Without it, we have nothing: A Review of Pina, the Movie
The international arts community received a serious blow on June 30th, 2009: Pina Bausch, choreographer, dancer, and director of the Wuppertal Theater in Germany, died.
News of her death shocked many, seeing as Bausch had received news of having cancer 5 days before her death.
The death of Pina, however, didn’t mean the death of Tanztheater, and it certainly didn’t mean the end of her genius. Wim Wenders managed to capture the tip of the majestic iceberg that is Pina’s work in his 3D movie, “Pina.”
The film started out with scenes from the iconic work titled after and set to Igor Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rite of Spring). From there, the film features other works by Pina (including one of my favorites, Cafe Muller), as well as other solos and vignettes of choreography developed by the members of her ensemble. Interweaved between the dance scenes are quotes from the dancers about their experiences in the company and what Pina taught them about being dancers and people.
As a skeptic of the value of 3D, I have to say that this movie was worth the entire $17.50, and I found it so thought-provoking that I would gladly see it again in theaters. I was initially worried about the 3D being extraneous, a reason to charge IFC frequenters more to see a movie about a choreographer they didn’t even know.
The 3D was so much more than that. It placed the audience in Germany, taking us from the Wuppertal Theater to the beautiful sprawling landscapes that the company members turned into their studio spaces. It took us between generations, letting us watch works as performed by veteran company members and newer members simultaneously. It was like taking a walk through Pina’s brain, learning about what she imagined and what she valued. The cinematography was absolutely stunning.
The audience was left in shock at not only how stunning the visuals were, but how wise Pina was and how much her dancers respected her. She brought them out of their shells, slowly and carefully, finding ways to hone their talent, and become their fullest and most passionate selves. Not only are they all completely gorgeous beings, but they all have a very deep understanding of how they can use movement to represent feeling, nature, and express things that one can’t say. Their tributes to Pina were so fully thought out that it was impossible to not feel a visceral reaction to all of them.
I like to call myself a modern dancer. I saw the movie with a ballet dancer and a non-dancer, and we were all equally blown away by what we had just seen. Even with completely different backgrounds, we were all able to feel something after seeing the film, and we all agreed that it had been an experience we could not put into words (and we all, bizarrely enough, seemed to want to cry for no reason at all). Even during the end credits, not one person in the audience made an attempt to say anything, go anywhere, or even applaud. We all just sat in a reflective silence, as though debating how and when we could go fulfill our biggest dreams.
There is so much that I can say about how the movie made me feel. Even writing about it is making me emotional in ways that I’m not even sure I understand. All I can say is…see the movie at your local independent film center.
And keep dancing. Or writing, or playing, or doing whatever your passion is, for without it, we have nothing.
