Wundertal – A City in Motion

Press Release 29.03.2023

The Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch presents its first large-scale event under the leadership of Boris Charmatz, who became its artistic director in August 2022. WUNDERTAL will run from 21 to 29 May 2023 and is part of the preparatory phase of the future Pina Bausch Centre.

WUNDERTAL is a constellation of different encounters, which aim to open up new pathways and access to choreographic projects. WUNDERTAL takes place in the city with and for its residents, for amateurs, dance students, actors from the Wuppertaler Bühnen and many more. It offers a glimpse into the new vision for the ensemble, with stronger roots in the city and the potentials of the future Pina Bausch Centre. WUNDERTAL stands for departures and new beginnings, for joyful visions, creations on new terrain and innovative participatory formats, and of course for creative ways of preserving and sharing Pina Bausch’s repertoire.

WUNDERTAL is the first project to be jointly developed by the Tanztheater Wuppertal and [terrain], Boris Charmatz’s French structure, which experienced in large-scale experimental projects.

“I’m interested in the balancing act of dancing in the public space vs. dancing in the intimacy of a studio. There is material everywhere to feed our creativity – also on the Sonnborner Straße, precisely because it isn’t a beautiful avenue. It is an injured street, cut in half by the A46”, explains Boris Charmatz. “For me, choreographing also means excavating everyday life. Digging, rummaging, kicking up dust, going into corners. These places often bring surprising things to light.”

WUNDERTAL opens on 21 May with a three-hour happening, a dance marathon on the Sonnborner Straße, under the Suspension Railway, la Schwebebahn, for up to 200 dancers – both amateurs and professionals – and accompanied by organ music. Afterwards we will celebrate and dance together to the music of DJ Electric Indigo. On 24 and 25 May, Boris Charmatz will present his 2021 solo SOMNOLE in the Schauspielhaus. A Dancer’s Day is an invitation to audience members who would like to experience a dancer’s daily routines – warm up, workshop with the dancers of the ensemble, picnic and siesta, followed by a performance. A Dancer’s Day will take place at the Schauspielhaus, the future Pina Bausch Centre on 27 and 28 May, culminating in performances of Palermo Palermo by Pina Bausch at the Opera House from 26 to 29 May.

“With the Pina Bausch Centre we are creating a space today for the art of tomorrow, where outstanding artistic practices, participation, inclusion and diversity will all be made possible. They are rooted in Pina Bausch’s artistic courage, her deep humanism and her unique perspective on dance and the body. Ready to explore new terrain, Boris Charmatz and the ensemble are inviting everyone to discover dance and the city – “on our doorstep”. WUNDERTAL our first joint large-scale project, is a big step into our future”, says Bettina Milz, the Pina Bausch Centre’s coordinator and director of its preparatory phase.

“Couldn’t Wuppertal become a place of celebration, of transformation, of collective movement, of ecological change – all in the context of an art that burns?” Boris Charmatz

Booking for the WUNDERTAL – programme opens on 31 March, 10:00

Wundertal, 21. May, 15h00, Sonnborner Straße
SOMNOLE, 24. & 25. May, 19h30 Schauspielhaus, Bundesallee 260
A Dancer’s Day, 27. May 14h00 & 28. May 13h30 Schauspielhaus/Pina Bausch Zentrum & Opernhaus
Palermo Palermo, 26.& 27. May 19h30, 28. & 29. May 18h00, Opernhaus

Wundertal / Sonnborner Straße

Sunday 21. May, 15:00 – 19:00
Sonnborner Straße
Three-hour dance marathon to organ music – ceremonious and fortissimo – countdown, running, movements of love and protest, everyday gestures, zombie dances, interwoven with Else Lasker-Schüler’s famous poem “My Dancing Song” (“Thus have I been dancing for a thousand years, Since my first eternities”), … followed by dancing to a set by DJ Electric Indigo

Tickets Free admission. Registration recommended: pina-bausch.de

SOMNOLE

A piece by Boris Charmatz
Tuesday, Wednesday, 24. & 25. May
19:30 Schauspielhaus Bundesallee 260

A solo danced by Boris Charmatz and accompanied only by the sheer sound of whistling, full of familiar melodies. A sleepy solo that explores the frontier between wakefulness and sleep, reverie and awakening.

Tickets
Kulturkarte 0202 563 7666, pina-bausch.de
25€ full price,12€ concessions

A Dancer´s Day

27 May 2023
Warm up, workshop, picnic/siesta, performance

Schauspielhaus
14:00: doors open
14:30 – 15:15: warm up with dancers of the Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch
15:15 – 16:15: workshop for audience members of Palermo Palermo by Pina Bausch, led by a dancer of the Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch
16:30 – 17:00: picnic and extract solo 10000 gestes by Boris Charmatz, interpreted by Johanna Elisa Lemke
17:00 – 17:15: siesta

Opernhaus
19:30 – 22:30 Palermo Palermo – Ein Stück von Pina Bausch
22:30 – 22:48 boléro 2, extract of Trois boléros by Odile Duboc in front of the Opernhaus

28 May 2023

Schauspielhaus
13:00: doors open
13:30 – 14:15: warm up with dancers of the Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch
14:15 – 15:15: workshop for audience members of Palermo Palermo by Pina Bausch, led by a dancer of the Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch
15:30 – 16:00: picnic and extract solo 10000 gestes by Boris Charmatz, interpreted by Johanna Elisa Lemke
16:00 – 16:15: siesta

Opernhaus
10:00 – 21:00: Palermo Palermo – Ein Stück von Pina Bausch
21:00 – 21:18: boléro 2, extract of Trois boléros by Odile Duboc in front of the Opernhaus

Participants are invited to experience a dancer’s day: they warm up with the ensemble, rehearse a sequence from Palermo Palermo, eat with the ensemble and have a rest before walking from the future Pina Bausch Centre to the Opera House to watch a performance of Pina Bausch’s 1998 piece Palermo Palermo. Afterwards, Boris Charmatz and Emmanuelle Huy dance a duet to Ravel’s Bolero, which was created by Odile Duboc in 1996. They will perform it outside, right in front of the Friedrich-Engels-Allee.

Tickets
Combination ticket Kulturkarte 0202 563 7666, pina-bausch.de
A Dancer’s Day 10€ plus the ticket price for Palermo Palermo – A piece by Pina Bausch (25€, 35€, 45€ or 15€, 21€, 27€ concessions)

Palermo Palermo

A piece by Pina Bausch

Friday, Saturday 26, & 27 May 19:30, Sunday, Monday 28 & 29 May 18:00 h (Pentecost) International coproduction, created after a research trip by the ensemble to Palermo.

Tickets
Kulturkarte 0202 563 7666, pina-bausch.de
25€, 35€, 45€ or 15€, 21€, 27€ concessions

Wundertal by Boris Charmatz in May 2023 is a project by the Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch, [terrain] and the Pina Bausch Centre. It is a contribution to the preparatory phase of the Pina Bausch Centre and is funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia and the City of Wuppertal, as well as the Stadtsparkasse Wuppertal and the Dr. Werner Jackstädt-Stiftung.

SAVE THE DATES

On 10 May 2023, a rehearsal of Wundertal/Sonnborner Straße will be open to members of the press.
From 17:15 they will have the opportunity to speak with Boris Charmatz and other participants in the project, followed by a run-through of the piece.
Where: Sporthalle Nevigeser Straße 170, 42113 Wuppertal