22 Quotes by Pina Bausch

To understand what I am saying, you have to believe that dance is something other than technique. We forget where the movements come from. They are born from life. When you create a new work, the point of departure must be contemporary life -- not existing forms of dance.

There are situations of course that leave you utterly speechless. All you can do is hint at things. Words, too, can't do more than just evoke things. That's where dance comes in again.

When I first began choreographing, I never thought of it as choreography but as expressing feelings. Though every piece is different, they are all trying to get at certain things that are difficult to put into words. In the work, everything belongs to everything else - the music, the set, the movement and whatever is said.

I want to feel something, as a person. I don't want to be bored.

I'm not interested in how people move, but what moves them.

Everything must come from the heart, must be lived.

The things we discover for ourselves are the most important.

I am more interested in what moves people, than how they move.

I didn't want to imitate anybody. Any movement I knew, I didn't want to use.