Pina Bausch was born 1940 in Solingen and died 2009 in Wuppertal. She received her dance training at the Folkwang School in Essen under Kurt Jooss, where she achieved technical excellence. Soon after the director of Wuppertal’s theatres, Arno Wüstenhöfer, engaged her as choreographer, from autumn 1973, she renamed the ensemble the Tanztheater Wuppertal. Under this name, although controversial at the beginning, the company gradually achieved international recognition. Its combination of poetic and everyday elements influenced the international development of dance decisively. Awarded some of the greatest prizes and honours world-wide, Pina Bausch is one of the most significant choreographers of our time. 

Set Design

Peter Pabst is used to crossing boundaries. Since 1979 he has been a freelancing set and costume designer in theatre, opera, dance, film and television, and up to now has created stage sets and costumes for more than 100 theatre and film productions, including the Rock Show "Dröhnland Symphony ", the exhibition "Spaces - Dreams " at the Museum Bochum, the book "PETER for PINA", and has taught in Beijing and Shanghai. His work has taken him to almost all major European cities, to America, and Asia. He has worked with Luc Bondy, Klaus Maria Brandauer, Udo Lindenberg, John Schaaf, Istvan Szabo, Jürgen Flimm, Robert Carsen, Chen Shi Zheng, Tancred Dorst, Andrei Serban and many others. But his main working partners have been Peter Zadek, with whom he has a long working relationship and personal friendship, and above all, Pina Bausch and her Tanztheater Wuppertal. In 1980 he designed his first set for a piece by Pina Bausch. This was the beginning of an exceptionally close artistic and personal relationship, a symbiotic collaboration that lasted until the death of the great choreographer in 2009. During these years, Peter Pabst designed and realised 25 "play-rooms" for Pina Bausch, including "VOLLMOND (Full Moon)". Peter Pabst has been awarded the Kainz Medal of the City of Vienna, has been appointed Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in France, and awarded the title of Professor by the Minister President of NRW.

Costume Design

Marion Cito, born 1938 in Berlin, completed her dance training in her hometown under Tatjana Gsovsky, who subsequently employed her at the Deutsche Oper. From 1972 she worked with Gerhard Bohner in Darmstadt, before Pina Bausch took her on in 1976 as her assistant at the Tanztheater Wuppertal, where she also appeared as a dancer. Following the death of the set and costume designer, Rolf Borzik, in 1980, she took over costumes, extending and developing Borzik’s aesthetic approach. She persistently explores the delicate balance between elegance and the everyday and ensures that the company’s appearance remains colourful and sensuously rich.

Musical Collaboration

Matthias Burkert (1953-2022) was born in Duisburg and studied piano, trumpet and singing at the Wuppertal college of the Cologne music academy. Having completed his studies, in 1978 he took up a position teaching piano there. From 1976 he was musical director of Wuppertal’s children’s theatre. He soon became exposed to the work of Pina Bausch and was deeply moved. His greatest passion was improvisation and he had an extensive knowledge of music. In 1979 she engaged him to work at the Tanztheater Wuppertal. Through intensive collaboration with Pina Bausch, Burkert had a decisive influence on the musical aspect of the performances, but also appeared on stage in some pieces. Since 1995 he has held joint responsibility for music at the Tanztheater Wuppertal with Andreas Eisenschneider.

Musical Collaboration 

Andreas Eisenschneider was born in Lüneburg in 1962 and grew up in Celle, where he trained as a sound technician at the town’s theatre after finishing school. He worked on numerous productions up until 1988, eventually landing in Essen where he worked with directors such as Hansgünter Heyme and Jürgen Bosse. The composer Alfons Nowacki became his most important mentor, taking him to theatres throughout Germany and the world. He had a wide knowledge of music and was easily able to gage the musical requirements of each production. In 1995 Pina Bausch engaged him at the Tanztheater Wuppertal where, together with Matthias Burkert, he manages every aspect of music, from research for new productions to sound engineering at performances.

General and Artistic Director

Dancer, choreographer, and creator of experimental projects like the ephemeral school Bocal, Musée de la danse or [terrain], institution without roof and walls, Boris Charmatz subjects dance to formal constraints which redraw the field of its possibilities. The stage is a notepad where to draft concentrated, organic concepts in order to observe the chemical reactions, intensities, and tensions engendered by their encounter. During 2009 – 2018, he is the director of Musée de la danse / Centre chorégraphique national de Rennes et de Bretagne. In January 2019, he launches [terrain], association established in the Region Hauts-de-France and in partnership with the phénix, scène nationale of Valenciennes, the Opéra de Lille and Maison de la Culture d’Amiens. Boris Charmatz is also associate artist of Charleroi danse (Belgium) from 2018 to 2022. In September 2022, Boris Charmatz will be the new director of Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch, to launch, with [terrain], a new project between France and Germany.

He is the author of a series of seminal works, from À bras-le-corps (1993) to La Ronde (2021), in addition to his activity as a dancer, performer and improviser (in collaboration with Médéric Collignon, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, and Tino Sehgal). In June 2021, he orchestrated a performance for 130 dancers, Happening Tempête, for the opening of the Grand Palais Éphémère. In July 2021, he opened the Manchester International Festival with Sea Change, a dance piece with 150 amateurs and professional dancers.

General and Managing Director

Roger Christmann became the General and Managing Director of Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch in 2019.  Prior to that he worked for a variety of organizations including Berliner Festspiele, the Kultur Ruhr GmbH and the Asian Art Theatre.  From 2001 to 2011 he worked as managing director of Theater der Welt 2010 and Brussels kunstenfestivaldesarts.  During this period he also developed and co-ordinated the project NXTSTP as part of the European Union’s EU-Programme.

Christmann completed his degree in business and finance studies at the École des Hautes Études Commerciales in Liege, Belgium. He currently lives in Berlin.