Rolf Borzik
Rolf Borzik developed the sets and costumes for Pina Bausch's pieces from 1973 to 1979. He has a decisive influence on the way Tanztheater Wuppertal is seen. In 1980 he died at the age of only 35.
Information
1944 | born in Posen |
1963 to 1966 | studies painting in Haarlem, Amsterdam (Netherlands) and Paris (France) |
after 1967 | studies graphics and design at the Folkwang Hochschule in Essen (Germany) |
1970 | meets Pina Bausch |
1973 to 1980 | works as costume and set designer for the Tanztheater Wuppertal |
1980 | dies at the age of 35 |
Biography
Rolf Borzik
was born 1944 in Posen, Poland, but grew up in Germany and the Netherlands. In 1963 he began an apprenticeship at a graphic design firm in Detmold, then studied drawing and portraiture with the Dutch painter Poppe de Maar in Haarlem. From 1963 to 1966 he studied painting in Amsterdam and Paris before enrolling at the Folkwang School, Essen, in 1967 to study graphics and design. Here he met Pina Bausch. The two became friends, and from 1970 lived together. Three years later, when she was invited to take charge of dance in Wuppertal by artistic director Arno Wüstenhöfer, he began designing costumes and sets for the company.
Giving the new dance theatre a face
They formed a congenial partnership. They agreed that the pieces couldn’t accommodate any of the stylisations typical at the time, instead needing to be situated close to reality. At the same time the sets needed to open up poetic spaces for the audiences, allowing room for them to make their own associations. Borzik worked on Pina Bausch’s Wuppertal productions right from the start and gave them a very different look: everyday in Fritz, spare and reduced to the minimum for the Gluck operas Iphigenia in Tauris and Orpheus and Eurydice. These constraints on the means aimed to draw the eye to the intensity of the actions, with nothing allowed not genuinely needed. For The Rite of Spring Borzik opened up the stage back to the firewalls and covered it in a thick layer of peat – dance as a physical act of violence. On the one hand Borzik sought proximity to everyday life, on the other he defamiliarized the spaces by playing with the elements. For The Seven Deadly Sins he took a cast of a Wuppertal street and used this as the stage floor. The nineteenth-century room in Bluebeard is full of fallen leaves which track the dancers’ steps; in Come dance with me it is twigs and branches. Renate emigrates presents a fantastical ice landscape to the eye. Café Müller shows a coffee house full of tables and chairs which Borzik rumbles out of the way of the dancers. In Arias the whole stage is ankle-deep in water while a melancholy hippopotamus steps through the landscape searching for love.
Everything is possible
Borzik’s costumes are often reminiscent of everyday clothes while at the same time departing from them. They may be minimal or extravagant, elegant or simple, a fake skin or an inventive disguise. Everything is possible. For Pina Bausch he was a congenial working partner with whom she could discuss every thematic and dramaturgical issue. He co-devised and -imagined these pieces from their heart, as they began to define a new genre.
In January 1980 Rolf Borzik died at only thirty-five years of age. But in the seven years in which he had worked with Pina Bausch in Wuppertal he succeeded in giving dance theatre an unmistakable face. He created stage sets which incorporate the chronology of events, in defiance of ephemerality and transience. These are spaces of memory which record the drama of human existence within themselves, at the same time reminding us, with their poetic defamiliarization, that everything is possible, even what we have not yet seen and not yet imagined.
Following Borzik’s death Marion Cito took over costumes and Peter Pabst sets. They continued the trajectories of these excessive yet disciplined fantasies into the future.
Text by Norbert Servos
Translated by Steph Morris
Gallery
Portrait of Rolf Borzik
Photo: Ulli Weiss © Pina Bausch Foundation
Premieres
Piece | Fritz |
Date | 5 January 1974 |
Venue | Opernhaus Wuppertal Wuppertal Germany |
Choreografische Assistenz | Hans Pop |
Dance | Carlos Orta |
Catherine Denisot | |
Charlotte Butler | |
Dominique Mercy | |
Ed Kortlandt | |
Gabriel Sala | |
Heinz Samm | |
Jan Minařík | |
John Giffin | |
João Penalva | |
Malou Airaudo | |
Marlis Alt | |
Monika Sagon | |
Monika Wacker | |
Riitta Laurikainen | |
Tjitske Broersma | |
Vivienne Newport | |
Wolf-Werner Wolf | |
Stagehand | Helmut Kühne |
Lighting | Hans-Joachim Deinert |
Make-up | Heinz Dildey |
Sound | Horst Kersten |
Artistic director | Pina Bausch |
Ballet master | Hans-Dieter Klos |
Repetition | Werner Precht |
Technical direction | Rolf Bachmann |
Stage manager | Werner Hartkopf |
Source of cast | Evening leaflet for “Fritz” by Pina Bausch, “Rodeo” by Agnes de Mille and “The green Table” by Kurt Jooss in in Wuppertal, Jan. 5, 1974 |
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Piece | Iphigenie auf Tauris |
Date | 21 April 1974 |
Venue | Opernhaus Wuppertal Wuppertal Germany |
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Piece | Orpheus und Eurydike |
Date | 23 May 1975 |
Venue | Opernhaus Wuppertal Wuppertal Germany |
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Piece | The Second Spring |
Date | 3 December 1975 |
Venue | Opernhaus Wuppertal Wuppertal Germany |
Dance | Colleen Finneran-Meessmann |
Jan Minařík | |
Josephine Ann Endicott | |
Marlis Alt | |
Michael Diekamp | |
Vivienne Newport | |
Stagehand | Paul Aron |
Lighting | Hans-Joachim Deinert |
Make-up | Heinz Dildey |
Sound | Horst Kersten |
Ballet master | Hans-Dieter Klos |
Ballettkorrepetition | Werner Precht |
Technical direction | Rolf Bachmann |
Stage manager | Herbert Görsch |
Source of cast | Evening leaflet for “The Rite of Spring”, “Wind From West” and “The Second Spring” by Pina Bausch in in Wuppertal, Dec. 3, 1975 |
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Piece | The Rite of Spring |
Date | 3 December 1975 |
Venue | Opernhaus Wuppertal Wuppertal Germany |
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Piece | Wind From West |
Date | 3 December 1975 |
Venue | Opernhaus Wuppertal Wuppertal Germany |
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Piece | The Seven Deadly Sins |
Date | 15 June 1976 |
Venue | Opernhaus Wuppertal Wuppertal Germany |
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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 |
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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 | |
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 |
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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 | |
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 |
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Piece | He Takes Her By The Hand And Leads Her Into The Castle, The Others Follow |
Date | 22 April 1978 |
Venue | Schauspielhaus Bochum Bochum Germany |
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Piece | Café Müller |
Date | 20 May 1978 |
Venue | Opernhaus Wuppertal Wuppertal Germany |
Dance | Dominique Mercy |
Jan Minařík | |
Malou Airaudo | |
Meryl Tankard | |
Stagehand | Josef Lindler |
Lighting | Hans-Joachim Deinert |
Make-up | Heinz Dildey |
Sound | Klaus Grimm |
Wardrobe supervisor | Ortrud Himmelreich |
Ballet master | Egbert Strolka |
Jean Cébron | |
Ballettkorrepetition | Christoph Haas |
Werner Precht | |
Technical direction | Rolf Bachmann |
Workshop management | Leo Haase |
Stage manager | Herbert Görsch |
Props | Günther Fränzel |
Source of cast | Evening leaflet for “Café Müller” by Pina Bausch, “Café Müller” by Gerhard Bohner, “Café Müller” by Gigi-Georghe Caciuléanu and “Café Müller” by Hans Pop in in Wuppertal, May 20, 1978 |
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Piece | Kontakthof |
Date | 9 December 1978 |
Venue | Opernhaus Wuppertal Wuppertal Germany |
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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 |
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Piece | Keuschheitslegende (Legend of Chastity) |
Date | 13 December 1979 |
Venue | Opernhaus Wuppertal Wuppertal Germany |
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Piece | Kontakthof. With Ladies and Gentlemen over 65' |
Date | 25 February 2000 |
Venue | Schauspielhaus Wuppertal Wuppertal Germany |
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Piece | Kontakthof. With Teenagers over 14 |
Date | 7 November 2008 |
Venue | Opernhaus Wuppertal Wuppertal Germany |
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