Wim Wenders was planning a film about Pina Bausch before her sudden death from cancer in 2010, so the film that he has made has become a loving tribute to one of the most innovative choreographers of the 20th century. The film opens with a simple explanation of how to dance by presenting the four seasons in four simple movements, if you watch it closely or repeat it, you can do it yourself. From these simple movements with the hands, Pina gives you a sense of the joy of dance, but it was from these elemental movements that she developed some of the most complex, and physically demanding pieces of 'dance theatre' which never lose a sense of poetry and expression, be it pain, violence, sarcasm, childishness, joy or love. She was capable, as the film shows at the outset, of creating new ways of seeing now standard ballets like The Rite of Spring; and capable of using her childhood experiences in the Ruhr, where her parents owned a run-down hotel-restaurant, in Cafe Muller. But her works were collaborations with the dancers and mostly developed from themes rather than stories which is what made her work difficult for some audiences to understand, were they ever lucky enough to see the company. Wenders offers the dancers their chance to say how Pina got them to perform -some say nothing but express their thoughts in dance, often in the streets or on the overhead train in Wuppertal where Pina's theatre was based. One dancer says: She said to me: Think about Joy, and from that she created a sequence in Vollmond that is exhilarating and wonderful to see. I haven't seen the 3D version but I have to say the dancing is superb, and while the primary focus is on the works rather than the person, Pina emerges as an intense, difficult, but loving person who generated equally intense loyalty among the members of her company. Wenders own impeccable artistic integrity has produced one of the best films about dance, and one of the best documentaries ever made.
Review of Pina
