Marion Cito
Marion Cito first worked as a dancer and assistant with Pina Bausch. From 1980 she is costume designer at the Tanztheater Wuppertal. She had a major impact on the style of Pina Bausch's pieces.
Information
1938 | born in Berlin |
1972 to 1975 | Dancer with Gerhard Bohner in Darmstadt |
1980 to 2016 | Costume Designer at Tanztheater Wuppertal |
Biography
Marion Cito
was born in 1938 in Berlin where she began dance lessons from the age of ten with Tatjana Gsovsky, who later recruited her for the Deutsche Oper Berlin. Marion Cito soon rose to become the top soloist, performing in Gsovsky works as well as choreographies by George Balanchine, Kenneth McMillan, Serge Lifar, John Cranko and Antony Tudor. Her strength was characterisation. She was also open to new ideas, dancing in the first pieces by her colleague Gerhard Bohner. In 1972, when Bohner took over as head of the Darmstadt Ballet Marion Cito went with him. But after three years the project ended due to differences with the theatre management. She now no longer wished to dance for health reasons. In 1976 Pina Bausch invited her to Wuppertal as her assistant, then persuaded her to return to the stage once more, due to casting issues, for Bluebeard, Komm, tanz mit mir (Come dance with me) and Renate wandert aus (Renate Emigrates).
From dancer to costume designer
Another change came in 1980. When Pina Bausch’s personal and professional partner Rolf Borzik died, she asked Marion Cito to take over designing the costumes. Given that the Tanztheater Wuppertal’s working methods engaged intensively with the dancers’ personalities the costumes had to be individual too and yet must also form an overall picture. They should evoke everyday life yet also exceed it. Beauty and elegance alternated with simplicity and minimalism. Alongside that there must always be space for a childish pleasure in dressing up, which generated strange and perplexing figures: a muscular man playing the god of love, shooting arrows in a tight lurex miniskirt; a man switching between cantankerous grandma and romantic ballerina in a long tutu. Men frequently appear in women’s clothes in the pieces, not for a superficial drag look but to place a question mark behind established gender roles. Clothes make the man; they are part of the role play between the sexes and they play on the social environment.
Delicate balances
For each production Marion Cito supplied a wealth of samples, buying fabric and clothes on their extended tours all over the world. Each time she was forced to rely on her intuition. Before rehearsals started, she had to sense which direction a piece might perhaps head in and plan accordingly, otherwise neither she nor the workshops could keep pace with the development of the piece. Because the pieces were assembled relatively late in the process, the practical issues only emerged towards the end: insufficient time to change, colour combinations created through constellations on stage which weren’t initially planned. Extreme flexibility and rapid reactions were required. The increasingly extensive maintenance of the repertoire was also highly labour-intensive, including urgent re-casting and, not infrequently, pregnant dancers. Her work resembled a game with endless variables and multiple unknown factors and yet over the years she developed a masterful serenity derived from a deep love of the pieces and their world view. It was only in 2016, after forty years, that Marion Cito bade farewell to the Tanztheater Wuppertal to retire.
Text by Norbert Servos
Translated by Steph Morris
Gallery
Piece creation
Season 1976/77 | Bluebeard. While Listening to a Tape Recording of Béla Bartók's Opera "Duke Bluebeard's Castle" Collaboration |
Season 1976/77 | Come Dance With Me Collaboration |
Season 1977/78 | Renate wandert aus (Renate Emigrates) Collaboration |
Season 1978/79 | Kontakthof Collaboration |
Season 1978/79 | Arien Collaboration |
Season 1979/80 | Keuschheitslegende (Legend of Chastity) Collaboration |
Season 1979/80 | 1980 – A Piece by Pina Bausch Costumes |
Season 1980/81 | Bandoneon Costumes |
Season 1981/82 | Walzer Costumes |
Season 1982/83 | Nelken (Carnations) Costumes |
Season 1983/84 | Auf dem Gebirge hat man ein Geschrei gehört (On the Mountain a Cry Was Heard) Costumes |
Season 1984/85 | Two Cigarettes in the Dark Costumes |
Season 1985/86 | Viktor Costumes, Collaboration |
Season 1986/87 | Ahnen Costumes |
Season 1989/90 | Palermo Palermo Costumes |
Season 1990/91 | Tanzabend II Costumes |
Season 1992/93 | Das Stück mit dem Schiff (The Piece with the Ship) Costumes |
Season 1993/94 | Ein Trauerspiel Costumes |
Season 1994/95 | Danzón Costumes, Collaboration |
Season 1995/96 | Nur Du (Only You) Costumes, Collaboration |
Season 1996/97 | Der Fensterputzer (The Window Washer) Assistants to the director, Costumes |
Season 1997/98 | Masurca Fogo Collaboration, Costumes |
Season 1998/99 | O Dido Costumes, Collaboration |
Season 1999/2000 | Kontakthof. With Ladies and Gentlemen over 65 Collaboration, Costumes based from Rolf Borzik´s sketches |
Season 1999/2000 | Wiesenland Collaboration, Costumes |
Season 2000/01 | Água Collaboration, Costumes |
Season 2001/02 | For the Children of Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow Collaboration, Costumes |
Season 2002/03 | Nefés Collaboration, Costumes |
Season 2003/04 | Ten Chi Costumes, Collaboration |
Season 2004/05 | Rough Cut Collaboration, Costumes |
Season 2005/06 | Vollmond (Full Moon) Costumes, Collaboration |
Season 2006/07 | Bamboo Blues Collaboration, Costumes |
Season 2007/08 | 'Sweet Mambo' Costumes, Collaboration |
Season 2008/09 | Kontakthof. With Teenagers over 14 Collaboration |
Season 2008/09 | "... como el musguito en la piedra, ay si, si, si ..." (Like Moss on the Stone) Costumes, Collaboration |
Premieres
Piece | Bluebeard. While Listening to a Tape Recording of Béla Bartók's Opera "Duke Bluebeard's Castle" |
Date | 8 January 1977 |
Venue | Opernhaus Wuppertal Wuppertal Germany |
Costume assistant | Ortrud Himmelreich |
Dance | Anne Marie Benati |
Arnaldo Alvarez | |
Barbara Passow-Diekamp | |
Colleen Finneran-Meessmann | |
Ed Kortlandt | |
Elisabeth Clarke | |
Esco Edmondson | |
Fernando Cortizo | |
Guy Detot | |
Hans Pop | |
Heinz Samm | |
Hiltrud Blanck | |
Jan Minařík | |
John Giffin | |
Luis P. Layag | |
Mari Di Lena | |
Marion Cito | |
Marlis Alt | |
Michael Diekamp | |
Monika Sagon | |
Monika Wacker | |
Tjitske Broersma | |
Vivienne Newport | |
Yolanda Meier | |
Stagehand | Josef Lindler |
Lighting | Hans-Joachim Deinert |
Make-up | Heinz Dildey |
Sound | Horst Kersten |
Ballet master | Egbert Strolka |
Ballettkorrepetition | Werner Precht |
Technical direction | Rolf Bachmann |
Workshop management | Leo Haase |
Stage manager | Herbert Görsch |
Props | Günther Fränzel |
Source of cast | Booklet for “Bluebeard. While Listening to a Tape Recording of Béla Bartók's Opera "Duke Bluebeard's Castle"” by Pina Bausch in in Wuppertal, Jan. 8, 1977 |
Discover photos, videos and more in the archives | Browse the archives |
Piece | Come Dance With Me |
Date | 26 May 1977 |
Venue | Opernhaus Wuppertal Wuppertal Germany |
Costume assistant | Ortrud Himmelreich |
Dance | Anne Marie Benati |
Arnaldo Alvarez | |
Barbara Passow-Diekamp | |
Colleen Finneran-Meessmann | |
Ed Kortlandt | |
Elisabeth Clarke | |
Esco Edmondson | |
Fernando Cortizo | |
Gisbert Rüschkamp | |
Guy Detot | |
Hans Pop | |
Heinz Samm | |
Hiltrud Blanck | |
Jan Minařík | |
John Giffin | |
Josephine Ann Endicott | |
Luis P. Layag | |
Mari Di Lena | |
Marion Cito | |
Monika Sagon | |
Monika Wacker | |
Tjitske Broersma | |
Vivienne Newport | |
Yolanda Meier | |
Stagehand | Paul Aron |
Lighting | Hans-Joachim Deinert |
Make-up | Heinz Dildey |
Sound | Horst Kersten |
Ballet master | Egbert Strolka |
Ballettkorrepetition | Werner Precht |
Technical direction | Rolf Bachmann |
Workshop management | Leo Haase |
Stage manager | Herbert Görsch |
Props | Günther Fränzel |
Source of cast | Evening leaflet for “Come Dance With Me” by Pina Bausch in in Wuppertal, May 26, 1977 |
Discover photos, videos and more in the archives | Browse the archives |
Piece | Renate wandert aus (Renate Emigrates) |
Date | 30 December 1977 |
Venue | Opernhaus Wuppertal Wuppertal Germany |
Costume assistant | Ortrud Himmelreich |
Dance | Anne Marie Benati |
Arnaldo Alvarez | |
Barbara Passow-Diekamp | |
Dana Sapiro | |
Dominique Mercy | |
Ed Kortlandt | |
Erich Leukert | |
Fernando Cortizo | |
Heinz Samm | |
Hiltrud Blanck | |
Héléna Pikon | |
Jacques Patarozzi | |
Jan Minařík | |
John Giffin | |
Josephine Ann Endicott | |
Luis P. Layag | |
Malou Airaudo | |
Mari Di Lena | |
Marion Cito | |
Marlis Alt | |
Monika Sagon | |
Monika Wacker | |
Tjitske Broersma | |
Vivienne Newport | |
Yolanda Meier | |
Stagehand | Paul Aron |
Lighting | Hans-Joachim Deinert |
Make-up | Heinz Dildey |
Sound | Horst Kersten |
Ballet master | Egbert Strolka |
Jean Cébron | |
Ballettkorrepetition | Werner Precht |
Technical direction | Rolf Bachmann |
Workshop management | Leo Haase |
Stage manager | Herbert Görsch |
Props | Günther Fränzel |
Source of cast | Evening leaflet for “Renate wandert aus (Renate Emigrates)” by Pina Bausch in in Wuppertal, Dec. 30, 1977 |
Discover photos, videos and more in the archives | Browse the archives |
Piece | Arien |
Date | 12 May 1979 |
Venue | Opernhaus Wuppertal Wuppertal Germany |
Dance | Anne Marie Benati |
Anne Martin | |
Arnaldo Alvarez | |
Arthur Rosenfeld | |
Beatrice Libonati | |
Christian Trouillas | |
Ed Kortlandt | |
Elisabeth Clarke | |
Fernando Cortizo | |
Gary Austin Crocker | |
Heinz Samm | |
Jan Minařík | |
John Giffin | |
Josephine Ann Endicott | |
Lutz Förster | |
Mari Di Lena | |
Marion Cito | |
Meryl Tankard | |
Monika Sagon | |
Monika Wacker | |
Silvia Kesselheim | |
Vivienne Newport | |
Stagehand | Josef Lindler |
Lighting | Hans-Joachim Deinert |
Make-up | Heinz Dildey |
Sound | Horst Kersten |
Klaus Grimm | |
Ballet master | Egbert Strolka |
Jean Cébron | |
Ballettkorrepetition | Werner Precht |
Technical direction | Rolf Bachmann |
Leitung Kostüm | Renate Eichberg |
Workshop management | Leo Haase |
Stage manager | Herbert Görsch |
Props | Günther Fränzel |
Source of cast | Evening leaflet for “Arien” by Pina Bausch in in Wuppertal, May 12, 1979 |
Discover photos, videos and more in the archives | Browse the archives |