Choreographer Pina Bausch Dies 5 Days after Discovering Cancer

by Amy Judd | June 30, 2009 at 05:06 pm

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Groundbreaking and innovative German modern dance choreographer Pina Bausch dies today suddenly, only five days after discovering she has cancer.

"An unexpected death carried her away five days after being diagnosed with cancer," the Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch said. "Only the Sunday before last she was on the stage with her company at the Wuppertal Opera House."

Born in 1940 as Josephine Bausch, she made a name for herself at the Metropolitan Opera in New York as a modern dancer and choreographer with a strong personal style with additions of interesting pieces of scenery.

She was not always popualr however, as some audience members walked out of her shows in her early career as she pushed the boundaries with representations of fear, panic and battles among the sexes.
She was due to present a performance of 'The Seven Deadly Sins' by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht at the Chekhov International Theatre Festival in Moscow later in July.

She died in hospital.