Pina Bausch: Confronting Bodily Norms

The lecture on the work of Pina Bausch will focus on a frequently
addressed and problematized phenomenon of the author's performances –
gender struggle, which is considered to be an essential characteristic
of the Wuppertal Dance Theatre by numerous theoreticians and historians
alike. Most interpreters dealing with Pina Bausch’s work tend to focus
on how her performances portray power relationships persisting as
inherently present in erotic negotiations, as well as on the approach
her performances take in order to trace gender conflicts and explore
gender roles as something compulsory. The lecture will introduce
certain examples from performances in order to assert that the act of
producing and portraying normative images of femininity and
masculinity, as seen in the persistent repetition of that very theme in
Pina Bausch’s performances, speaks to the fact that bodies being
signified in terms of gender is nothing but a metaphor for all other
possible signifying practices and norms – disciplines that the body is
subject to. Katja Praznik

Organized by: City of Women; In collaboration with: Kiberpipa.