc,and gentlylowersherto thefloor,whereuponshe rises,
slips offher dress,and slumps over a table.This movementoccursseveraltimesin
thebackgroundwhileotherdancersperform in theforeground.
The unusual nature
of the movementand its repetitionsuggest dream imagery,as does the moment
when the half-nudefemalefigurewalks somnambulistically offthe stage clutching

35Anna "Dance: Premiereof '1980'a Pieceby Pina Bausch,"NewYorkTimes,22 June

Kisselgoff,
1984,sec. C.
6AnneUbersfeld, du spectateur:
L'&cole Lirele thddtre
2 (Paris:EditionsSociales,1982),161.
37PatricePavis,LanguagesoftheStage:EssaysintheSemiologyofTheater(New York:Performing Arts
1982),41.
Journal,

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330 / David W. Price

a dressto herbreasts.Anne Ubersfeldhas observedthat"The scenicspace can also

appear as a vast psychicfieldwhere the psychicforcesof the self confrontone
another."38 Artaud,who forcefully describedthe theaterin termsof a dream,who,
as Derridawrote,"tracestheformoftheatrical writingfromthemodelofunconscious
39
writing,"" reinforced the concept of the theater as a psychicbattlefield
on whichthe
symbolicrepresentation of the unconscious is realized. The oneiricimages capture
theaudience'simaginationin CafeMUVller no less thanthealienationeffects.The man
and woman curledup togetheronstagein a fetalwrap not only emulatea typical
dream image but also suggest a primalunion of man and woman beforesexual
differentiation. Perhapsthe mosthauntingsequence in the entireworkis thatof a
woman walkingin slow motionover a man. This image, whichappears to spring
directlyfromthe unconscious,remainswith the viewer and cannot be explained
away as wish fulfillment.
The dream-likesequences in CafeMiller all includeactionsof terrorand cruelty.
The object of the theater,forArtaud,is "not to resolve social and psychological
conflicts. . . but to expressobjectivelycertainsecrettruths,to bringintothe light
of day by means of activegesturescertainaspects of truththathave been buried
under formsin theirencounterswithBecoming"(70). Accordingto Artaud,there
are immutabletruthslurkingbeneaththe surfacefluxofphenomena,and itis these
truthswhichmustbe presentedonstage.In CafeMiller theburiedtruthis revealed
in theproduction'smostdisturbing sequence. A man and womanbeginan awkward
duet, whichculminatesin the two alternately slammingone anotherintothe wall.
The sequence is painful,almost unbearableto watch,but it should be noted that
unlikethe rehearsedsequence, in which the man receivesinstructions on how to
hold thewoman,theslammingmovementsoccurwithoutprompting orprovocation.
It mighteven be said thattheyevolve naturallyduringthe courseofevents.Bausch
is suggestingthatcertainconditionscannotbe changedand thatcertainfundamental
laws exist.Seen in thislight,CafeMailerbecomesa theaterpiece ofmolecularmove-
ment,in which "characters"succumbto an ineluctableentropy.One characterex-
ecutesthe same frenetic movementseleven timesin a row beforefinallydissipating
all hisenergyand collapsingon thefloor.A secondcharacter brieflyappearsbouncing
back and forthin the environmentand then quicklydisappears. By offering Cafe
Maileras a representation ofinevitability,Bausch appears to agreewithArtaudthat
"We are not free.And the skycan stillfallon our heads. And the theaterhas been
createdto teach us thisfirstof all" (79).
But to wresta single meaningfromCafeMiilleror any Bausch productionthat
shows the influenceofbothBrechtand Artaudby denyingone of theseconstituent
elementsis to overlookthe truetensionin her productions.IfBausch is to be taken
at her word,and it is assumed thatin her work"the themesare always to do with
man-womanrelationships,"'thenitis necessaryto ask what determinesthe nature

170.My translation.
Lirele thddtre,
38Ubersfeld,
192.
and Difference,
39Derrida,Writing
Dance Theater,227.
4?Servosand Weigelt,Pina BauschWuppertal

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 PINA BAUSCH'STANZTHEATER / 331

of those relationships.Brechtiantheorysuggeststhat the natureof man-woman

relationshipsis sociallyconditionedand can-indeed must-change. On the other
hand, Bausch's work-imbued withthe theoriesof Artaud-seems saturatedwith
an essentialistfeminism: men and womenare fundamentally differentand can never
be reconciled.This latterpointof view has receivedsome criticalattention.JayL.
Kaplan noted with chagrinthat "Bausch's feminismis a grimworld-viewwhich
proclaimsbiologyis destiny.It is male natureto dominatewomen, and love is a
continuationby othermeans of the battleof the sexes."41 Essentialistfeminismcan
even be dimlyperceivedin Bausch's veryfirstproductionof the RiteofSpring,in
which a virgingirlis brutallysacrificed.To Horst Koegler'smind,the production
"emergedas a vision of the blackestterrorand despair ratherthan as a purifying
riteof hope and rebirth."42Whatis clearis thatbothkindsof feminismexistsimul-
taneously on Bausch's stage; thereis no need to overlookthe one or suppressthe
other.
In Tanztheater thereis no resolution.Theaudienceis lefttocontemplatetheopposing
pointsof view. The finalscene in CafeMiiler capturesthe essence of Bausch's the-
oreticalparadox. The solo femaledancerallows the red wig and the furcoat to be
placed upon her. Up to this point the solo femaledancer's actionsand responses
have appeared to occur outside a social context,but when she dons the garments
of cafe society,the audience mustask, Is her pain and anguisha naturalresponse
or is it sociallydetermined?Bausch offersno answers;insteadshe prefersto depict
the dialecticof opposing theoriesof genderartistically encoded in her Tanztheater.
Thereare two paths to be takenfromthepresentoverviewof Bausch's work.The
first
would examineTanztheater inthesocialand historical
contextofGermanfeminism
of the 1980s.Bausch's workscould be explainedas an artisticrepresentation of the
debatebetweenessentialistand Marxistfeminists. The second path would lead to a
detailed analysis of Bausch's works as a formof femininewritingof the body as
describedby advocates of &criture frminine.Clearly,bothpaths emergefroman un-
derstanding of Tanztheateras situatedbetween the writingsof Brechtand Artaud,
and any futureexaminationof Bausch should acknowledgethese contendingele-
mentsin her work.

L. Kaplan,"PinaBausch:DancingAroundtheIssue,"BalletReview15:1(1986):76.
41Jay
42HorstKoegler,"ExponentoftheAvant-Garde:
PinaBausch,"DanceMagazine53:2(1979):53.

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