[♪ Frühling und Sonnenschein ♪]

It’s just amazing being back with everybody. I mean, we joke and we laugh and, you know, we just say “Oh, Arthur is exactly the same as he was 45 years ago.” And 45 years, that’s a really long time.

Doing Kontakthof with the same peoplein the same room after all these years. It’s like we’re going back, but we’re going back with the knowledge that we have now.

15 minutes everybody, 15 minutes.

In the last couple of years some of the original dancers have mentioned to me that Pina has had this idea of seeing them doing Kontakthof when much older to see those original dancers back on stage. It would be wonderful. Kontakthof is one of those pieces that have been in the repertoire very, very continuously. And it’s really one of the most important pieces for Pina.

I’m now directing this production, Echoes of ‘78. I was a dancer in the original production of Kontakthof in 1978. I came from Australia. I had red lips and red nail polish and make up, the first party I’m in this red dress with sequins and everybody’s in just dirty old grey t shirts. So that was it, you know.

It’s a very rare opportunity that somebody who has so close knowledge of the work was being part of the creation. Goes back to that work.

You could do that loose a bit more…

I said, if we’re doing the original production. We have to really have the original people. So we made calls all over the worldto see who was alive who was willing, who was physically able. Everyone was scared.

I actually, when I was first asked about this about a project, I have to say. I said, that’s impossible. And anyway, you know, I’m too old
and so many people are not there anymore. Only when Meryl presented her idea and then I thought, okay we can try.

She had the idea to to use archival footage from our archives to to really still have those ones who arewho are not on the stage anymore, being present. And also to have the younger selvesof those ones who are on stage appear to have this dialogue through time. It’s like open real tapes. That Rolf Borzik, who was also the partner of Pina, and the set and costume designer. He was, he had this camera and he would, he would film those pieces.

I just saw about 20 tapes. I thought, if I can bring my film skills to this work then it’s something new for me.

My name is Josephine Ann Endicott. People just call me Jo. I’m almost 75. I’m the oldest woman in this new project. The woman, Pina, fascinated me. For so many years. The way we work, this new way, the kind of movements she was doing, it was completely different to classical ballet.

So it’s first of all, a big emotion huge emotion to be again with my old colleagues. And we laughed a lot about our age and about what we can’t do anymore. It’s strange to be again in this part where I was like 46 years ago because I have changed and not changed. I mean, I feel much more relaxed with myself.

It’s quite extraordinary after 46 years, you come back and you, you hear the music, and it’s just in your body. You know it. You know it still. First of all, you see yourself in the in the video image and you think, how is that possible? You know it’s you but it’s not you, it’s someone else.

I mean I danced this piece from ‘78 to ’96. And when I look at these videos of Borzik I was quite impressed. What we did, you know. And I’m fascinated on one side by this clearness and this simplicity, but also by this incredible energy that we had.

And I feel like those projections have energised them actually. Their bodies are actually you know, they’re being embodied by their younger selves. So it’s really, really great.

The themes are always the same love and hate, aggression and, rest and peace, all these things, they are universal.

The more we see the older pieces, the more we think, “Oh my God, she was a genius.” What we were doing was very important. They were not just, you know, pieces. We were saying something. And In Kontakthof I have lots of changes of characters. Like at one moment I’m this sweet little pink girl with Meryl we have lovely little things to do together which is very dainty.

We had our first rehearsals from Kontakthof in the Ballettsaal. She wanted to do some small movement that we do when we are ashamed or shy or when we meet somebody.

So she asked six different gestures of tenderness that you do to somebody that you love, that are still in the piece now. We all do them.

She worked a lot to clean the movements, and when there were scenes with movements, she cleaned so detailed. Detail and detail.

This piece, I think, is the beginnings of what we know of Pina Bausch.

I enjoyed working with her, though it was difficult. And I think it was difficult because it demanded so much of us. We couldn’t leave our emotions behind.

Some choreographers want you to come in and you’re just a body. You’re just a dancer. And I did a lot of that, and that’s fine. But that’s not Pina.

The way Pina got us to be such individuals is, she would ask a question, for example: “What would you do if you were in a public place and you wanted to catch everybody’s attention?” And we would think about it, and then we would go one by one and just show her our answers.

I know in the beginning we worked on movement but without music—a little phrase, a little something, some little gestures. But nobody knew what was going to happen with it. It was like a seed, and when it grew, you didn’t know what kind of tree it was, and suddenly you see it. Or a mist, and it starts to get clear. You see something, and maybe it’s something you didn’t want to.

It wasn’t so much that she tried that we would all look the same, but she wanted us to all feel the same.

For me, what was really incredible—because I felt actually so bad and so not as good as the others, and I felt so insecure—was one part of the genius of Pina. She was presenting us, taking out of us things that maybe we didn’t even know.

But it took me a lot of time to feel that actually what she liked in me was me. And I didn’t have to try to be better or like somebody else.

Working with this company was totally absorbing. It was just your whole life. We had to be in at ten in the morning. We’d work until two. We’d have a break and work until six, until ten in the evening—and never finished on time.

We had these secret signs that we would just go like this and look at each other.

And then sometimes on Sunday, she would ring you and she would say, “Oh… what about coming in? You know, for a little rehearsal, we can do this scene.”

And of course, you were cranky that you had to go in on Sunday, but you also thought, “Oh wow, Pina wants to work with me.” So either way, if you got the call or you didn’t get the call, you’d be—you know—it was complicated.

But she was so, so amazingly beautiful. And those eyes. And when she looked at you in those days, it was like—so penetrant, so piercing. You couldn’t say no.

One of the best reasons for me coming here was to see my colleagues again. We’re close family, in a way. It’s fun. It’s fun to be back together, you know.

John Giffin and I—we’ve been sharing Pina’s apartment together. You know, I like to cook every day. He’s never—We’re really the odd couple. He has never—he has never in his life cooked. And he couldn’t boil water. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like it.

I love the film. I think it’s ready for the Museum of Modern Art myself.
– The one I made?
– Really, really!
– The best part is the beer and…
[laughter]

Have a great run everyone.

I think there’s now another energy between us that is going to come across in the piece.

You know, when I see them sitting there and they’re just watching themselves, I don’t know—you see in that body now something more and something—a whole life, a whole lifetime of somebody there. You know, and that little young person who had no idea where they were going to go.

So Pina just looks at the human being the way we are. And yes, we are angels, but yes, we are devils—and everything in between.

It feels much lighter, Kontakthof. To do it, it feels much lighter because I feel like I have nothing to hide. I have nothing to prove. This is what it’s like to be human.

You have your life behind you at this point. So it’s easier to love each other and to recognise that—you love each other.

[Applause]