Movements created by Bausch evoke goosebumps, longing, and shivers, her dances are a vocabulary of bodily expression that can be studied endlessly. The classical modern dance pieces Iphigenia in Tauris (1974) and Rite of Spring (1975) are revived by a new generation of dancers and troupes from two different cultures, climates, and conditions: one in Dresden and the other in a fishing village near Dakar. Incredible metamorphoses pour forth – the author’s lyricism, energetic tension, and poeticism flows through an organism with multiple bodies and heads, transcending the directness of postmodern games. Before street dancers, classical ballet, and traditional African dancers can transform her work, Bausch’s scores first transform the dancers and their lives.

Living paintings of bodies that repeatedly dissolve into powerlessness, only to find new bursts of energy. A captivating figure and the ideologist behind Tanztheater Wuppertal, German dancer and choreographer Pina Bausch (1940–2009) holds a special place in film history, with the three-dimensional opus Pina (2011) by Wenders as the highlight. Fellini once described her as “my girl of dreams and darkness”, casting her as the mysterious, blind aristocrat Principessa Lherimia – an embodiment of fairy-tale opposites – in the surreal film And the Ship Sails On (1984). The language of this dance reformer from the second half of the 20th century can be characterised by an imaginative intensity and is underscored in a visually unrestrained documentary by director Heinzen-Ziob. As Bausch herself put it, “I’m not interested in how people move, but what moves them.”