German choreographer Pina Bausch, the “dangerous magician of modern dance,” died today, just five days after being diagnosed with cancer. She was 68. A true artist, Bausch earned world renown for her avant-garde performances and choreographies mixing dance, sound, and fragmented narrative. Back when we lived in New York, we saw her Tanztheater Wuppertal perform whenever it came to town, and each time it was such an epic thrilling spectacle of order, repetition, and seemingly random movements that we had goosebumps all the way through. “Unlike almost no other, she broke out of traditional structures in dance, modernized classical ballet, and coined her own, idiosyncratic style,” said German Vice-Chancellor Frank-Walter Steinmeier. Here is an excerpt from her 1977 adaptation of the Béla Bartók opera Le Chateau de Barbe-Bleue. It’s amazing. (Guardian)