Jean Laurent Sasportes
Jean Laurent Sasportes is a dancer at the Tanztheater Wuppertal from 1979 to 1996. He is involved in the creation of 10 pieces by Pina Bausch. He also takes on roles in other pieces. Later he dances many times as a guest with the Tanztheater.
Information
1979 to 1996 | Member of Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch |
Biography
Jean Laurent Sasportes
was born in Casablanca, Morocco, in 1952. He began studying maths, physics and philosophy in Marseille in 1970 but something was missing. By chance he met the jazz-dance teacher Anne-Marie Porras in Montpelier. She invited him to watch her small company rehearse. As soon as he arrived he felt in his element, joined in with their rehearsals and learned a choreography he was soon to perform with them on tour. As a result he dropped out of university and began a dance course in Montpelier, with Porras as well as Lise Pinet and Jörg Lanner, two ex dancers from Maurice Béjart’s company. After two years he continued his dance education in Paris under Peter Goss. His first job took him to Munich for six months with Birgitta Trommler.
A bumpy start
From a friend he heard that Pina Bausch in Wuppertal was looking for male dancers. Although he knew nothing about her or her work, he applied. It was an appropriately awkward start. Sasportes was so excited he got toothache and could barely participate in the training and rehearsals. Pina Bausch postponed her decision till after their upcoming Paris shows, in case she couldn’t find anyone at the audition there. Luck was on his side, and in 1979 he joined the Tanztheater Wuppertal ensemble. He learned the repertoire, took over Rolf Borzik’s role in Café Müller, and danced The Rite of Spring and Kontakthof. He grasped what it meant to be present without stealing the limelight. Keuschheitslegende (Legend of chastity) and 1980 were the first new pieces for which he was part of the creative process. He saw Pina Bausch’s working methods – asking questions – as a creative challenge. But this was never about improvisation, more about composition. ‘Really,’ Sasportes says, ‘you had to open the door to your heart.’ You had to understand the nature of the feelings. That was the only way to access the inner logic of the pieces.
An influential figure
Over the years Sasportes became a distinctive figure within the company, appearing in almost all the new pieces until 1996. He could play a gloriously naïve fool one minute, the next a rock-hard stoic or an innocent child. He liked to play distracting characters, disrupting up the piece and causing a disturbance, systematically breaking up cohesion.
In 1996 he left the company, but continued to join them as a guest for Café Müller, 1980, Bandoneon, Viktor, Palermo Palermo, Ahnen, Nelken (Carnations) and Auf dem Gebirge hat man ein Geschrei gehört (On the mountain a cry was heard). He also worked as a freelance dancer, actor, teacher and choreographer. He is famous for his structured improvisations, particularly thanks to the collaboration with musicians such as Peter Kowald and Hans Reichel. He has taught Modern Dance, Kinomichi and his own body discipline Jansannotaiso, internationally. He was founder and artistic director of the dance theatre company CafeAda and created the Ikonoclaste Tanzfestival, which was held in Wuppertal between 2005 and 2008. At the instigation of Stephanie Roos, in 2015 he worked with autistic adults and in 2016 created the dance theatre piece Mein Schloss. Ein Stück über Autismus (‘my castle – a piece about autism’). In 2018 he began a collaboration with the maths professor Barbara Rüdiger-Mastandrea and the video artist Ralf Silberkuhl which led to the piece Am Anfang war das Chaos (‘in the beginning there was chaos’), based on Ludwig Boltzmann’s thermodynamics theories.
Text by Norbert Servos
Translated by Steph Morris
Gallery
Recommendations
Premieres
Piece | Keuschheitslegende (Legend of Chastity) |
Date | 13 December 1979 |
Venue | Opernhaus Wuppertal Wuppertal Germany |
Dance | Anne Marie Benati |
Anne Martin | |
Arthur Rosenfeld | |
Beatrice Libonati | |
Christian Trouillas | |
Dominique Mercy | |
Ed Kortlandt | |
Heide Tegeder | |
Héléna Pikon | |
Jan Minařík | |
Janusz Subicz | |
Jean Laurent Sasportes | |
Josephine Ann Endicott | |
Lutz Förster | |
Malou Airaudo | |
Meryl Tankard | |
Nazareth Panadero | |
Urs Kaufmann | |
Vivienne Newport | |
Actor | Hans Dieter Knebel |
Mechthild Großmann | |
Musician | Matthias Burkert |
Extra | Frank Herfeld |
Frank Nettesheim | |
Jürgen Koch | |
Klaus Kostka | |
Roman Rohde | |
Ulrich Huppach | |
Werner Simon | |
Wolfgang Weiß | |
Stagehand | Paul Aron |
Lighting | Hans-Joachim Deinert |
Make-up | Heinz Dildey |
Sound | Horst Kersten |
Klaus Grimm | |
Ballet master | Dominique Mercy |
Jean Cébron | |
Technical direction | Rolf Bachmann |
Leitung Kostüm | Renate Eichberg |
Workshop management | Leo Haase |
Assistant | Hans Dieter Knebel |
Stage manager | Herbert Görsch |
Props | Günther Fränzel |
Source of cast | Evening leaflet for “Keuschheitslegende (Legend of Chastity)” by Pina Bausch in in Wuppertal, Dec. 13, 1979 |
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Piece | 1980 – A Piece by Pina Bausch |
Date | 18 May 1980 |
Venue | Schauspielhaus Wuppertal Wuppertal Germany |
Set design assistant | Gerda Raichle |
Dance | Anne Marie Benati |
Anne Martin | |
Arthur Rosenfeld | |
Beatrice Libonati | |
Ed Kortlandt | |
Hans Dieter Knebel | |
Heide Tegeder | |
Isabel Ribas Serra | |
Jan Minařík | |
Janusz Subicz | |
Jean Laurent Sasportes | |
Josephine Ann Endicott | |
Lutz Förster | |
Malou Airaudo | |
Mechthild Großmann | |
Meryl Tankard | |
Nazareth Panadero | |
Vivienne Newport | |
Musician | Arthur Sockel |
Matthias Burkert | |
Special performer | Hans Günter Witt |
Stagehand | Heinz Czyganowski |
Lighting | Siegfried Schuchmann |
Make-up | Heinz Dildey |
Sound | Helmut Schoth |
Ballet master | Dominique Mercy |
Jean Cébron | |
Technical direction | Rolf Bachmann |
Leitung Kostüm | Renate Eichberg |
Workshop management | Leo Haase |
Stage manager | Peter Lütke |
Props | Gerd Klann |
Sportler:in | Max Walther |
Source of cast | Evening leaflet for “1980 – A Piece by Pina Bausch” by Pina Bausch with Tanztheater Wuppertal in in Wuppertal, May 18, 1980 |
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Piece | Bandoneon |
Date | 21 December 1980 |
Venue | Opernhaus Wuppertal Wuppertal Germany |
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Piece | Walzer |
Date | 17 June 1982 |
Venue | Koninklijk Theater Carré Amsterdam Amsterdam Netherlands |
Costume assistant | Bernd Bremer |
Rosemarie Hess | |
Dance | Anne Marie Benati |
Arthur Rosenfeld | |
Beatrice Libonati | |
Bénédicte Billiet | |
Christian Trouillas | |
Ed Kortlandt | |
Francis Viet | |
Hans Pop | |
Héléna Pikon | |
Jakob Haahr Andersen | |
Jan Minařík | |
Janusz Subicz | |
Jean Laurent Sasportes | |
Josephine Ann Endicott | |
Malou Airaudo | |
Meryl Tankard | |
Monika Sagon | |
Nazareth Panadero | |
Urs Kaufmann | |
Vitus Zeplichal | |
Actor | Mechthild Großmann |
Musician | Matthias Burkert |
Stagehand | Heinz Czyganowski |
Lighting | Hans-Joachim Deinert |
Sound | Hartmut Millard |
Helmut Schoth | |
Ballet master | Dominique Mercy |
Jean Cébron | |
Stage manager | Peter Lütke |
Source of cast | Evening leaflet for “Walzer” by Pina Bausch in in Amsterdam, 06/17/1982 – 06/20/1982 |
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Piece | Nelken (Carnations) |
Date | 30 December 1982 |
Venue | Opernhaus Wuppertal Wuppertal Germany |
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Piece | Auf dem Gebirge hat man ein Geschrei gehört (On the Mountain a Cry Was Heard) |
Date | 13 May 1984 |
Venue | Schauspielhaus Wuppertal Wuppertal Germany |
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Piece | Viktor |
Date | 14 May 1986 |
Venue | Schauspielhaus Wuppertal Wuppertal Germany |
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Piece | Ahnen |
Date | 21 March 1987 |
Venue | Schauspielhaus Wuppertal Wuppertal Germany |
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Piece | Palermo Palermo |
Date | 17 December 1989 |
Venue | Opernhaus Wuppertal Wuppertal Germany |
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Piece | Das Stück mit dem Schiff (The Piece with the Ship) |
Date | 16 January 1993 |
Venue | Opernhaus Wuppertal Wuppertal Germany |
Set design assistant | Helga Schnüttgen |
Dance | Aida Vainieri |
Barbara Kaufmann | |
Beatrice Libonati | |
Bernd Uwe Marszan | |
Dominique Mercy | |
Felix Ruckert | |
Francis Viet | |
Geraldo Si Loureiro | |
Hans Beenhakker | |
Héléna Pikon | |
Jakob Haahr Andersen | |
Jan Minařík | |
Janusz Subicz | |
Jean Laurent Sasportes | |
Julie Anne Stanzak | |
Julie Shanahan | |
Marigia Maggipinto | |
Mariko Aoyama | |
Nazareth Panadero | |
Quincella Swyningan | |
Ruth Amarante | |
Thomas Duchatelet | |
Musician | Matthias Burkert |
Lighting | Klaus Weiz |
Make-up | Frank Pohler |
Sound | Frank Strätker |
Klaus Grimm | |
Management | Matthias Schmiegelt |
Organizational staff | Claudia Irman |
Ballet master | Agnes Pallai |
Brian Bertscher | |
Christine Kono-Pohlmann | |
Technical direction | Dieter Simon |
Klaus Weiz | |
Manfred Marczewski | |
Leitung Bühnentechnik | Manfred Marczewski |
Peter Ernestus | |
Lighting direction | Siegfried Schuchmann |
Leitung Kostüm | Evelyn Schönwald |
Leitung Requisite | Herbert Kuhn |
Workshop management | Leo Haase |
Stage manager | Jürgen Schneidenbach |
Cloakroom | Andreas Maier |
Harald Boll | |
Rosemarie Hess | |
Source of cast | Evening leaflet for “Das Stück mit dem Schiff (The Piece with the Ship)” by Pina Bausch in in Wuppertal, Jan. 16, 1993 |
Discover photos, videos and more in the archives | Browse the archives |