MANY years ago I had the good fortune to attend a major premiere of a new work by the late choreographer Pina Bausch at her home theatre in Wuppertal, Germany. The place was sold out. A crowd of fans packed into the box office area in the hope that a ticket might become available. I had to push my way through to the window and when I turned around with my precious tickets, frankly I was a bit nervous that they would be snatched from hands. I was confronted by a sea of envious eyes.
But here’s the thing – the work was not finished and the production didn’t even have a name yet. Nobody knew what they were paying to see. There was no advertising and no program. The work was not finished, but it went on anyway, with audiences quite happy to witness a Bausch creation regardless.
I described the experience to Rafael Bonachela, choreographer and artistic director of Sydney Dance Company, to open our conversation while also preparing for a season of his , which premiered in 2018 and will return in September in Sydney.
