On 11 March 2025, Pina Bausch’s Tanztheater Wuppertal returned to the Adelaide Festival, this time bringing its seminal dance theatre work Café Müller (1978) for its Australian premiere. The full program is a nostalgia trip revisiting prominent works from the 1970s and 1990s, because the company at that time was under the directorship of trailblazing French contemporary dancer and choreographer Boris Charmatz who brought his Club Amor to partner with Café Müller, making this a fascinating evening highlighting ‘love and desire’ in very different ways. Charmatz speaks of his admiration of Bausch’s repertoire and the importance of her legacy:
I wanted to go deep into her work so it can be taken care of collectively because it is not me alone taking care of it. There is the foundation, the critics, the dancers and ex dancers, the audience and so on. There are so many people who are taking care of this repertoire which is amazing. (Veronica Posth, Dance Icons, 2023)
That said, feathers have been ruffled with some resistance within the company to Charmatz’s artistic direction (Hüster, 2025). Indeed, regarding repertoire preservation, certain choreographers have made explicit instructions that their work is not performed after their death, so it is a positive to understand how Salomon Bausch—son, heir, and rights administrator of the Bausch works—working alongside the Pina Bausch Foundation considers the importance of Café Müller being revived.
Read more …..
Sonia York-Pryce, July 2025
Featured image: A moment from Café Müller. Photo: © Oliver Look, courtesy of Berliner Festspiele.
