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The Arts Intel Report

Água

The ensemble of Água.

Mar 3–19, 2023
321 Ashland Pl, Brooklyn, NY 11217, USA

In 1973, the German dancer Pina Bausch started the company Tanztheater Wuppertal, which pioneered neo-expressionism in a dance-theater setting. Bausch created over 40 pieces in her lifetime and was enormously influential, though American audiences have only seen a quarter of her works. Água, for instance, has never been performed in the States. Bausch choreographed it in 2001, after a vacation in Brazil. Set on a Brazilian beach, the dancers wear neon bikinis and Hawaiian shirts and float around cocktail lounges. In 2010, a year after Bausch’s death, The Guardian called Água her “most luminous, sexy, entertaining piece.” Thanks to BAM, the work has its U.S. premiere this March. —Jensen Davis

Photo: © Ursula Kaufmann