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Pina Bausch wrote dance history. She not only founded the world-famous company in Wuppertal, she shaped a whole genre – dance theatre – and influenced countless other artists, choreographers and directors worldwide who credit her and her work. For this she received a great many prizes, such as the German Dance Prize, Venice’s Golden Lion and the Kyoto Prize. When she first arrived in Wuppertal in 1973, no-one guessed she would reinvent modern dance there. The young dancer and choreographer (1940-2009) took over the ballet company at the Wuppertaler Bühnen (the combined municipal theatres) and soon renamed it the Tanztheater Wuppertal (‘Wuppertal dance theatre’), because that was her goal: to unite dance and theatre.