Eric Gauthier

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Eric Gauthier (* 1977 in Montreal ) is a Canadian dancer and choreographer .

Life

Career until 2007

Eric Gauthier studied dance with the Grands Ballets Canadiens in Montreal and then at the National Ballet School in Toronto . There he also took lessons in music and singing. In 1995 he became a student at the National Ballet of Canada under the direction of Reid Anderson . In 1996 Anderson switched to the Stuttgart Ballet as artistic director and invited Gauthier to join the Stuttgart company as a dancer. In 2002 he was appointed solo dancer there.

Gauthier danced in several classical roles in Stuttgart, including the Mercutio in John Cranko's choreography Romeo and Juliet . In the Cranko pieces Jeu de Cartes and The Lady and the Fool he danced the Joker and the Bootface, respectively . He also danced Alain in Frederick Ashton's La fille mal gardée and roles in pieces by George Balanchine and Kenneth MacMillan .

However, his tendency towards contemporary dance was particularly pronounced . In the ten years from 1996 to 2006 Gauthier danced in almost all premieres of the Stuttgart company. He danced pieces by Hans van Manen , John Neumeier , Jiří Kylián , Nacho Duato , Paul Lightfoot , Uwe Scholz and James Kudelka and worked with some of them personally. He made a name for himself as an interpreter of William Forsythe . He worked with him in Stuttgart and Frankfurt and interpreted five of his pieces as a dancer.

Several choreographers developed roles for him, including Christian Spuck , resident choreographer of the Stuttgart Ballet. Spuck created the roles of Schigolch in Lulu and the role of the painter in … la peau blanche… for him. Gauthier danced in eleven world premieres of Spuck. Further created Mauro Bigonzetti , Itzik Galili , Kevin O'Day , Marguerite Donlon , Daniela Kurz , Dominique Dumais , Nicolo Fonte , Matjash Mrozewski , Douglas Lee , Marc Spradling , James Sutherland , Pascal Touzeau and Trey McIntyre roles for Eric Gauthier.

Gauthier made his debut as a choreographer in 2005 in the Young Choreographers program of the Noverre Society . In 2006 he was invited again. With Ballet 101 he won both the audience award and the criticism award at the 21st International Competition for Choreographers of the Hanover Ballet Society . For the Noverre Society, Gauthier created the choreography Air Guitar in 2007 .

Gauthier Dance

In September 2007 Eric Gauthier danced with Egon Madsen in Christian Spuck's Don Q. The piece then made guest appearances in Austria, Italy, Spain, Luxembourg and many German cities.

Since 2007 he has headed the Gauthier Dance Company at the Theaterhaus Stuttgart , which premiered in 2008 with Six Pack . This was followed by High Five , Four Play , MM & More , Out of the Box I and II , POPPEA // POPPEA and Lucky Seven by 2012 . Mauro Bigonzetti, Alejandro Cerrudo , William Forsythe, Itzik Galili , Jiří Kylián, Paul Lightfoot, Sol León , Hans van Manen, Christian Spuck and Philip Taylor provided works for the company or created pieces especially for them. In 2011 Eric Gauthier was awarded the German Future Dance Prize for Choreography.

In 2014, with Alice , he brought his largest production to date on the stage of the Theaterhaus: a full-length narrative ballet, choreographed by Mauro Bigonzetti. Bigonzetti illustrates the stories Alice in Wonderland and Alice Behind the Mirrors by Lewis Carroll . Bigonzetti hired the southern Italian trio Assurd together with Antongiulio Galeandro and Enza Pagliara for the music . Their rhythms and chants, performed in southern Italian dialects and sometimes in Spanish, support the dances of the magical characters from Carroll's stories.

In April 2015 he was awarded the Order of Merit of the State of Baden-Württemberg for his social commitment, with which, among other things, he brings his dance art to people who cannot visit him in the theater .

Eric Gauthier has set himself the task of promoting young choreographers, for example in 2017 as part of the Colors International Dance Festival. In 2018 he made it possible for one of these choreographers, the Israeli Nadav Zelner , to stage his first full-length choreography Bullshit at Gauthier Dance . This festival will also take place again from the end of June to mid-July 2019.

In March 2019 it became known that the Theaterhaus Stuttgart is threatened with bankruptcy and that the existence of Gauthier Dance is also endangered. In order to avert this, Gauthier Dance is to receive its own budget from the city of Stuttgart in the future.

Eric Gauthier has been running a YouTube channel #Wohnzimmerballett since March 2020 in order to convey the joy of dance to his audience even during the corona crisis and to encourage them to dance along.

Gauthier & Band

In addition to his work as a choreographer, Eric Gauthier can also be seen on stage as a musician. As Gauthier & Band, he and his band colleagues present songs that are influenced by British guitar pop. In an interview, he named Ryan Adams as a musical role model .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Young Choreographers 2013  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Ballett Stuttgart, accessed on June 10, 2012@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.stuttgarter-ballett.de  
  2. ↑ 21st International Competition for Choreographers  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Ballettgesellschaft Hannover, accessed on June 10, 2012@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.ballettgesellschaft.de  
  3. ↑ Gabriele Metsker: Part of her stays in the wonderland , Stuttgarter Zeitung, June 26, 2014, accessed on July 6, 2014
  4. ↑ Kretschmann awards the Order of Merit , press release of the State Ministry of Stuttgart from April 25, 2015, accessed on April 26, 2015
  5. ↑ Gauthier Dance: COLORS - International Dance Festival (July 6-23, 2017). Accessed July 6, 2018 .
  6. ↑ Andrea Kachelrieß: Gauthier Dance dances "Bullshit" in the Theaterhaus Stuttgart: For Nadav Zelner everything revolves around love . In: stuttgarter-nachrichten.de . February 21, 2018 ( stuttgarter-nachrichten.de [accessed July 6, 2018]).
  7. ↑ Colors - International Dance Festival (June 27 - July 14, 2019). In: Festival website. Retrieved June 15, 2019 .
  8. ^ Jörg Nauke: Rescue for Theaterhaus expected in July . In: Stuttgarter Zeitung . Stuttgart June 13, 2019, p. 13 ( stuttgarter-zeitung.de [accessed June 15, 2019]).
  9. ↑ Eric Gauthier's new YouTube channel #Wohnzimmerballett. In: kulturfreak.de. March 20, 2020, accessed May 28, 2020 .
  10. ↑ Jana Gührer: To dance along in the corona quarantine: #Living room ballet with Eric Gauthier. In: SWR2. April 30, 2020, accessed May 28, 2020 .
  11. ↑ Uwe Bogen: Eric Gauthier: It could be our last concert. In: Stuttgarter Nachrichten. July 13, 2011, accessed May 28, 2020 .

Web links
personal data
SURNAME Gauthier, Eric
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Canadian dancer and choreographer
DATE OF BIRTH 1977
PLACE OF BIRTH Montreal