Paul White has reached his peak in joining Pina Bausch’s famous dance company, he tells Karen van Ulzen.
It had to happen – Europe wasn’t going to let Australia keep Paul White to itself. This award-winning dancer has been snapped up by Tanztheater Wuppertal in Germany – the company founded by the late Pina Bausch.
White has joined the Tanztheater ensemble despite the fact, as he willingly admits, that he has “a really successful” career in Australia. In August he will perform his acclaimed solo show, The Oracle, choreographed by Meryl Tankard, in Adelaide, having toured the work internationally. He also had recent guest spots with Australian Dance Theatre and Chunky Move. “But I predicted it would almost plateau and become a bit mundane, so I decided to force myself into a new environment and see what happened,” he says.
He initially went to Berlin. Then a friend of his alerted him to an audition for men for Tanztheater and he decided “well, why don’t I go and see what it’s like now, post Pina?”
He found himself one of 160 men who converged on the small industrial town from all over the world – such is Tanztheater’s fame.
The audition process was gruelling. “Basically we slogged it out on the first day, about five hours without a break, which is what I quickly learnt is how it is at Tanztheater.” He laughs. “We started with learning some phrases from Fruehlings Opfer [Rite of Spring]. It was incredible to see groups of 60 men all doing one phrase.” The group was narrowed down to a final 60 by the following day, then to just two – White and a British dancer.
White found the audition not only tough, but touching. It was the first the company had held since Bausch’s death four years ago, and thus the first she hadn’t been in charge of. Instead the audition was hosted by 10 company staff, mainly the senior dancers and the then artistic director, Dominique Mercy. “They just really looked like a family. I was very much observing them as much as they were observing me. It reminded me of the times when we were dealing with the work post-mortem Tanja Liedtke. I could see people struggling with how to maintain the integrity of the work.”
Another “first” for this audition was the type of dancer the company was looking for. Under Bausch, the people she required had to be as much collaborators as well as dancers. Now that she has gone, Tanztheater has continued on as a repertory company, and the dancers have to be dancers -- of exceptional versatility. The company turns over a big number of her works – at the time of writing White had already performed in four works in seven months (since he was appointed in November last year) and he expects to perform in a further 13 over the remainder of his two-year contract.
In the aftermath of Bausch’s death, the Tanztheater was first taken over by Dominique Mercy and Robert Sturm, both elected from the company ranks. They were recently replaced by Lutz Foerster, who has been working with Bausch since 1975. The same “crazy” work schedule established by Bausch is in place: “We work from 10 am to 2pm, then we have a break, then work from 6pm till 10pm. That’s our average work day, so you’re in this constant work zone. And I know that during creation [of a new work], because it was a highly competitive environment, and frankly it still is, every day is like an audition – in the middle break people would go home and work, like Pina did herself. So it would really be 12 hours a day of at least thinking about working.”
And what of Tanztheater Wuppertal’s future without its charismatic leader? White says that demand for tickets has not dropped, despite her departure, and the company has a solid schedule performing her existing works. “Some of the works are older than I am, but they’re still so powerful and fresh.” White senses, however, a “craving” among the dancers for some new creativity, though whether or not it will come from in or outside the company is an interesting question. Most of the dancers have been in the company for years, but not as choreographers. “I’m dancing beside a 65, a 62, a 50-year-old; the majority are in their 40s and early 50s who have been with Bausch all their careers. They are highly skilled collaborators, but for them choreograpy and direction is a completely new world.” The company has declared it will not perform new repertoire until at least 2015. In the meantime it is scanning the horizon for possible contenders for a choreographic role. Recently the company staged a small in-house choreographic season and “it was great to see the dancers’ humanity come out when they created their short works,” White says.
Despite White’s busy schedule, it has not put a stop to his freelance engagements, with the company management going out of its way to allow him the space to return to Australia when necessary. He is presently developing a piece with local dancers based on his experiences learning mask making with the German theatre company Familie Floez. He is also collaborating with theatre director Nigel Jamison, possibly on a solo.
In the meantime, he will have plenty to do at Tanztheater. “For me it is the pinnacle of what I was looking for in new experience.”
If you’re in Adelaide you can catch Paul White in The Oracle, 20-23 August. Bookings: bass.net.au, more info: adelaidefestivalcentre.com.au.