S
alomon Bausch has been
immersed in the work of his
mother, Pina, since he was a
few months old, long before
he realised that she was one of
Europe’s great modern artists.
“I was in the rehearsal space when I
was a baby, crawling around,” he says.
“There are lots of memories of music,
places — and even smells.”
By the time Pina died in 2009, aged
68, her son understood her reputation
and acted quickly to preserve it. Within
a fortnight he had formed a foundation
to protect and promote her work, inde-
pendent from Tanztheater Wuppertal
Pina Bausch, the dance company she
ran from 1973. That independence was
important — the volatile company has
had five directors since Pina’s death: a
sixth, the French choreographer Boris
Charmatz, starts in September.
Salomon also wanted to nudge her
repertoire into novel contexts. Hence a
new production of the 1975 piece The
Rite of Spring, performed by dancers
brought together by Senegal’s École
des Sables. The shattering and elemen-
tal work, where a “chosen one” is sac-
rificed, has been danced by established
companies, including English National
Ballet, but this version handpicked 36
dancers from 14 African countries.
“They are chosen for specificMark Morris, busy and celebrated at
65, has perhaps the most audacious
future plan — he’s creating works to be
performed posthumously, to give his
company continuing income.
Dead or alive, choreographers need
champions to fight their corner. Gara-
fola approvingly mentions “the remark-
able Deborah MacMillan”, who dog-
gedly keeps her late husband Kenneth’s
ballets current, “positioning and plac-
ing the work and making sure it’s done
properly”. This autumn the Royal Bal-
let revives the seamy tragedy Mayerling
— but it will also have its Paris pre-
miere, and Scottish Ballet has a stream-
lined new version.
For Salomon Bausch, Pina’s legacy is
personal. “It’s probably good that I’m
not a dancer or choreographer,” he
says, “so it’s clear that I won’t do the
artistic side of it. But I use my name and
personal connections to get things
going.” Those things, like the new Rite
of Spring, keep his mother’s work alive.
“We bring this piece to the dancers, but
they make it theirs. It’s only by doing it,
by dancing it, that the artwork can
exist on stage.” cThe Rite of Spring/common ground[s],
Sadler’s Wells, London EC1, Tue-Sat. La
Nijinska by Lynn Garafola is published
by Oxford University Press at £30qualities to enrich the work. They
come together just for this piece so
everybody is really invested in it,” Salo-
mon, 40, explains. The result mines
new force from a modern classic. When
it was delayed because of the pandemic
in 2020, the dancers filmed a socially
distanced performance on a beach in
Senegal. Now it can be seen live at Sad-
ler’s Wells in London next week.
When Salomon set up the founda-
tion, he was keen to ensure dance com-
panies commit appropriate resources
to productions and “take it seriously”.
“They must really want to do the piece
— not just to have Pina’s name on the
checklist.” That commitment to pre-
serve Pina’s work stands out in a world
where legacies can become messy.
Martha Graham, America’s modern
dance pioneer, left everything to her
capricious assistant Ron Protas and her
choreography almost disappeared until
a court ruled in her company’s favour.
Another landmark female choreogra-
pher was less lucky. Bronislava Nijinska
was one of Diaghilev’s star artists at the
Ballets Russes in the 1920s, but Lynn
Garafola, author of an enthralling new
biography, calculates that only two of
her 60-plus ballets remain in anything
like an authentic state.
In a sexist era, Nijinska never estab-
lished a longstanding company and herThe artist’s son has teamed up with dancers from across Africa for a new Rite of Spring. By David Jays
MAARTEN VANDEN ABEELE/PINA BAUSCH FOUNDATIONDANCE
KEEPING PINA BAUSCH ALIVE
work wasn’t filmed or fully notated —
only the Royal Ballet’s rare enthusiasm
for her work in the 1960s secured Les
Noces and Les Biches. “Nijinska was
absolutely aware of her diminished leg-
acy,” Garafola says. “She wrote to one of
her old students living in Moscow and
said: ‘There’s almost nothing left.’”
Garafola names Nijinska’s Chopin Con-
certo as a lost masterpiece by one of the
20th century’s blazing talents.
Like the Bausch Foundation, some
American icons have explored models
of what legacy can look like. Before his
death in 2009 Merce Cunningham’s
company made plans to shift from a
performing company to an educational
and licensing foundation, as did Trisha
Brown when she was diagnosed with
vascular dementia. She died in 2017,
but her work still finds new audiences.We bring this piece
to the dancers butthey make it theirs
Salomon BauschElemental power École des Sables’
reimagining of The Rite of Spring5 June 2022 17