Through all its actions and especially in dance, the body reveals what words attempt to hide. This northern spring, I saw six dance companies in four countries speak many different dance languages. The performances proved that all forms of dance can speak equally well to most audiences. What mattered was the honesty and integrity of the choreographers and dancers, not the style of dance nor whether the dancers were as naked as newborns or dressed according to the demands of 19th-century classicism. Audience reaction, from London to The Hague, was equally interesting, with Germans responding with the most passion.
Some audiences show cult-like reverence for certain choreographers.
At Pina Bausch's Tanztheater in Wuppertal, the standing ovation of the audience, slow clapping and rapturous, is part of the performance. It goes much deeper than anything I could ever say, or I would have become a writer. Rather, the work is deeply moving, in particular when the near-naked dancers make sculptural shapes revealing the beauty of the torso and spine while emphasising the vulnerability of our unclothed bodies. The dancers form sculptural groups, resembling friezes stirring into life. In the funniest, most touching moment, two dancers wrap themselves around the waists of two others.