From the 1970s, dance became a scenic phenomenon closely interrelated with the theater, since the dissolution of the division of genres for the construction of hybrid shows, makes a new genre appear: the dance theater or Tanztheatre .
The dance theater was born in FRG with an interest in recovering the German expressionist dance of the 1930s and being influenced by the American new dance and the performance of Martha GRAHAM and Merce CUNNINGHAM.
GRAHAM, between 1938 and 1939 began to develop floor dance exercises: the so-called floor dance. For his part, CUNNINGHAM, who had already started in GRAHAM's company with pieces such as The Appalachian Srping Ballet, experienced in 1960 a new concept of tempo, movement and rhythm in the context of performances.
Pina BAUSCH is the most important choreographer of this trend and one of the most relevant names in the performing arts of the second half of the 20th century. BAUSCH was formed by plastic artist and dancer Kurt JOOSS at his school in Essen.
Later, he completed his training in the USA and, from 1973, he settled in Wuppertal where he began to experiment in the area of the borders between theatre, dance and music.
It has an ironic look at human behavior and its stereotypes and often uses an aesthetic typical of the 1950s and a series of stylistic leitmotifs (the floor of the stage made of grass, earth or water, music of popular origin , catwalks, men dressed as women, hugs and rejections...)