October 06, 2004 -

OTTAWA -- In their only Canadian engagement, Pina Bausch Tanztheater Wuppertal will perform Masurca Fogo in Southam Hall of the National Arts Centre (NAC) on November 26 and 27, 2004. This marks the return of Germany’s most famous dance artist after an absence of almost 20 years. Cathy Levy, Producer of Dance Programming at the NAC, says “We are absolutely thrilled to be welcoming the world’s finest contemporary dance-theatre group. Bringing them here has long been a dream of mine – and now it’s a dream come true!” Ticket sales have been brisk since June, with hundreds of dance-lovers coming to the National Arts Centre from Toronto, Montreal, New York (where the company is performing a different work at the Brooklyn Academy of Music), and cities as far away as Victoria, British Columbia!

Germany’s Pina Bausch is a brilliant choreographer, certainly one of the most important and influential creative forces of the 20th century. Having inspired two generations of choreographers, dance theatre makers, and opera directors, Bausch is renowned for her brilliant artistry and for lush, emotionally charged  -- and sometimes controversial – productions. Pina Bausch's dance-theatre works are deeply rooted in the stories they tell. Themes recurrent in her works involve the search for true love, the war between the sexes, and the relationship between the individual and the group. Her style is often revue-like, presented in epics that meld music, dialogue, and dance into collages of dreamlike sequences intercut with parallel plots. Speech and movement patterns are repeated, while contrasting elements and emotions are played against one another. Childish games contrast with urbane sophistication, grief with happiness, tension with release, darkness with light. Applauded worldwide, Pina Baush leaves audiences and critics in raptures.

Masurca Fogo (Mazurka of Fire) – created for Lisbon’s Expo ’98 -- finds Bausch in a playful and upbeat mood. Inspired by her fascination with Portugal, this two-act extravaganza for 22 dancers is exuberant comic fantasy and exotic tropical holiday rolled into one. Performers and audiences alike revel in the sheer sensual joy of the seaside, but are drawn into the pitfalls of social ritual and the hope, desire, and heartbreak of human intimacy. Masurca Fogo features Portuguese fado, tango, samba, Brazilian waltzes, jazz, and pop songs; there is also dialogue, projected movie images, exceptionally theatrical costumes and effects, and interaction between performers and the audience. The choreography, naturally, is dazzling and seductive: energetic, ecstatic, and extraordinary. Masurca Fogo is sure to be the hottest ticket in town. Both performances are guaranteed to sell out!

“The audience not only comprehend, they live, they hope, they suffer and fear with the performers. They are drawn into a highly concentrated experience of profound emotional intensity which shakes and moves them from inside.”

ANCILLARY ACTIVITIES: FILM SCREENING
Details will soon be forthcoming about other activities celebrating the visit of Pina Bausch Tanztheater Wuppertal to Ottawa. Confirmed events include a screening of three Pina Bausch films (Coffee with Pina, Café Mueller, and Searching for Dance: the other theatre of Pina Bausch) in partnership with the Canadian Film Institute and the Goethe Institute. The screening will take place on Saturday, November 27, 2004 at 14:00 at the National Archives and Library 395 Wellington Street. Tickets $10

SPECIAL OFFER FROM VIA RAIL: 35% OFF!
Ticket buyers save 35% off the full adult VIA Rail fare in Comfort Class (economy) or 5% in VIA 1 first class. This offer is valid between any city in the Windsor-Quebec City corridor and Ottawa, for travel on any day between November 25-28, 2004. Passengers may book their tickets online at www.viarail.ca. Choose the date, time, comfort class, and point of departure. When prompted to enter a discount type, enter “CONV” as the discount code; enter “10403” as the serial number. The fare will then be updated by VIA’s reservation system to reflect the discount of 35%. Passengers must pick up their tickets at the VIA ticket counter and show their purchased tickets for the NAC Pina Bausch performance to the agent. This offer is not valid for VIA tickets by mail (TBM) or at VIA ticket kiosks.

SPECIAL OFFER FROM THE LORD ELGIN HOTEL
Ticket buyers receive a special rate of only $109 for a single or double room (regular rate $145). The Lord Elgin Hotel is at 100 Elgin Street, directly across the street from the NAC. Reservations should be made directly with the hotel, at 1-800-267-4298 or by e-mail at reservations@lordelginhotel.ca

TICKETS
Tickets for Masurca Fogo are $75, $65, $55, and $45, and $38.50, $33.50, $28.50, and $23.50 for students (upon presentation of a valid student ID card) and for children age 12 and under. Tickets are available at the NAC Box Office (in person) and through Ticketmaster (with surcharges) at (613) 755-1111; Ticketmaster may also be accessed through the NAC’s web-site at www.nac-cna.ca.  A pair of ‘Live Rush’ last-minute tickets (subject to availability) can be purchased by full-time students for $9.50 each at the Live Rush Centre in the NAC Foyer at 18:00 on the day of performance only, upon presentation of a valid ‘Live Rush’ card.

GROUP SALES
Groups of 20 or more save up to 20% off regular priced tickets for Pina Bausch Tanztheater Wuppertal performances. Students save 50%. Adult group tickets range from $36.40 to $64.05 per person, all inclusive. For reservations, call (613) 947-7000 x384 or toll free 1-866-850-2787, x384 or e-mail grp@nac-cna.ca

Photos for all dance events can be viewed and downloaded at: www.nac-cna.ca/media/

Information:
Gerald Morris
Marketing and Media Relations,
NAC Dance Department
(613) 947-7000, ext. 249
gmorris@nac-cna.ca

PINA BAUSCH
Born in Solingen, Germany in 1940, Pina Bausch began her dance studies at the age of 15 at the Folkwang School in Essen, where she studied with several teachers, including the renowned expressionist choreographer Kurt Jooss. In 1959, she graduated and was awarded the Folkwang Prize for special achievement. With a stipend from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), Bausch went to New York in 1960 to study at the Juilliard School with Anthony Tudor, José Limon, Louis Horst, Alfredo Corvino, Margaret Craske, and La Meri, among others. At the same time, she performed with the Paul Sanasardo and Donya Feuer Dance Company and with the New American Ballet. Pina Bausch later became a member of the Metropolitan Opera's ballet company and also worked with Paul Taylor. She has remarked that her two years in New York were among the most influential in her early life and that when she thinks of New York, she feels a sense of homesickness.

In 1962, Bausch returned to Germany where she became a soloist in the newly formed Folkwang Ballett, working once again with Kurt Jooss, with Hans Zülig, and especially with Jean Cébron. Her choreographic career began in 1968 with Fragmente, followed by Im Wind der Zeit (In the Wind of Time), which later won first prize at the Second International Choreographic Competition in Cologne. Bausch has said that her impetus for taking up choreography was out of the frustration of wanting something to dance. From 1969 to 1973, she served as Artistic Director of the company while continuing to dance and choreograph. Bausch's work was soon gaining notice and, after creating the bachannale for Hans-Peter Lehmann's production of Richard Wagner's Tannhäuser for the Wuppertal Opera Company in 1972, she was offered the directorship of the Wuppertal Opera Ballet. Reluctant at first, Bausch agreed when she was permitted to bring dancers from the Folkwang-Tanzstudio with her. Not long after her arrival, the company became the Wuppertaler Tanztheater, and was later renamed the Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch.

In her new position, Bausch helped revive modern dance in post-war Germany -- which has its roots in Ausdrucktanz, or "expressive dance," which looked to everyday movements to express personal experiences, and which gained popularity in the 1920s. But with the rise of the Nazis and the war, modern dance lost its vigor and many of its creators, such as Kurt Jooss, left the country; German dance became isolated. After the war, there was little enthusiasm for Ausdrucktanz, while classical ballet flourished. With Jooss's return to Germany in 1949, the re-established Folkwang School provided one of the only places for formal training in dance other than ballet. But it was not until the late 1960s and 1970s that German modern dance began to regain momentum, in part due to the student movement in West Germany. Young dancers felt constrained by the formalism of German ballet and American post-modern dance, and rebelled against the Americanization of their country. Some returned to the expressionism of Ausdrucktanz and started to venture into new ground, combining it with elements from the other arts. Toward the late 1970s, the term ‘Tanztheater’ or ‘dance theater’, began to be used to distinguish the work of these choreographers, one of them being Pina Bausch.