The 27th Istanbul Theatre Festival hosted by IKSV proudly presents one of the most anticipated events of the year: Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch’s mesmerizing performance of “Café Müller.” Audiences in Istanbul will have the privilege to experience this iconic dance-theater masterpiece at 21:00 on the 25th and at 19:00 and 21:00 on the 26th of October, at Zorlu PSM. More information available via the official event page and tickets available via Passo. (Wednesday 25th 21:00, Thursday 26th 19:00, Thursday 26th 21:00)
TANZTHEATER WUPPERTAL PINA BAUSCH, a world-renowned ensemble, continues to captivate audiences worldwide with their innovative and emotionally charged performances. “CAFÉ MÜLLER,” one of the most iconic pieces in the company’s repertoire, promises to be a profound and unforgettable experience for Istanbul’s theater enthusiasts.
The 27th Istanbul Theatre Festival, organized by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (IKSV), has consistently showcased international and local talent, offering a diverse range of performances to the city’s vibrant arts scene. This year, the festival is honored to present Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch as part of its outstanding lineup.
“Café Müller,” originally choreographed by the legendary Pina Bausch herself, is a groundbreaking work that blurs the lines between dance, theater, and visual art. The piece explores themes of love, longing, and human vulnerability in a surreal and dreamlike setting. The choreography is known for its evocative use of repetition, symbolism, and intricate physicality, creating an emotionally charged atmosphere that lingers long after the final curtain falls.
From the organizer:
The 27th Istanbul Theatre Festival opens with a timeless masterpiece by Pina Bausch!
Pina Bausch’s company Tanztheater Wuppertal presents her ground-breaking masterpiece, Café Müller, for the first time in Turkey with a new generation of dancers and as fresh and striking as ever.
Café Müller mirrors Bausch’s experiences in her family’s café of the same name during post-war Germany period, where she spent many hours watching adults struggling to survive in a devastated society. The café is a space of everyday life, with all its melancholy, feebleness, fears, and the longing to be understood, but it is also a place where there is hope to find love. It is afterhours; the ghosts of the departed customers stumble blindly into walls and onto chairs but fail to find one another. Café Müller is a spectacular piece of dance theatre that tells the story of desire and loneliness.
Pina Bausch wrote dance history. She not only founded the world-famous company in Wuppertal, she shaped a whole genre – dance theatre – and influenced countless other artists, choreographers and directors worldwide who credit her and her work. When she first arrived in Wuppertal in 1973, no-one guessed she would reinvent modern dance there. The young dancer and choreographer (1940-2009) took over the ballet company at the Wuppertaler Bühnen (the combined municipal theatres) and soon renamed it the Tanztheater Wuppertal (‘Wuppertal dance theatre’), because that was her goal: to unite dance and theatre. She made forty-six works, and even decades after their creation they move us, stir us, touch a nerve. Many of the works are still in the company’s repertoire and the company maintains and preserves this heritage with great devotion, care and energy.
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Content sourced via the organizer.
For more information and ticket bookings, please visit the official website of the 27th Istanbul Theatre Festival at www.istanbultheatrefestival.iksv.org.
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