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Since today, 3 pieces created for the Gauthier Dance Company in Stuttgart are available to watch for free here: https://www.3sat.de/kultur/theater-und-tanz/swan-lakes-100.html Choerographers Shechter, Soto and Goecke were invited to create pieces with the topic "Swanlakes" (yes Plural). Be prepared, it's very...ummm ..contemporary 😀. I hope it is not geo-blocked.

A programme in celebration of Egon Madsen´s 75th birthday at the Theaterhaus in Stuttgart earlier this year included extracts from Don Q, a piece that Christian Spuck had created for Egon Madsen and Eric Gauthier in 2007. Rehearsing these extracts provided the impetus to revive the full work, now called The Return of Don Q. I saw the performance on Sunday night. An elderly man (the programme notes call him Egon) and his loyal younger companion/ at times servant (Eric in the programme notes) live in a world of their own, replete with a number of items that bring to mind some of their adventures earlier in life e.g., a cupboard with a small windmill on top, a rocking horse, a clothes rail, a piano, a number of boxes, plus a bicycle, a table and two chairs. Eric is asleep leaning against the piano at the side of the stage. Egon lies on the floor towards the back of the stage and dreams of Dulcinea. The day starts, and Eric begins to entertain and support Egon. … They pull faces whereby, it seems, each person rings a bell when the other’s face becomes too distorted. … Eric serves tea to Egon, the latter dunks the teabag a few times and throws it away, and with each cup of tea being served, the teabag is thrown away further. … Egon is longing for Dulcinea. The cupboard opens and Dulcinea (this is in fact Eric) in a long pink dress and with long blond hair appears to soothing music. When Egon tries to reach Dulcinea, however, the doors close, and Egon is thus left longing for her (this sequence is repeated later on). … Eric takes the windmill from the top of the cupboard and plays with it on the table. Egon takes his wooden sword and tries to fight the windmill, but to no avail. … They don carnival hats and Egon uses a party horn to have fun. … The funniest part for me was when a small electric windmill criss-crossed the stage and seemed to chase Egon and Eric, and they both reacted with prolonged frenzied panic, until ultimately Egon starts to pursue and fight the electric windmill. Not all is fun though. … Eric takes the bike and loads Egon’s books and suitcases on top. Egon carries his rocking horse as well as his sword and shield. So they head towards the side of the stage, and are however held back by an invisible barrier, unable to leave the world they live in. … Equally, Egon discovers the blond wig in one of the boxes and realises that what he took to be Dulcinea was in fact just a vision. The day comes to an end an Egon and Eric go back to sleep. I found this saddened atmosphere which dominated towards the end of the day more moving than many of the funny elements earlier on. I was thinking that the following day and every day thereafter would probably be pretty much the same as the one that was being portrayed. Two people caught up in their rituals, in their rhythm, in their memories - looking back at life and what hasn’t worked out, full of longing for unattained/ lost love -, unable to break out, at times despairing of the situation and of each other, and yet unable to change it and thus continuing to make the best out of it. The piece comes with some acting, some miming and some dancing in duets and solos (some disco type, some contemporary – the music ranges from Schubert via Minkus and Schnittke to James Brown et al.). Egon Madsen was truly amazing at 75+, he was rolling/ moving along the floor, he was lifting Eric Gauthier, there were some pirouettes, he was climbing a table and jumping back down again, … If I am anywhere near as agile as he is at that age, I won’t be asking for much else in later life. Some pictures of performances in 2007, 2012 and 2018 as part of a review in the link here https://www.stuttgarter-zeitung.de/inhalt.eric-gauthier-und-egon-madsen-tanzen-wieder-don-q-zwei-veteranen-wollen-s-wissen.91521831-5c5b-4a23-9f8c-72f3390c4514.html.

Ballet in the Park with Stuttgart Ballet on Saturday evening and with the John Cranko School on Sunday morning. Colours International Dance Festival at the Theaterhaus in Stuttgart on Friday evening and Sunday evening. In recovery mode now until the coming weekend. I wasn’t around to witness the 1st Colours Festival in 2015 and am thus even happier to be able to attend some of the performances at the 2nd Festival this year. The term “Colours” stands for the broad range of dance forms that exist and their performances over the course of 2 ½ weeks. A number of dance workshops and other events across the city supplement the performances. The programme is presented by Eric Gauthier; full programme here http://www.coloursdancefestival.com/en.html. The performance that I saw on Friday night was Conceal Reveal by Russell Maliphant Company. This was announced as a “version for Stuttgart”, and the content was slightly different to that at Sadlers Wells a couple of years ago – Both, And/ One Part II/ Two X Three/ Piece No 43. I found the movements peaceful, calming, even hypnotising, and the effects through light and shadow were intriguing and inspiring. Both, And, where one dancer seemed to multiply herself into two then three then four dancers and later increased in height as she approached the front of the stage; One Part II, a poetic solo with Russell Maliphant himself; Two X Three, where the light effects made the arm movements of the dancers look as if they were carrying the lights in their hands; Piece No. 43 with dancers in squares of lights and their increasingly rapid sequence of movements towards the end of the piece. I hadn’t seen the company previously and was very happy to get the chance to see them perform here. Sunday night brought a new programme by Gauthier Dance Company called “Mega Israel”, a mixed programme with choreographies by Hofesh Shechter, Sharon Eyal-Gai Behar and Ohad Naharin. Shechter’s all-male piece Uprising kicked off the evening. Repeatedly, human interaction that started as cordial and casual led to fights, and it ended with a revolutionary red flag held up high. I enjoyed the intensity of the piece and made good use of the earplugs that had been provided. Sharon Eyal-Gai Behar’s all-female work Killer Pig showed 6 dancers in flesh-coloured unitards. The programme booklet described the dancers as Amazones, and Eric Gauthier used the term “insects” to describe the dancer’s movements. Most of the work is on demi pointe, and they bourree, do jetes, entrechats and various other hops and jumps as well as pirouettes, yet with arms flexed at the shoulders/ elbows/ wrists in various combinations, fingers stretched out wide, and legs often slightly bent at the knees and hips. They move in unison in a close circle and from time to time, one of the dancers break out temporarily. Captivating, hugely enjoyable and very different to what I’ve seen previously. Ohad Naharin’s Minus 16 closed off the evening and involved the whole company. In contrast to a video that I’d seen of the piece by another company, this started with a 15/20-minute long solo by Luke Prunty who danced along to cha-cha music during the interval – very creatively and with great variety (showing the desperate dance of a lone soul; movements that reminded me of that of a swan; a short sequence from Bejart’s Bolero; and pursuing along the front of the stage some audience members who returned to the auditorium towards the end of the interval). The other dancers joined on stage, and thus ensued the sequence with the dancers rising from their chairs in waves, one dancer tumbling down to the floor, and the others singing and hopping while sitting on the chairs. Followed by a PDD to Vivaldi’s Stabat Mater and various hip-hop like movements by the whole group, to then end with the dancers inviting an equal number of female audience members to dance with them on stage – and some of those invited really went for it, to great acclaim by the audience. The audience didn’t want to let go, with numerous curtain calls and extensive foot stamping. This programme is also scheduled for autumn 2017.