Among dance aficionados, the names on the cast list alone are bound to be greatly admired, as this production brings together seven A-list choreographers of worldwide fame. Each of them transforms a mortal sin into a dance piece for Gauthier Dance. The result: a tableau of fiendishness consisting of seven world premieres by Aszure Barton, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Sharon Eyal, Marcos Morau, Sasha Waltz as well as the two Gauthier Dance artists in residence Marco Goecke and Hofesh Shechter.
Envy, covetousness, gluttony, anger, lust, sloth, pride…. These are the seven offenses which are considered by the Catechism to be the worst sins that cannot be forgiven. In art, they have ever since inspired every genre. Now, Eric Gauthier has his company “Gauthier Dance” dance them in seven different ways. He follows the model of the “Cadavre Exquis”, a game of the surrealists, in which several artists put together a drawing or a sentence on a folded sheet, without knowing about the contents of the others. For his collective collage, Gauthier brings together the crème de la crème of the international dance scene, artists who have been known to the Cologne dance public for many years. Each of them transposes one of the deadly sins into movement – dark or garish, minimalist or iconoclastic, from dance theatre to performance to modern ballet, without knowing the work of the others. Thus a mosaic of images is assembled into a large tableau rich in metaphor.
“SLOTH” — human undoing
Choreography: Aszure Barton
“GREED” — Corrupt
Choreography: Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui
“ENVY” — Point
Choreography: Sharon Eyal
“GLUTTONY” — Yesterday‘s Scars
Choreography: Marco Goecke
“PRIDE” — HERMANA
Direction: Marcos Morau
“LUST” — LUXURY GUILT
Choreography: Hofesh Shechter
“WRATH” — IRA
Direction: Sasha Waltz
A production of Theaterhaus Stuttgart in co-production with La Biennale di Venezia (Italy) and Festspiele Ludwigshafen im Theater im Pfalzbau (Germany).