Pina Bausch was born in 1940 in Solingen and died in 2009 in Wuppertal. She received her dance training at the Folkwang School in Essen under Kurt Jooss, where she achieved technical excellence. Soon after the director of Wuppertal’s theatres, Arno Wüstenhöfer, engaged her as choreographer, from autumn 1973, she renamed the ensemble the Tanztheater Wuppertal. Under this name, although controversial at the beginning, the company gradually achieved international recognition. Pina Bausch's blend of poetry and the everyday has had a decisive influence on the development of dance internationally. A pioneer of dance theatre, she received the world’s most prestigious awards and honours, including the Deutscher Tanzpreis (German Dance Award), the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in Dance (Venice Biennale) and the Kyoto Prize, cementing her reputation as one of the greatest choreographers of our time.