Description
The FireWorks Project
World premiere
Inspired by the great tradition of Theaterhaus as a concert venue, The Fireworks Project launches ten colorful dance rockets in the first part of the evening. The new creations are all based on musical works that represent the artistic identity of the house with its illustrious jazz tradition. After all, in the early days of this Stuttgart venue of hearts, almost everything revolved around music. The legendary Theaterhaus Jazztage around Easter are still a testament to this today. Eric Gauthier tapped into this energy and approached ten star choreographers, some of whom had never, some very often, collaborated with Gauthier Dance before. His bait: a rich list of iconic pieces, all of which had already been performed live at Theaterhaus. The assignment: transform one of these works into dance. They all bit! And already during the rehearsal phase, it became clear what potential lies in this seemingly simple concept. Not only does the brevity of the selected works demand utmost concentration and intensity, but the outstanding musical quality of the originals also gives wings to the imagination of the choreographers.
Fanfare Ciocărlia: Ciocârliă şi suite
Barak Marshall in collaboration with the Gauthier Dance dancers: The Gathering
Chet Baker: I‘m Old Fashioned
Mauro Bigonzetti: Fully Blue
Laurie Anderson: O Superman
Dominique Dumais: Hold me Now
Mercedes Sosa: Años, Sólo Le Pido A Dios (en directo)
Marco Goecke: Monstruo Grande
Oscar Peterson Trio: Hymn to Freedom
Benjamin Millepied: Hymn to Freedom
Charles Aznavour: La bohème (Italian Version)
Sofia Nappi: CHARLIE
Kronos Quartet: Bells, Tusen Tankar
Johan Inger: A Thousand Thoughts
Bobby McFerrin: Thinkin‘ About Your Body
Stijn Celis: Thinkin about!
Philip Glass: Les enfants terribles - Arr. for Piano duet: II. Paul Is Dying
Virginie Brunelle: Carousel
Fanfare Ciocărlia: Moliendo Café, Dusty Road
Barak Marshall: The End
Idea & Concept: Eric Gauthier // Costume Design: Gudrun Schretzmeier & the choreographers, for “Monstruo Grande”: Michaela Springer // Lighting Design: Mario Daszenies & the choreographers
Bonus Track
In the summer of 2024, there was a small anniversary to celebrate: three years of collaboration with our artist in residence! The tribute ANTHOLOGY Shechter X Gauthier Dance exclusively showcased works by Shechter and, in addition to two revivals, also included a premiere as an extra – a Bonus Track, so to speak. The innocuous title gave no indication of the powerful impression left by this new creation. If one had to describe it in a single word, the French expression „danse macabre“ (dance of death) would probably be the most fitting. With the company in full force, the dancers move across the stage in constantly changing formations with the angular yet precisely calculated movements of jointed puppets. Stalking and circling each other, they keep going at each other's throats in the most imaginative ways. The moment they are killed, however, they instantly get up as if nothing had happened and rejoin the ghostly game. As the finale of ANTHOLOGY, this glimpse into the choreographer's dark, socio-critical universe completed the triple programme, making it a true Shechter experience. Taken on its own, Bonus Track proves to be a genuine wild card – a dance piece full of pitch-black humour and with an unsettling message: life is just a ghoulish masked ball.
Choreography & Composition: Hofesh Shechter // Lighting Design: Mario Daszenies // Costume Design: Gudrun Schretzmeier & Hofesh Shechter // Rehearsal Director: Kim Kohlmann
ABC
For the star dancer Johan Kobborg, Eric Gauthier created the solo ABC in autumn 2019, which was soon included in the Theaterhaus company’s repertoire. Similar to Gauthier’s successful works Ballet 101 and Ballet 102, ABC works with language – and ABC is indeed meant literally. It takes the audience through the letters of the dance alphabet – from A for Arabesque to L for Lift to V for Variations. But just like Ballet 101 and Ballet 102, ABC humorously pokes fun at serious dance manuals as a “guide for show-offs.” Thus, Gauthier smuggled in plenty of expressions from real dancer life such as available or loud under the professional vocabulary.
Choreography, Lighting Design & Costumes: Eric Gauthier // Composition: Philip Kannicht, Eric Gauthier // World Premiere: St. Petersburg, October 13, 2019 // Theaterhaus Premiere: March 1, 2023
Infant Spirit
The initial spark: It was the performances and inspiration of the legendary company in his hometown that brought Wuppertal-born Marco Goecke to dance. He only met the pioneer of modern dance theater a few times personally. Nevertheless, she played a decisive role in his career, even after he no longer lived in Wuppertal. In 2004, she invited the young choreographer to her festival 30 Years of Tanztheater Wuppertal with two works, Blushing and Mopey. Even today, Goecke speaks of the immense encouragement that this leap of faith meant for him at the time. He translated his admiration into dance with the solo Infant Spirit, premiered as part of the Gauthier Dance program Grandes Dames in 2018. A touching psychological study of artistic awakening, musically accompanied congenially by the songs Rupture and Tears Tears Tears by Antony & The Johnsons.
Choreography: Marco Goecke // Music: Antony and the Johnsons // Lighting Design: Udo Haberland // Costume Design: Michaela Springer // Theaterhaus World Premiere: July 12, 2018
Bolero +
Devilishly difficult to dance: Andonis Foniadakis’ intoxicating choreographies combine complex movement sequences with rapid tempo. In a surprisingly different way, his now cult piece Bolero also pushes performers to exhaustion. To Ravel’s hypnotic sounds, Foniadakis has them dance on trampolines from the first to the last beat. When the Cretan choreographer staged Bolero with the Gauthier Dance JUNIORS in 2024, the enthusiasm was great. As a triumphant conclusion to their first own stage program RENAISSANCE, this artistic-athletic feat reliably brought the audience to their feet. For the double anniversary of 40 years of Theaterhaus and the 150th birthday of Maurice Ravel, Foniadakis raises the bar again. In Bolero + no less than fourteen dancers now join together in a high-energy trampoline team, consisting of members from the main company only or a mix of both ensembles, depending on requirements.
