Pina Bausch: A life in pictures

Bausch was born in 1940 in Solingen, Germany, and studied dance at the Folkwang academy in Essen. She went to New York in 1960 to study at the Juilliard School of Music Photograph: Iijima Atsushi/Getty

Bausch trains at Folkwang in 1966. A few years later, she became the director of Tanztheater Wuppertal Photograph: Getty

Pina Bausch at the Edinburgh festival, 1978 Photograph: Nobby Clark/Getty Images

The minimal piece Kontakthof, created in 1978, was performed at the Barbican in 2002 Photograph: Tristram Kenton

Kontakthof's cast comprised retired performers aged between 58 and 77 Photograph: Thierry Zoccolan/AFP

April 1983: Pina Bausch in Rome, playing the role of La Principessa Lherimia in Federico Fellini's film E La Nave Va Photograph: Fabian Cevallos/Fabian Cevallos/CORBIS SYGMA

Bausch's show Masurca Fogo, seen here at Sadler's Wells in 2002, captured what Judith Mackrell called her 'trademark sexual confrontations and skirmishes' Photograph: Tristram Kenton

Dancers perform Bausch's Nefes in Paris in 2004. The piece was inspired by a trip to Turkey and was produced with the International Istanbul Theatre festival Photograph: Bertrand Guay/AFP

Nefes, which lasts roughly three hours, means 'breath' in Turkish Photograph: Bertrand Guay/AFP

Pina Bausch's productions have graced the Sadler's Wells stage several times. This is a scene from Palermo Palermo, which was performed in 2005 Photograph: Tristram Kenton

Bausch has based several shows on different cities; Palermo Palermo was inspired by her company's residency in Sicily. Created in 1989, it was performed at Sadler's Wells in 2005 Photograph: Tristram Kenton

Pina Bausch's Nelken, seen here at Sadler's Wells in 2005, was performed on a stage covered in carnations Photograph: Tristram Kenton

In 2005, Neil Bartlett celebrated the German choreographer's work in an article written for the Guardian: 'No theatre was as brutally or as elegantly in the present tense as Bausch's, no women are more powerful than hers, no men more tender, no steps, slaps, looks or touches were ever as real' Photograph: Attila Kisbenedek/EPA

Bausch in Dusseldorf for the international dance festival NRW (North Rhine-Westphalia) in June 2008 Photograph: Volker Hartmann/AFP/Getty Images

Bausch was awarded the Goethe prize in Frankfurt in August 2008 Photograph: THOMAS LOHNES/AFP/Getty Images

Greeting pioneering German film-maker Wim Wenders at the Goethe prize ceremony last year. Bausch and Wenders were due to begin work on a new film project this September Photograph: Michael Probst/AP