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APPENDIX B

INTERVIEW WITH DANCER JULIE SHANAHAN

. New York, November 1994

CF: The scene from Tanzabend II in which you tell the audience about

your father's kiss—How was it created?

JS: Bausch asked me to put things together. I had done separateimprovisations earlier: with the bathing suit, with the glass of water, with

kisses with my father, and with kisses with someone else. She told me

afterwards to put together the talking [of the father's kiss scene] with the

kisses on the table [from the scene of kissing someone else]. She asked

an improvisation, and I just did a composition, putting together the three

improvisations. In the scene, I drink out of the cup, and then drop water

on the table and kiss the table, while talking about kisses. It is a very

important memory. It is the memory of my first kiss, and it is not withmy mother. It is with my father.

CF: And what happens to your personal memory by making a theatrical

scene out of it, and by performing it on stage?

JS: It changes completely. People think of incest because of the other

scene [with the cousin] that I put with it, but they are actually separated

scenes. It looks like melancholy. [In rehearsal,] I did not know if I was

answering what Bausch had asked. I didn't do it for an audience. I did it

as talking to myself, about myself. It is very personal. My father's kissstill remains a memory. But it changes in performance. I've kissed so

many men in-between that experience and today, that somehow my

father's kiss becomes different; it becomes other men's kisses. It all

comes together on the stage scene. Qdginally, it is a happy memory, but

in performance it becomes melancholic. I'm a lonely person talking

about kisses I liked and kisses I didn't like, but they become one because

I did not find love. Also, this scene is connected to the one soon after, in

which I measure the different parts of my body, standing on the table. It

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120 Pina Bausch and the Wuppertal Dance Theater

JS : The first time I performed it, I did not know how I would react. I

became aggressive toward the audience. They probably didn't evenunderstand it. Also because, at the same time, Geraldo [Si Loureiro] is

drawing and crossing hearts on his body, looking at audience members.

They might think what I do is somehow connected to his scene. Then, it

was becom ing m ore and m ore familiar to me each night. You can then go

deeper in the feelings. One main thing about the company's creative

process is that even though you are talking about memories, you are still

an actress and it is in the piece. Other scenes may happen at the same

time of my personal story, without having anything to do with my life;also other dancers can eventually do this scene about my father's kiss.

Something important about the whole scene—its very, very slow time. It

can't be too slow because it disconnects, but it can't be faster either.

Tim e goes on and on; it is very sen sitive, very fragile.

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