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Nefés
Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch
Brooklyn Academy of Music
Brooklyn, NY
December 9, 2006

by Leigh Witchel
copyright 2006 by Leigh Witchel

A woman in a cocktail dress was staring at the audience.
A man in a suit walked up to her. “What are you doing?” He asked.
“I’m smiling.  Without a reason.  It’s difficult, try it.”
He did.  And it was.
“Keep smiling.” She offered helpfully, as they backed off the stage. “Without a reason.  It’s difficult.”

In one pungent moment, there you have everything good about Pina Bausch’s theater dance pieces; the offbeat, absurd, sweet-and-sour observations that remain after the piece is over.  “Nefés” (Turkish for “breath”) has several of those nuggets, but in nearly three hours, you may have to be a true believer to make the effort.

A Bausch trademark is the extravagant theatrical gesture possible only from state subsidy, such as covering the stage with dirt or carnations. This time, there’s a seeping pool of water right in the middle of the stage — not a physical pool or any type of vessel. Just water. Right in the middle of the stage. I spent a great deal of the show wondering exactly how it was done. The water becomes the setting for a lakeside picnic, the straits of the Bosporus with a toy ferry shuttling across, and a downpour at the climax of the first act with a male solo that reminded one for all the world of “Singin’ in the Rain.”

Bausch has done several pieces inspired by a residency in a locale; this one was made in 2003 after a three week stay in Istanbul. For all the travel, the Turkish music used for atmosphere and whether it’s carnations, mud or water onstage, Bausch’s dances seem to take place in the same landscape in the mind, with tango and cabaret music in the background. This imaginary set that changes from moment to moment feels like Istanbul to her, and she’s made Istanbul conform to her vision.

The biggest difference between “Nefés” and earlier works is how much more lighthearted it is in comparison, even considering it was made as the U.S. was invading Turkey’s southern neighbor Iraq. As Istanbul is hundreds of miles from that border, so that conflict seems far away from the piece. Bausch is more interested in personal themes here, particularly gender. 

For Bausch, men and women are prisoners of their sexual roles and it’s all a game to try to use the constrictions to ones’ advantage and beat the odds, though the house usually wins. The piece begins in a Turkish bath, with female attendants either subserviently beating their hair above the men they attend, or bullying their clients. In another vignette, a man has quickie sex in endless repetition with Nazareth Panadero (the Bausch veteran who was also the woman smiling without a reason, and without whom “Nefés” would have lost much of its sparkle), who engaged him wordlessly and then went back each time to doing endless washing drudgery from a bucket. All while wearing the same cocktail dress, Bausch’s emblem, along with the men’s suits, of a sexual straitjacket.

“Nefés” felt at times like vaudeville; it was a seemingly endless procession of vignettes where Borscht Belt humor met Beckett. Bausch eschews mundane concepts like progression; if you weren’t on her wavelength it could feel like being trapped in three hours of “Laugh-In” for the all-in-black set. As in the Catskills, even the shticks are recycled.  A man did a gymnastic handstand to take a drink from the pool, and then spit it out like a fountain jet.  “Two Cigarettes in the Dark”, which played at BAM more than a decade ago, had the same joke, only with champagne.  After two hours with no end in sight — and having no idea if it would end because everything’s the middle — I started to hallucinate exit stratagems.

A few minutes later, things picked up again. Bausch threw a bazaar onto the stage with vendors, swirling fabrics and bustle, followed by enormous projections of Istanbul traffic that the dancers desperately evaded. Themes got tied together, there was a sense of locale and things felt like they had a purpose and were logically moving towards a conclusion. Wrong. We went back to 40 minutes more “Laugh-In”. When Bausch finally wrapped things up it was with a Kingdom of the Shades procession across the stage to Tom Waits instead of Minkus. Petipa’s was a lot better; Bausch’s dancers came out for a curtain call while a few of them were still shuffling across the stage on their rears; the stragglers had to shamefacedly get up and join the line.

There was a large amount of pure dance in the piece, the majority of it atmospheric solos for several members of the company. The solos were too similar and a few could have been cut. I’d mention the dancers individually but they were identified only by name in the program; they didn’t get bios either. On the Tanztheater Wuppertal website there are photos, but evidently the only person who matters enough for a bio is the auteur herself.  Besides Panadero, I was able to identify guest artist Shantala Shivalingappa, who caught my eye with her classical Indian technique; the piercing wide-eyed gaze and the suspension of her head freely on her neck.

Bausch’s work can be an endurance test in the theater but it lingers with you; I still recall moments from “Two Cigarettes in the Dark” after more than a decade. Like that piece, “Nefés” is better in hindsight when your brain seizes on the best moments and deletes the longeurs.

Photos:
First: Fernando Suels and Shantala Shivalingappa. Photo by Jochen Viehoff.
Second: The ensemble. Photo by Jochenn Viehofff.

Volume 4, No. 45
December 18, 2006
copyright ©2006 Leigh Wiitchel
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