Synopsis

A LANGUAGE FOR LIFE A special stage revival with an entirely Greek company.One of the most emblematic works of the great choreographer Pina Bausch, Kontakthof, is presented by the National Theatre from 17 December, in partnership with the Pina Bausch Foundation, 37 years after its first performance in Greece, at the Herodou Atticus Conservatory, in September 1988, by Tanztheater Wuppertal.This stage revival is under the artistic direction of Josephine Ann Endicott, a member of the original 1978 cast and Pina's longtime assistant, and Daphne Kokkinos, a member of Tanztheater Wuppertal and Pina's assistant since 1993, in collaboration with Anne Martin - also a member of the original cast - and Scott Jennings, the Foundation's rehearsal directors. The performance will be presented on the Main Stage of the Schiller Building with 23 individual performers from Greece, aged 21 to 55, who have been specially selected for this production.Kontakthof was first performed in 1978 at the Wuppertal Opera House and is a landmark of Bausch's early period and a pivotal example of her collaboration with set and costume designer Rolf Borzik, who shaped the visual language of the company in those pivotal years. The play continues to tour to this day, often with different generations: in 2000 with Ladies and Gentlemen over 65 and in 2008 with teenagers aged 14 to 18 - each time posing the question anew of what "contact" means to different ages. To reveal oneself, to deny oneself. With fears. Desire. Disappointments. Despair. First experiences. First attempts. Tenderness and what comes out of it - this was an important theme in the play. [...] Revealing aspects of yourself, overcoming yourself." She was, after all, interested "not in how people move but in what it is that moves them" - emotions, desire, insecurity, the need to communicate, loneliness.As the production's Artistic Directors Josephine Ann Endicott and Daphnis Kokkinos state, "what stands the test of time in Pina Bausch's Kontakthof is the presence of people and their everyday lives on stage, revealing their desires, their insecurities, their longing for intimacy and love." Copyright of the performance: Verlag der Autoren, Frankfurt am Main representing the Pina Bausch Foundation, Wuppertal.