The Seven Deadly Sins

»I’m less interested in how people move than in what moves them.«
Pina Bausch

Pina Bausch created dance history with her evening The Seven Deadly Sins. In this piece, originally premiered in 1976, she combined dance with speech, song, mime and everyday gestures for the first time and in doing so created a new art form which became the basis for her reputation as one of the leading choreographers of the present day. Bausch’s legendary Brecht-Weill evening was restaged in 2001 and 2008 at Tanztheater Wuppertal and is now to be seen in Berlin within spielzeit’europa.

The restaging of The Seven Deadly Sins is more like a »rebirth« (Rheinische Post): More than three decades after its premiere the two part dance programme from Brecht/Weill’s »Ballet chanté« The Seven Deadly Sins of the Bourgeoisie and Bausch’s piece Don’t be Afraid to songs by the legendary duo has lost nothing of its (critical) force and aesthetic quality. The leading roles – just as in 1976 – are taken by Josephine Ann Endicott and Mechthild Großmann, two long-term collaborators of Pina Bausch.

Pina Bausch, who has shaped the international dance scene like no other German choreographer, has been awarded numerous prizes both in Germany and abroad, most recently the Kyoto Prize, The Golden Lion [Venice], the Goethe Prize of the City of Frankfurt and the Laurence Olivier Award.

Pina Bausch died unexpectedly of cancer on 30th June 2009 at the age of 68. The dance world mourns the passing of one of its greatest dancers and choreographers.