Abstract: This text aims to analyze the process of passing on choreographies, as exemplified in the work of the Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch. It presents this process as a praxis of translation. The paper discusses the limitations and possibilities of translating choreography, as well as the specific potential inherent and visible in practices of translating choreographies by Pina Bausch. From a philosophical and sociological perspective of translation theory and based on a methodology of the ‘praxeological production analysis’ (Klein, 2014a; 2015a), I’m using data gathered during rehearsals and two years of interviews with dancers and collaborators of the Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch. The text will demonstrate that the translation of choreographies is characterized by a paradox between identity and difference.
Passing on Dance: practices of translating the choreographies of Pina Bausch