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Performance Monkey

David Jays on theatre and dance

You are here: Home / Archives for Pina Bausch

Everything Pina

April 20, 2020 by David Jays 1 Comment

I was always going to schedule Wim Wenders’ Pina for Lockdown Theatre Club. Pina Bausch’s work has been a delight and compulsion throughout my theatregoing lifetime. I’ve seen every piece I can, several of them more than once. When her Tanztheater Wuppertal brought 10 productions to London during the Olympic year, I saw them all. I’ve snatched at review, interview and programme-note opportunities. … [Read more...]

Pina | Lockdown Theatre Club 6

April 19, 2020 by David Jays Leave a Comment

Watch Pina with Lockdown Theatre Club on Tuesday 21 April. Pina is available to rent on Amazon Prime. At 8pm everyone presses play and watches together. You can tweet along (#LockdownTheatreClub) or just enjoy the film knowing we're all part of an audience together. What is Pina? A documentary about the choreographer Pina Bausch, one of the most significant 20th-century artists, by Wim Wenders … [Read more...]

Don’t mention the war

April 20, 2015 by David Jays 4 Comments

How much should we talk about history when we talk about Pina Bausch? Audiences respond to the late choreographer's elemental themes, but Bausch’s angst was not only existential, but also historic. Sexual politics were an abiding theme in her work, and the pummelling conflict between men and women is the livid matter of much of her dance. But it also figures much more than this – and the 1984 … [Read more...]

Speak, memory

March 12, 2014 by David Jays 1 Comment

How do you imagine your memory? As a rheumatic showgirl going through her old paces; a disembodied mouth yabbering its hoard; a frolicsome performance troupe or a whirring tape machine, speaking into the void? Memory is the story the mind tells itself about itself, the unreliable biography that is all we’ve got. We build it up and then it starts to fall through our fingers. But how do you put … [Read more...]

Still walking. Still talking

February 17, 2014 by David Jays 5 Comments

We all grow older. Since Performance Monkey last tottered towards the keyboard, his paws have grown sclerotic, his plush has rubbed off, he displays the rusty effect of winter and rough weather. He’s nearer death, as are we all. These merry reflections are inspired by Pina Bausch’s 1980, performed by the sublime Tanztheater Wuppertal. This was the work that turned a whole generation of British … [Read more...]

David Jays

I am a writer and critic on performance, books and film and currently write for, among others, the Sunday Times and the Guardian. I edit Dance Gazette, the magazine of the Royal Academy of Dance. I’m also a lifelong Londoner: it’s the perfect city for connecting to art forms that both look back and spring forward. [Read More]

Performance Monkey

This is what theatre and dance audiences do: we sit in the dark, watching performances. And then, if it seems worth it, we think about what we've seen, and how it made us feel. The blog should be a conversation, so please comment on the posts and add your thoughts. You know what I've always … [Read More...]

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Recent Comments

  • Veronica Horwell on Hamilton | Lockdown Theatre Club 17: “Know what you mean about the underpowered pre-17late90s shoulder: a bottle slope approach to body outline — the Hamilton coats…” Jul 8, 13:41
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  • Hamilton | Lockdown Theatre Club 17
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