Williston Screening of 'Pina' to Benefit Work of Local Choreographer
Wim Wenders' Oscar-nominated documentary, Pina, is coming to Vermont in March. If I were you, I'd buy my tickets now. Seriously. Do it.
First off, proceeds from the March 1 screening at Williston's Majestic 10 benefit the Flynn Center and, more specifically, Vermont choreographer Hannah Dennison's large-scale tribute to Pina Bausch, Dear Pina, which premieres in the cathedral-like breeding barn at Shelburne Farms in June.
Dennison, a longtime fixture in the Burlington dance scene, who retreated from the spotlight about 10 years ago, began developing Dear Pina when Bausch, the German choreographer known for her theatrical, muscular, emotional dance, died in 2009, just five days after she was diagnosed with cancer. Dennison is working with more than 30 local dancers on her tribute, which she considers the culmination of her career. (Seven Days wrote about the project last fall.)
The other reason you should get tickets now? The film is unlike anything you've ever seen.
I saw it at the Toronto International Film Festival's homebase theater earlier this month. I was skeptical of the 3-D glasses, as well as the concept of dance on film. Was it just going to feel like a poor substitute for watching a real performance on stage?
Not at all. It's not so much a traditional documentary — though interviews with the dancers in Bausch's company, Tanztheater Wuppertal, are interspersed throughout — but more of lyrical tribute, bursting with some of the most electrifying dancing I've ever seen.
Bausch was known for incorporating elements from the out-of-doors into performances (such as emptying truckoads of dirt onstage). In the film, Wenders follows the dancers out into the world — beside busy streets, thigh-deep in rivers, on public transit, high atop cliffs — and every moment is thrilling.
So, yes. Definitely buy those tickets now. And then go see Dennison's tribute in June.
Here's a sneak peek at Dear Pina auditions at the breeding barn last fall.
