The Spectator As Mitreisender in the Tanztheater of Pina Bausch
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DOCTORAL THESIS A Perplexing Pilgrimage: The Spectator as Mitreisender in the Tanztheater of Pina Bausch Campbell Daly, Janis Award date: 2009 General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ? Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 30. Sep. 2021 A Perplexing Pilgrimage: The Spectator as Mitreisender in the Tanztheater of Pina Bausch By Janis Campbell Daly, BA (Hons), MA A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment for the degree of PhD School of Arts Roehampton University University of Surrey July 2009 Abstract Focusing on spectator issues and performative processes in postmodern dance performance, the thesis offers a new ecological approach for the analysis of dance based on the premiss that the spectator’s interactive role as Mitreisender or ‘fellow traveller’ in Pina Bausch’s Tanztheater is integral to the creation of the live experience and to a realisation of her work in performance. Centred on the multi- faceted role of Mitreisender as intrinsic to Bausch’s collaborative approach, the limited scope of phenomenological discourse to spectator-centred accounts highlights the need for a broader analytical approach to address the interactive dialectic between spectator, performer and their sensory environment and their physiological engagement in Bausch’s interrogative, exploratory processes. In the light of new fields of performance research that explore the interactive, experiential nature of postmodern phenomena, the thesis draws on the hybrid theories of theatre ecology (Marranca, 1996; Fuchs, 1996), theatre archaeology (Pearson and Shanks, 2001) and theatre anthropology (Barba, 1995) to formulate a new integrated, theoretical framework with an ecological focus. Complementing the collaborative ethos of Bausch’s hybrid art form, cultural ecology integrates theory and practice and the perspectives of spectator, performer and director, examining their multi-faceted roles and interrelationships and the affective stimuli that fuel creative journeys of exploration and self-discovery, thus enhancing the Mitreisender’s appreciation and awareness through personal experience of Bausch’s choreographic phenomena. The thesis traces the roots of Bausch’s Tanztheater, examining its orientation to the German Ausdruckstanz movement of the early 20th century and influences that shaped Bausch’s artistic development, particularly her formative career under the mentorship of Kurt Jooss and her experiences amongst New York’s avant-garde community in the early 1960s. Examining how Bausch draws on Bertolt Brecht’s epic theatre and Antonin Artaud’s vision of experiential performance and reconfigures modernist concepts in a postmodern framework, the study demonstrates the ways in which Bausch’s potent cocktail of Verfremdung phenomena, sensory environment and architectural collage changes perceptions of performance and how it is experienced, thus transcending the theatrical aspirations of her predecessors. Comparisons drawn with contemporary Tanztheater forms show how Bausch’s aesthetic approach takes Tanztheater into uncharted territory, revealing generic links with physical theatre forms such as Japanese butoh that exploit the body’s expressive potential and its relationship to the environment. Contributing to existing research, case studies of four works from 1998 to 2001 enhance current awareness of developments in Bausch’s aesthetic over the past decade and highlight the interrelated nature of a repertoire that matures through an organic, regenerative cycle of reflection and renewal. Illuminating inherent, stylistic dance and theatrical characteristics and the organic nature of Bausch’s choreographic aesthetic, cultural ecology reveals the symbiotic relationship between performer, spectator, the work and its environment. This approach aims to provide fresh insights into Bausch’s distinctive performance practice and a comprehensive appreciation of her complex, multi-faceted art form. 2 Acknowledgements I should like to convey my sincere thanks to my supervisors, Dr. Stacey Prickett and Professor Joe Kelleher for their invaluable advice, perceptive comments, unswerving support, friendship and encouragement throughout the course of my research. My thanks also to the staff of the School of Arts, in particular those in dance for their friendship, encouragement and support. I should like to thank the current and former members of the Tanztheater Wuppertal Company for their valuable contribution during the course of my fieldwork research and to acknowledge my gratitude for the assistance given by the late Ms Pina Bausch in enabling me to have access to the company’s archive and video collection and in allowing me to attend rehearsals and press previews in Wuppertal. Last but not least, a very special thanks to my dearest husband and family for their enduring love, support, understanding and patience who are very much part of the processes involved in research and who have contributed in countless ways to its development and completion. 3 Table of Contents Abstract Acknowledgements Introduction 1 The Field of Study: An Overview of Bausch’s Tanztheater Wuppertal 1. The Scope of the Thesis and its Parameters 2. The Focus of the Research, its Aims and Objectives 3. A Review of Available Literature, Resource Materials and Fieldwork Studies 4. An Outline of the Thesis and its Methodological Approaches 4.1 Structure 4.2 Critical Methodology 5. Contributions to Knowledge PART 1: The Nature of the Art Form Chapter 1 21 Tanztheater: An Art Form of the Present with its Roots in the Past Introduction 1. A Performance Art of the Postmodern Era 2. Roots and Relationships: The Ausdruckstanz Legacy 3. Mapping Bausch’s Tanztheater Journey: Genealogical Imprints 4. Transatlantic Influences: 1959-1962 5. A Change of Direction: Shifting Roles and New Relationships 6. Hybridism in Tanztheater: Crossing Boundaries 7. Beyond the Boundaries: Existing on the Margins in the Liminal Zone Conclusion Chapter 2 79 Creating an Interactive Environment: Form and Structure Introduction 1.Collage as a Structuring Principle 1.1 The Visual Arts 1.2 The Concept of Collage in the Performing Arts 1.3 Comparisons between Collage and Montage 2. Intertextuality and Structural Composition 2.1 A Case Study of Masurca Fogo (1998) 2.1.1 Design Features 2.1.2 Audio-Visual Elements 2.1.3 Structural Features, Patterning Devices and Direct Correspondences 2.1.4 Leitmotivs and Interrelationships 2.1.5 Indirect Relationships and Quoted Motifs 2.1.6 Simultaneous Action, Canon and Counterpoint 2.1.7 Continuity 4 Table of Contents 3. Affective Stimuli 3.1 Brechtian concepts of Verfremdung and Gestus aesthetically re-functioned 3.2 The Role of Comedy 3.3 The Body as Site 3.4 Languages of the Body 3.5 Creative Role Play 3.6 Repetition Conclusion PART 2: The Human Agency Chapter 3 146 The Theoretical Framework: an Ecological Approach Introduction 1. Shifting Cultural Landscapes 2. Cultural Ecology as a Field of Study 3. Developing a Theoretical Framework 3.1 Theatre Ecology 3.2 Theatre Archaeology 3.3. Theatre Anthropology 4. The Nature of the Performance Environment 5. Organic Relationships between the Body and its Experiential Environment 6. The Concept of Journey and the Notion of a Space/Time Continuum Conclusion Chapter 4 190 Creative Collaborations: Shifting Roles and Relationships Introduction Phase I: Impressions Phase II: Interrogative Explorations Phase III: Design and Construction Phase IV: Creating an Ecological Environment Phase V: Experiential Journeys Figure 1: Interrelationships; Figure 2: Creative Roles Conclusion PART 3: The Artworks Chapter 5 228 Travels with Bausch – an Ecological Journey Introduction 1. Representational Strategies: the Verfremdungseffekt 5 Table of Contents 2. Intertextuality – A Process of Continuous Renewal and Reflection 2.1 Masurca Fogo (1998) 2.2 O Dido (1999) 2.3 Wiesenland (2000) 2.4 Água (2001) 3. The Body as Site – Experiential Journeys in Dance 3.1 Fire 3.2 Air 3.3 Earth 3.4 Water 4. Dance in Progress Conclusion Conclusion 279 1. Assessing the Critical Outcomes in Relation to Primary Aims & Objectives 2. Topics Addressed and an Assessment of Emergent Findings 1.1 Theory and Practice: Generic Issues, Hybridism and Ontological Shifts 1.2 Interpretive Issues: Collage and Montage as Compositional Approaches 1.3 Verfremdung as Dynamic Sensory and Representational Strategies 3. Evaluating Research Methods in Relation to Aims and Objectives 4. Contributions to Knowledge 5. Areas for Future Research Bibliography 289 Appendix A (pp1-6): Biography of Pina (Philippine) Bausch Appendix B1 (pp1-3): Case Study - Masurca Fogo (1998) 1.1 Production Credits and Cast List 1.2 Music Credits 2. Set Design 3. Key to Abbreviations Appendix B2 (pp1-27): Case Study – Masurca Fogo (1998) CHART 1: Structure CHART 2: Themes and Narrative Readings CHOREOGRAPHIC OUTLINE Appendix