Bandoneon: Working with Pina Bausch

Bandoneon: Working with Pina Bausch is a new translation of Raimund Hoghe’s original rehearsal diary that documented the legendary Tanztheater Wuppertal’s work on Bandoneon (1980), illustrated with photos of the production by Ulli Weiss, and personal images and notes from the dancers.

This unique book records the method Pina Bausch developed and used, as seen by one of her close collaborators, Raimund Hoghe, who worked as dramaturg for the company for a decade (1979-1989).

It follows the work from the first day in rehearsals to its premiere, chronicling the process with artistic sensibility - Bausch’s famous questions, the dancers’ responses and Hoghe’s own reflections as the piece develops.

This important document sees its first English language publication, and is succinctly translated from the German by Penny Black. The diary is accompanied by an Introduction and A Portrait by Katalin Trencsényi, following Hoghe’s journey from being a journalist to becoming an internationally acknowledged dancer-choreographer.

Bandoneon: Working with Pina Bausch is essential reading for anyone who is interested in the work of Pina Bausch and Raimund Hoghe.

Raimund Hoghe was born in Wuppertal and began his career by writing portraits of outsiders and celebrities for the German weekly newspaper Die Zeit. These were later compiled in several books. From 1980 to 1990 he worked as dramaturg for Pina Bausch’s Tanztheater Wuppertal which also became the subject matter for two more books. Since 1989 he has been working on his own theatre pieces for various dancers and actors. 1992 started his collaboration with the artist Luca Giacomo Schulte, who is till now his artistic collaborator. In 1994 he produced his first solo for himself, Meinwarts, which together with the subsequent Chambre separee (1997) and Another Dream (2000) made up a trilogy on the 20th century. Hoghe frequently works for television on projects such as Lebenstraume (1994) and Der Buckel, his 1997 hour-long self-portrait for WDR (West German Radio and Television). His books have been translated into several languages and he has presented his performances all over Europe, as well as in North and South America, Asia and Australia. He lives in Dusseldorf and has been awarded several prizes including the Deutscher Produzentenpreis fur Choreografie in 2001, the French Prix de la Critique in 2006 for Swan Lake, 4 Acts (in the category Best Foreign Piece). Critics from the magazin ballet-tanz awarded him Dancer of the Year for 2008. Books about his theatre works were published in France, Germany, Great Britain and the United States. Katalin Trencsenyi is a dramaturg based in London. She studied Aesthetics and Literature at the Janus Pannonius University, Pecs (1990-1995), Dramaturgy at the Academy of Drama and Film, Budapest (1995-2000), and completed her traineeship at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London (1999-2000). She gained her PhD at the Eotvos Lorand University, Budapest (2013). As a freelance dramaturg, Katalin has worked for the National Theatre, London (Channels Programme and various literal translations), the Royal Court Theatre (script reader for the International Department), the Courtyard Theatre (running the Kings Cross Award for New Writing), Deafinitely Theatre (play developments, production dramaturgy, and running the company’s playwriting workshops), and Corali Dance Company (dramaturg and workshop leader) amongst others. From 2010 to 2012 Katalin served as President of the Dramaturgs’ Network. Katalin has written a book on theatre making with people with Down’s syndrome - the first published on this subject in Hungary (Megfinomitom halando gorongyod. Szinhaz Down-korral elokkel, Down Egyesulet, Budapest, 2001). She is also the author of three plays (Sonkadi Egyed gazda, Csodatevok, Malna). Her theatre reviews, articles and essays on theatre have been published both in English and in Hungarian professional magazines. Katalin was the literal translator of three contemporary Hungarian plays published by Oberon Books (The Fourth Gate by Peter Karpati, Portugal by Zoltan Egressy, Car Thieves by Akos Nemeth), as well as writing the introduction to all four books of the Channels Hungary series (Oberon Books, London, 2004). Katalin is one of the contributors to the Routledge Companion to Dramaturgy (to be published by Routledge in 2014), and co-editor of New Dramaturgy. International Perspectives on Theory and Practice (to be published by Methuen Drama in 2014). Her monograph on contemporary dramaturgical practices, Dramaturgy in the Making will be published by Methuen Drama in October 2014. For her research on contemporary dramaturgical practices, Katalin was a recipient of the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas’ Dramaturg Driven Grant. Penny Black trained at drama school in Vienna and worked initially as an actor in Austria, returning to the UK in 1984. After a break to bring up her son, she started translating. In 1992 she was awarded a bursary by the British Centre for Literary Translation, UEA, to finish translating DEATH AND THE DEVIL (Peter Turrini). This was followed by YES, MY FUEHRER*, INCONVENIENCE* and THE GALITZIAN JEWESS* (Brigitte Schwaiger), CIGGIE AND SWIGGIE and AS NIGHT FOLLOWS DAY (Christian Martin), the latter for the Gate Theatre, Notting Hill. The Arts Council commissioned her to translate SLAUGHTERING THE PIG (Peter Turrini), which was produced at the White Bear in 1995 (Time Out Critic’s Choice). The 1995 Arts Council Theatre Translation Bursary enabled her to translate Erwin Reiss’s HAWKING’S DREAM* and she was commissioned by the Goethe Institute to translate the 1995 Mulheim Festival runner-up YOU SHALL GIVE ME GRANDSONS (Thomas Jonigk), which premiered in Los Angeles in 1996. Three further translations of children’s plays were published as MADE IN GERMANY - NINE CONTEMPORARY PLAYS. In 1997 Penny translated THE RECKLESS ARE DYING OUT (Peter Handke) for 606 at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith (Time Out Critic’s Choice) and MALARIA (Simone Schneider) for the Royal Court, published by Nick Hern Books. In 1999 again for the Royal Court, she translated KING KONG’S DAUGHTERS by Theresia Walser. Her translations of Odon von Horvath’s SLADEK* and RUND UM DEN KONGRESS* received readings at the RNT in 2001. She was commissioned by the National Theatre Connections to translate Christian Martin’s STARSTONE for summer 2002 and by the Arcola Theatre to translate Helminger’s VENEZUELA which they produced in 2003. Her first original play MAKING BABIES was premiered at Heilbronn’s Komoedie Teater (Germany) in 2004 and her second play SUDDEN SILENCE received a rehearsed reading at the Arcola Theatre. Her adaptation of Leea Klemola’s MAMMOTH was shown at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival (Pleasance Dome) in 2013. Her translation of Elfriede Jelinek’s SPORTS PLAY was produced by Just a Must Theatre Co and toured the UK in 2012, having recently gone to Montenegro and Venezuela, it is presently in Algeria and will be part of the pre-World Cup celebrations in Brazil in 2014. She received an award from the Austrian Ministry of Culture for her contribution to the translation of Austrian literature.