Bausch’s works at the Wuppertal Tanztheatre have been known to be avant-garde and experimental and have elicited responses from people like Susan Sontag, Peter Brook and Robert Wilson. In India with her latest production, Bamboo Blues, which will be staged on January 12 at Jamshed Bhabha Theatre, NCPA, as part of the National School of Drama’s Theatre Utsav, Bausch reveals that the play was born out of a trip to India back in 2006. “Martin Waelde, a former director of Max Mueller Bhavan in Kolkata, had often asked me to do something around India. We came for a fortnight to Kolkata and Kerala, and then went back, each with our own recollections and we worked around that material. It is impossible for us to do a piece on India because we know so little about it. But this piece is influenced by India,” says the 67-year-old.

A lot of Bausch's works deal with eroticism and violence and universal emotions of loss, death, loneliness and grief. Much of it is dark and lacerating, with the form often being unstructured, and fragmentary. As she sits smoking her favourite brand of Camel cigarette, dressed in black, the gentle, almost hesitant artiste ponders why. “I have always been interested to know what moves people. What is it about life, and love and living that makes us react the way we do,” she says.

Even if the theme is not overtly Indian, the Indian references are obvious. The music for the piece, a collaborative effort by various musicians, includes names like Sivamani, Trilok Gurtu, Talvin Singh and several other Indian artistes. The 18-member troupe that will take to the stage will also have an Indian face—Shantala Shivalingappa who is also a part of three of Bausch's other productions.

Much of the materials that she works with is carefully distilled from the experiences of each of the performers in her troupe. “I ask them questions and they all have to write down and emote their responses through actions or dance movements. We then sift through the material for days, looking for what fits and what doesn’t. It’s a long process and you often have to leave out things you like the most,” she reflects.