About the work
Nelken (Carnations) is a full-length dance-theatre work by Pina Bausch, premiered in 1982 by the Tanztheater Wuppertal. It is one of Bausch's most iconic works, famous for its set design: a floor entirely covered with thousands of pink carnations.
Plot
On a field of carnations, the dancers move through a sequence of scenes shifting between childlike joy, tenderness, fear, and threat. Guards with German shepherds watch over the flower field, dancers must show their "passports," and longing and violence lie close together. In a famous gesture, the dancers spell out the song The Man I Love in sign language. Without a linear plot, a field of tension emerges between beauty and authoritarian control, happiness and vulnerability.
Cultural significance
Nelken combines overwhelming visual poetry with Bausch's characteristic engagement with love, power, and oppression. The image of the carnation field is among the most famous in dance history. Like many of Bausch's works, it refuses unambiguous interpretation and works through the accumulation of emotional images. It belongs to the core repertoire of the Tanztheater Wuppertal and is regarded as a high point of modern dance theatre.