Gauthier Dance

Kamuyot 

Kamuyot is Ohad Naharin‘s ingeniously wacky celebration of dance. This carefree mix of styles ranging from ballet to disco is performed close up to the audience in a gym. Using a colorful sound collage that includes reggae, klezmer, heavy metal and classical music, the piece was originally created for the Israeli Ensemble Batsheva for young viewers, but quickly turned out to be a gateway for everyone who wants to get to know Naharin‘s work. In tartans and punk outfits, the dancers jumpeasily from one style to the next –with this sassy, free energy of youth.

Gaga technique

Ohad Naharin is also the creator of “Gaga”: free rather than standardized movement, dancing as a way to experience yourself rather than to please others, dancing as play, research and self-knowledge. Gaga is a full-fledged choreographic language found in both Ohad Naharin's choreographies and the training of dancers at the Batsheva Dance Company.

This method invites dancers to deepen their awareness and knowledge of their bodies, their limits, and how to transcend those limits. Ohad Naharin defines it as follows: "Gaga is a new way of gaining knowledge and self-awareness through your body. Gaga provides a framework for discovering and strengthening your body and adding flexibility, stamina, and agility while lighting the senses and imagination. Gaga raises awareness of physical weaknesses, awakens numb areas, exposes physical fixations, and offers ways for their elimination. The work improves instinctive movement and connects conscious and unconscious movement, and it allows for an experience of freedom and pleasure"

Around the world, both professional dancers and dance enthusiasts can enjoy the joys of Gaga! Stimulating the imagination and excluding performance, Gaga is experienced in a group to tap into explosive collective energy, where letting go, pleasure, and emotion guide the movement.

This approach to movement is also recognized for its inclusivity and the nearly therapeutic benefits it can offer to those who practice it. Ohad Naharin himself uses it to engage the muscles of athletes, trauma victims, or people with Parkinson's disease, and the method is commonly used in dance therapy.

It is not for nothing that Kamuyot is a centrepiece of our repertoire. It symbolises everything that Gauthier Dance stands for: the extreme physicality, the emotions, the versatility and, most importantly, the pure connection to our audience. It’s also hard to find a piece that appeals more to young and old alike. People just love Kamuyot, grandmothers just as much as first-formers! Gauthier Dance premiered Kamuyot as part of the first COLOURS International Dance Festival 2015 – in the Theaterhaus Stuttgart gym. A venue that proved ideal in terms of its openness and accessibility. So for me, no matter where we show it, it has kept this instant sports hall feeling. It’s literally a moving invitation, especially for children and young people who maybe haven’t been to a theatre or seen a professional dance performance before, to shed their prejudices and discover this great art form. But most of all, Kamuyot is just really, really cool...

Éric Gauthier - Artistic Director of Gauthier Dance.

Welcome, everyone,

We’re here today in this school gym to experience dance in a way that’s completely different from what we see in theatres! An experience where the invisible boundary between the stage and the audience disappears, allowing a closer connection to the artists.

With Gauthier Dance // Dance Company Theaterhaus Stuttgart’s production of Kamuyot, we wanted to present a performance where the magic of choreography is accessible to everyone: dance and music lovers, young and old, seasoned fans and newcomers alike. Because Kamuyot is more than a series of different settings and rhythms: it’s quite simply a celebration of life, where joy is everywhere! In short, a world where the joy of movement is contagious.

So open your hearts and minds wide for this exhilarating journey to the heart of dance!

Enjoy the show!

Pierre Des Marais — Artistic and Executive Director

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Territorial Acknowledgement

Danse Danse acknowledges that we are gathered on the traditional and unceded territory of the Kanien’keha:ka Nation. We honour the continued presence of Indigenous peoples on the Tiohtiá:ke (Montreal) territory, which has long served as a meeting place for exchanges between nations. With respect for the links to the past, present and future, we thank the Indigenous peoples for reminding us of the importance of living in harmony with ourselves, with each other and with nature, and we are grateful for the opportunity to present works of living art at Tiohtiá:ke.

Kamuyot

Choreographer Ohad Naharin for Batsheva – The Young Ensemble.
Staging Matan David
Inspired by Mamootot and Moshe by Ohad Naharin.
Costumes Alla Eizenberg.
Music by Lou Reed, Ogurusu Norihide, Neina, Yapoos, Gas (Wolfgang Voigt),Flower Companyz, Laroz, Bobby Freeman, Donnacha Costello, Fencing Mania with Masaaki Kikuchi, Roletta Secohan, Roberto Pregadio, Pan Sonic, Beethoven, Steve Reich,Boss Phobie, Morton Stevens.

Premiere 2003, Tel-Aviv (IL).
A production by Theaterhaus Stuttgart. For the entire family. Suitable for ages 6 and up.

Artistic Director Eric Gauthier.
Ballet masters Cesar Locsin, Luis Eduardo Sayago.
Company coach Egon Madsen.
Production management Maria Strom.
Company management Inga Kunz.
Artistic management Susanne Wildermuth, Daria Mosunova.
Press relations Nicola Steller.
Tour management ecotopia dance productions.
Artistic coordination costumes Gudrun Schretzmeier
Costume manufacturing Kerry Rees (Ltg.),Christine Lange, Katharina Ruprecht, Katja Strauss, Anne Sorvat, Maria Kley.
Wardrobe Heidi Dávila García.
Sound & Light technicians Julia Kramer, Finn Lucas Weidner.
Photos Jeanette Bak.

Dancers Bruna Andrade, Andrew Cummings, Anneleen Dedroog, Karlijn Dedroog, Barbara Melo Freire, Shai Ottolenghi, Luca Pannacci, Garazi Perez Oloriz, Rina Pinsky, Arnau Redorta Ortiz, Izabela Szylinska, Sidney Elizabeth Turtschi, Locke Egidio Venturato, Giovanni Visone, Shawn Wu, Shori Yamamoto.

A warm thank you to our sponsors STIHL, Fashion- und Lifestylehaus Breuninger in Stuttgart and Law Firm CMS Germany as well as to our supporters Kästner GmbH & Co. KG, the First Friends and Friends of Gauthier Dance, the Baden-Württemberg Stiftung, the Gerhard and Paul-Hermann Bauder Foundation, the Foundation Herbert Metzger und Anneliese Metzger-Nord and the Dr. Roland & Brigitte Schmid Foundation.

Theaterhaus Stuttgart is sponsored by Mercedes-Benz Bank, the City of Stuttgart and the State of Baden-Württemberg.