When I think about Pina Bausch, I also bring together the name of Sylvie Guillem to mind. I would also talk about her. At this time Sylvie Guillem is running an exhibition for a long period of one month, titled “HOPE JAPAN TOUR” under her strong will after receiving sad news of the Great East Japan Earthquake. She keeps dancing in all parts of Japan for her age of forty six, so I cannot see her spiritual strength and strong willpower without deepening my sense of reverence.
I viewed such her stage the other day. The item was William Forsythe “Rearray” and Mats Ek “Ajö (Bye)”. Especially Mats Ek “Ajö (Bye)” was so wonderful that I was voluntarily moved to tears. “Ajö “ is a work that depicts “The life of a woman”. Guillem appears on the scene with costume of tired, just a middle aged every woman that cannot be seen as a great dancer. Then she dances to express one woman interacting with herself and her growth process, sometimes uncouthly. But although how she dances uncouthly, she can put meaning on every step and can convey to audience the emotion of the woman through her whole movements. It could be said that she is depicting her own life through playing that of one woman. The music was the last sonata of Beethoven titled as “Ajö(Adieu)”. Considering the content and real intention of the music, the play was adequate to the last program. This work could be one of her masterpieces.
“For me, dancing has never been “limited to classical dance”. From the beginning, I was drawn to what the stage has, power, infinity, mystique, and whole contained possibility. From the era at the Opera in Paris, I have been fully enjoying dancing, and believed that the versatility is the only way to keep evolving.”
This is the words by Guillem, and all audiences to go to see her stage would recognize that she has been creating work that was exactly expressed in the words. Also Guillem, the person who is approaching the final stage of her career, would keep questing her own way of expression until the end of her career as Pina Bausch. Pina Bausch and Guillem are saying a common thing that is to be; “would die if without keep dancing”. It would mean that we have to keep searching after our own expression.
