From her childhood, Pina Bausch recalled crawling beneath the tables of a local cafe andobserving the strange social choreography. It seemed to her that the distancebetween people was palpable, and bridged only by yearning; loneliness and desirepermeated the landscape of a place ostensibly designed for contact andcommunication. "Café Mü;ller" is a dance piece for cafetables, chairs, and six dancers. The space is starkly lit, with many entries andseemingly no exits. The dancers of the Tanztheater Wuppertal appear wraithlike,their substance accumulating only through ritualistic gestures in collision withthose of other cafe dwellers. Director Peter Shafer's task was a difficult one,for Bausch's choreography sets in motion a multiplicity of actions that takeplace in all corners of the cafe. Café Mü;ller is a strong renderingof Bausch's angular and dire vision of the adult world. Tobe followed by a recent documentary on Pina Bausch in rehearsal (57mins).