The first co-production of Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch with Teatro Argentina and the City of Rome. As with much of Bausch’s work the imagery in Viktor is brilliantly bizarre and breathtakingly beautiful. The audience is transported through the fragmented action by the human characters who carefully communicate personalities through a few precise gestures or perfectly pitched words.

Viktor is accompanied by a combination of symphonic music, folk tunes and music composed for social dancing - from the Middle Ages to the Jazz Age. Even though the work deals with human pain and neurosis, much of it is humorous.

This piece, which was created in 1986 together with Teatro di Roma, kicks off the dance theatre’s long series of co-productions. Which desires can be lived out? Which wishes are realistic? And which gratification even results in happiness?

Text by Norbert Servos

By Pina Bausch in co-production with Teatro Argentina di Roma. Premiere 14 May 1986.

Part of World Cities 2012

In association with Cultural Industry