Dance

Legendary dance-theater pioneer Pina Bausch (1940-2009) was as deeply invested in the beauty and ferocity of nature as she was in the body's limitless capacity for expression, standing alone in her ability to transform the stage into a garden of earthly torments and delights. Like the primal forces she stunningly harnessed for more than three decades, her work endures, unabated.

This season, Bausch's splendid company Tanztheater Wuppertal (Bamboo Blues, 2008 Next Wave; Nefés, 2006 Next Wave) returns to BAM with the arresting Vollmond (Full Moon). The work shimmers-literally-as water runs in manic rivulets over a giant rock, rushes across the stage, and rains down, drenching the dancers. A study in Bausch's unparalleled mix of abandon and supreme control, Vollmond is at once urgent, athletic, and sensual-channeling the unrelenting energy of its maker.