The dance we see in the modern world – in music videos most often – is usually about skill, speed and precision, i.e. the power of the body. Sometimes it’s about sex (like “Work” by Rihanna), sometimes it’s about race (like “Formation” by Beyoncé), but while the dances are embedded, of course, in race and culture, the moves themselves aren’t emotional; it’s the styling of the video, the lyrics, what the song is about. Generally speaking, the point of the dance part of the video is to look cool. Pina Bausch’s dances are so far from this. Firstly, they don’t look cool, they aren’t the type of dances kids would watch on Youtube and practise in their bedrooms. They are stand-alone statements and narratives in and of themselves, about society, gender, freedom, the power of men over women, the power of women over men. The style is avant-garde, truly – and still – despite being around since the ‘70s when Pina started doing her thing.

One of the first things you notice from her work is that all of her dancers are beautiful. And vary greatly in age. Performances feature men and women in their fifties and sixties who have been with the company since the early days. Pina was a very beautiful woman herself, and her dancers are very much made in her image. The women typically wear long silky dresses in rich colours, and almost unanimously have long, flowing hair. They are deliberate visions of traditional femininity, practically parodies of their race. Much of the choreography is about this quest for beauty, and about its undeniable, enduring power over men. For instance, a tall, stunning woman in a red dress and stilettos walks across the stage, leaving men whimpering in her wake, desperate for her attention. The point being: is that all it takes? Another scene takes the fuddy “women’s hobby” of knitting and turns it into a seductive act. There’s a Laurel and Hardy, pantomime style wit to it.

One of Pina’s early dancers in the company, Catherine Denisot Lawrence, said of her teacher: “Pina was a wonderful person, soft spoken, very patient, and very demanding, and we loved her, but she had a one-track mind; what she wanted to do was going to be accomplished.”

In one memorable dance, women physically run up men’s bodies as the men are sat on chairs, legs outstretched, gazing in adoration at the women who trample over them.

Pina was a visionary. Her work is worth so much. The performances are old-fashioned, like silent movies, and yet just as powerful to watch today. Each dance is a dissertation on gender politics. As Wenders romantically puts it: "is it dance, is it theatre, or is it just life, love, freedom, struggle, longing, joy, despair, reunion, beauty, strength."