One Day Pina Asked…

This program screens for free at UT’s Downtown Gallery.

Chantal Akerman, 1983, 57 minutes

Asked about the origin of One Day Pina Asked…, filmmaker Chantal Akerman replied, “When I watched one of Pina’s performances for the first time a couple of years ago, I was overcome by an emotion I can’t quite define.” Rather than focusing on a single production, Akerman instead spent five weeks with Bausch and her troupe, recording their rehearsals for a European tour and interviewing Bausch and her dancers about their craft. In the process she documented excerpts of Bausch’s major works of that era, including Komm Tanz Mit Mir (Come Dance with Me) (1977), Nelken (Carnations) (1982), Walzer (1982), and 1980 (1980).

One Day Pina Asked… is a remarkable collaboration between two of the finest artists of the late-20th century at their creative peaks. In 1973, after a successful career as a soloist, Bausch was named creative director of the Tanztheater Wuppertal, where she revolutionized modern dance. Two years later, 25-year-old Akerman had the same effect on cinema with the release of Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, a landmark of feminist and structuralist film. The result of their collaboration has been called, by Richard Brody of The New Yorker, “one of the greatest of all syntheses of dance and cinema.”