Pina Bausch

Philippine Bausch was born in Solingen, a small German town, in the summer of 1940. Even when she was very young, she wanted to be called Pina. Her parents ran a hotel restaurant where the girl, along with her two older brothers, helped peel potatoes and make rooms. She liked to dance and do gymnastics and she participated in some children's ballet performances. At the age of fourteen she began her training as a dancer at the Folkwang school in Essen and she was taught by Kurt Jooss, a renowned choreographer who fused classical and modern dance. In 1959 she received a scholarship to go to New York and for the next three years she studied and danced in several major companies such as the Metropolitan Opera Ballet. She returned to Essen to join Jooss's company, of which she would end up as a director and with which she would achieve world fame. At first, Pina's choreographies ran into some misunderstanding and rejection, but far from being discouraged, she went ahead with her projects, which ended up conquering the public and great dancers from all over the world. Throughout her forty years as a choreographer, she created surprising and novel works. She received numerous awards, including the Kyoto, one of her most important art recognitions. At the beginning of Pedro Almodóvar's film Talk to her, she can be seen dancing by it and, two years after her death, Wim Wenders showed her incredible creative talent in the film Pina.