Dancing Pina

Two of Pina Bausch’s most famous works are rehearsed in Germany and Senegal, championing the choreographer’s legacy through a younger generation of dancers.

Florian Heinzen-Ziob’s film follows ensembles on separate continents as they rehearse and perform two dance pieces by Bausch. The Semperoper Ballet in Dresden work on the 1974 dance opera Iphigenie auf Tauris, while at the École des Sables in Dakar dancers from all over Africa prepare for the choreographer’s sublime 1975 interpretation of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. But the film soon moves beyond recording a creative process, engaging the various dancers on the life they’ve chosen and the passion that drives them. It’s a visually striking, emotionally charged journey that shows how Pina lives on.