Pina Bausch's dance masterpiece Café Müller comes to Adelaide Festival in Australian first

The renowned French choreographer Boris Charmatz will be presenting one of the 20th century's most influential dance works at this year's Adelaide Festival. Time was of the essence during our call with him, with only a few minutes to spare. He expressed enthusiasm for bringing this iconic piece to a new audience.

Charmatz, speaking from his home in Belgium, introduced me to the iconic dance work "Café Müller," which is about to be performed in Australia for the first time. The work was choreographed by the legendary Pina Bausch, whom Charmatz holds in the highest regard. He highlighted the importance of Bausch's work in the context of modern dance.

"She is great, like Shakespeare," Charmatz said. "Really, she is the Shakespeare of our time. Good luck trying to summarize her," he joked. Bausch was one of the great innovators of modern dance. From 1973 until her death in 2009, the eminent German dancer and choreographer created radical performances blending dance and theater with her Wuppertal Dance Theater. Her contributions have shaped the landscape of contemporary performance.

"She created a style where dancers can scream, can perform with their eyes closed, can bring their own stories and history into the work," Charmatz said. "Café Müller" is considered Bausch's masterpiece. This dance work has been performed by generations of dancers. Charmatz danced the work in 2017 and experienced its difficulty firsthand, gaining a deeper understanding of its complexities.

"You only have a few steps. But in those steps, you need to put everything," he said. "There is a secret in this work, and each time we perform it, we reveal a part of the secret." In Australia, the closest many people have gotten to "Café Müller" is through grainy recordings of early performances, some of which feature Bausch herself, making this live performance all the more special.

The stage is filled with chairs, and figures move like ghosts. "It's as if the dancers are sleepwalking, they are looking for each other. They never find themselves," Charmatz said. "The emotional landscape that Pina depicts is truly timeless. There's something in her work that makes everyone feel connected to the present...you can still find audience members saying it changed their lives," emphasizing the enduring impact of Bausch's vision.

Bausch died in 2009 at the age of 68. During her lifetime, she created many large-scale works, sometimes involving 20 or more dancers and lasting up to three hours. One of these was the 1975 work "The Rite of Spring," a monumental piece that was performed on a stage covered in earth at the 2022 Adelaide Festival. But "Café Müller," created in 1978, is haunting and intimate, involving only six dancers and lasting just over 40 minutes, offering a different yet equally powerful experience.

Dancers move in a disoriented fashion—a woman in a nightgown drifts and collides with walls, while a man rushes to clear chairs to make way for another dancer who stumbles across the stage with closed eyes. In another moment, a third figure arranges a man and a woman into an awkward embrace. Charmatz said the stage filled with chairs makes the dance "unsettling, difficult, dangerous, even," contributing to the overall sense of unease and vulnerability.

"It's very much about trying to make contact with the other dancers [but] your eyes are closed. There's a lot of longing [and] it's very subtle." While he told me he is "just a poor little director in front of Shakespeare," Charmatz is also a pioneering choreographer who has been responsible for continuing the historical dance company of Bausch since 2022, demonstrating his humility and dedication to the art form.

He carefully balances a deep respect for Bausch's legacy with a vision for evolution, ensuring it remains a "moving company." "I think they needed an outsider to direct the company, so someone who comes with a fresh eye on the work, on the history, on the memory. Maybe also to open the windows or doors to breathe some fresh air and try to see how this company can continue," highlighting the importance of innovation and preservation.

Under Charmatz's direction, the company is both creating new works and performing Bausch's famous works in innovative ways. He said it is "exciting" to be able to be with the company and try new things. At the Adelaide Festival, Bausch's work will form a triptych in Club Amour with two of Charmatz's own radical dance works, "Aatt enen tionon" (2006) and "herses, duo" (1997). In Charmatz's works, the dancers are not only emotionally stripped bare, but physically as well, performing nude while the audience is invited to sit on stage, creating an immersive and intimate experience.

"They are all related, linked to desire and the difficulty of love [but] the vocabulary, the aesthetics, the music, everything is different. "Oh, I'm not afraid that people won't like it. If you believe in what you do, I really believe that you will get the support of the audience," Charmatz said. "Because I come from another time, [my works are] in a way more direct, but I think there is an interesting connection here, and also a huge challenge for the dancers," acknowledging the potential for both connection and challenge in his work.

"It's more like a rock concert than a normal dance piece. So you are around, you are standing, you can also sit on the floor...but basically, you are with us." "Café Müller" and "Club Amour" will be performed at the Adelaide Festival from March 10 to March 16, offering a unique opportunity to experience these groundbreaking works.