The Essence of Dance – The Living Dance

For the first time in London

Dancer, choreographer, and director Rainer Behr of Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch will lead a one-day workshop at Acosta Dance Centre.

When: Sunday, 30 Nov 2025 Time: 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM (doors open at 9:30 AM)

Price: £65 Studio: Aud Jebsen

Open call: dancers and movers with previous dance-theatre experience (intermediate to advanced level) are welcome to register.

Age: 18+

Limited number of participants.

What to bring: comfortable clothing, a water bottle, and your own lunch. No catering available on site. There are three cafés in the area, including at Woolwich Works and near the Elizabeth Line Station.

The Workshop

Rainer writes:

How does a human being become a dancing being? How do the concepts and ideas of dance dissolve so that we can truly feel free when we sense that something is dancing within us? Where exactly do we find this dance inside us, and what makes it come alive? Where does this journey begin, and what must a person do to find this language? What is the essence of dance, and what must be let go of for the dance to emerge within you?

Through training and working with repertoire, the body is given the best conditions to let the dance within us find its own language. In the creative process, the focus is on discovering your own dance language, making the invisible visible, and creating your own unique work.

Dancer, Choreographer, Director

“Real actors cease acting, and real dancers destroy dance. What remains is life.” “We don’t want to see your feelings; we want to see what the feelings do to you.” — RB

Rainer Behr studied dance at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen-Werden, Germany. From 1989 to 1995, he danced at Folkwang Tanzstudio, collaborating with Susanne Linke, Raffaella Giordano, Urs Dietrich, and Mark Sieczkarek, while also performing as a guest dancer in projects with the Wuppertal Pina Bausch Dance Theater. In 1995, he joined Pina Bausch’s ensemble as a permanent member, where he continues to work today.

He created his first choreographies in 1989 and soon after received international recognition, including 1st prize in Cagliari, Italy, for Die Wendung der Dinge and the Claasen Dance Award in 1990. Since then, he has created works for Folkwang Tanzstudio, the International Dance Festival NRW, and the Wuppertal Dance Theater Pina Bausch, including The Iron Poodle and pieces in the UNDERGROUND series.

In recent years, his projects have expanded internationally. He choreographed for WAAPA in Perth, guest-directed in Bielefeld, and premiered Sleeping Woman, his first full-length piece for Tanztheater Wuppertal, in 2021. He also collaborated with Staatstheater Braunschweig and Theater Osnabrück.

In 2022, he created VONA in Wuppertal with invited Ukrainian dancers, followed by When Wormwood Blooms at the Les Kurbas Theater in Lviv, and Field / Morning Lady in Kyiv under the Per Forma grant program.

Alongside his stage works, Rainer Behr shares his knowledge worldwide through masterclasses and collaborations with companies and theaters across different countries.

Among the major works he has performed with Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch are: Bluebeard, while listening to a tape recording of Béla Bartók’s opera “Duke Bluebeard’s Castle,” Kontakthof, Palermo Palermo, Masurca Fogo, Água, Nefés, Vollmond, “ …Como el Mosquito en la Piedra, Ay Sí, Sí, Sí…” (Like Moss on the Stone), and many others.

Rainer Behr also appears in the film Pina by Wim Wenders (2011).