A pivotal piece in Tanztheater Wuppertal’s repertoire, Palermo Palermo is one of a long series of danced portraits of cities choreographed by the late Pina Bausch. In 1989, shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall, the German choreographer, then in residence in Palermo, imagined a collapsing brick wall, a metaphor for “the invisible walls that exist everywhere in the world, inside our heads.” Amid the rubble, male and female dancers with powerful individuality perform a succession of vignettes, in high heels or barefoot. A seismic tremor of unforgettable proportions, Palermo Palermo depicts a shaken humanity in a sensual and colourful Sicily, where the street is an ongoing performance ... Today, a younger generation is taking up the torch alongside familiar members of the troupe to breathe new life into the many characters of this baroque and poetic creation. Stunning.
In coproduction with Teatro Biondo Stabile, Palermo and Andres Neumann International
Tickets start at $59.00
Photo © Wilfried Krüger
Choreographer
Pina Bausch was born in 1940 in Solingen and died in 2009 in Wuppertal. She received her dance training at the Folkwang School in Essen under Kurt Jooss, where she achieved technical excellence. Soon after the director of Wuppertal’s theatres, Arno Wüstenhöfer, engaged her as choreographer, from autumn 1973, she renamed the ensemble the Tanztheater Wuppertal. Under this name, although controversial at the b...
Read more about Pina BauschIn 1973 Pina Bausch became artistic director of the Wuppertal Opera Ballet, an institution that she renamed Tanztheater Wuppertal two years later, instigating a veritable revolution with the advent of the dance-theatre movement. Based in an industrial city in the North rhine-Westphalia region, the company performs some thirty shows a year there, in addition to its many performances abroad. 29 of the 42 pieces in her reperto...
Read more about Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina BauschTanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch
Artistic Director Boris Charmatz.
Administrative Director Roger Christmann.
Palermo Palermo
A work by Pina Bausch
In coproduction with Teatro Biondo Stabile, Palermo and Andres Neumann International.
Direction / Choreography Pina Bausch.
Set design Peter Pabst.
Costumes Marion Cito.
Music collaboration Matthias Burkert.
Music Edvard Grieg, Niccolo Paganini, traditional music from Sicily, southern Italy, Africa, Japan and Scotland, Renaissance music, blues and jazz from the USA.
Rehearsal direction Michael Strecker, Robert Sturm and Magali Caillet-Gajan,
Rehearsal assistant Nayoung Kim.
With artists Emma Barrowman, Andrey Berezin, Dean Biosca, Naomi Brito, Maria Giovanna Delle Donne, Taylor Drury, Çağdaş Ermiş, Letizia Galloni, Simon Le Borgne, Reginald Levebvre, Alexander Lopez Guerra, Nicholas Losada, Eddie Martinez, Franko Schmidt, Azusa Seyama, Julie Anne Stanzak, Oleg Stepanov, Julian Stierle, Christopher Tandy, Tsai-Wei Tien and Tsai-Chin Yu.
And the guest artists Nazareth Panadero and Christoph Iacono.
Permiere December 17, 1989, Opernhaus Wuppertal.
Performance rights Verlag der Autoren representing the Pina Bausch Foundation.