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Tidal Shift

The curtain for “Vollmond,” one of the final works from the late Pina Bausch, created in 2006, opens on a colossal boulder that calls to mind a craggy sea stone, or maybe a hunk of spacerock. It could be either—the title translates to both ‘high tide’ and ‘full moon,’ and its concerns are as earthly as they are cosmic: love, ire, power, the stratospheric stuff of life. The duality is in step with Bausch’s wider repertoire, posing oblique questions about the human condition, especially the relationships between men and women, although there’s more room for warmth here than in earlier works, more silliness amid the meditation.

Performance

Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch: “Vollmond”

Place

Sadler's Wells, London, UK, February 14, 2025

Words

Sara Veale

Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch in “Vollmond.” Photograph by Martin Argyroglo

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Under stage designer Peter Pabst’s fanciful eye, gallons of water, beautiful and wild, pour from cups, buckets, mouths and eventually the rafters, a wall of rainfall with exquisite slices of light glimmering through its slats. By the end of act one, the cast is wading in a foot-deep tidepool surrounding the boulder. The tidal shift sends everyone cuckoo; silly antics abound, from goofy exchanges to races to unclasp a bra. Tsai-Wei Tien shows marvellous comedic timing with her knowing smiles to the audience, Maria Giovanna Delle Donne too. Even the power struggles—a classic Bausch conceit—are played for laughs, though some take a dark turn: shaken bodies and sharp blows, kisses that test the boundaries of consent. The underbelly of desire—the grief of it—slips in and out of sight, shrouded in the surf.

The work finds some gravity in the old-world glamour of evening gowns and rumpled suits—another Bausch signature—and in enigmatic moments of sexual frisson: a wry disrobing sequence, and the improbable sensuality of an apple snatched from an open mouth. A screwball twist on musical chairs reads like a frenzied mating ritual, part zany and part transgressive, the twelve-strong ensemble darting between empty seats, taking turns planting smooches and resting their bodies on one another.

Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch in “Vollmond.” Photograph by Martin Argyroglo

Some of these skits soldier on a few beats too long, the obstruse exploits and zany decrees landing awkwardly. A certain tension breaks when the cast is allowed to dance without interruption, the choreography channelling the silky vitality of the set and the soundtrack, which drifts from ambient (Cat Power) to glorious (string quartet) with surprising ease. The highlight for me was a series of sculpturesque solos danced in the rain, spirals of motion accented with arced chests and curlicue port de bras. Veteran company member Ditta Miranda Jasjfi gives a rapturous showing, spinning with the fury of a whirlpool, while Emily Castelli stoops to gather air in her strong arms, a dusky, primal mover. Naomi Brito’s jolting performance—delivered while the men of the cast slosh water at the boulder behind her, the liquid striking its hard edges with an audible ‘slap’—is especially entrancing.

The full ensemble only unites in the later moments of the piece, first in body-rocking call-and-response number and then in a swaying slow dance performed in swimsuits. The latter sees the audience slow right down with them, lulled into a reverie of tender undulation. Perhaps they’re vacationers kindling a holiday romance, or spouses sinking into each other’s arms after a long day of children and chores. Such is the multiplicity of “Vollmond”—an invitation to swim in its choppy currents and see what the waves toss up.

Sara Veale


Sara Veale is a London-based writer and editor. She's written about dance for the Observer, the Spectator, DanceTabs, Auditorium Magazine, Exeunt and more. Her first book, Untamed: The Radical Women of Modern Dance, was published in 2024.

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