The festival
June 25 to July 17, 2022
4th COLOURS International Dance Festival
Presented by Eric Gauthier
The Festival. The Programme.
DIVERSITY AND CREATIVITY – MERCEDES-BENZ BANK AND MERCEDES-BENZ AG MOVE COLOURS
Funded by the State Capital Stuttgart and the State of Baden-Wuerttemberg
Produced by Theaterhaus Stuttgart
COLOURS 2022: The programme at Theaterhaus Stuttgart
Two gos were necessary for COLOURS 2022. After all, the fourth edition of Germany's leading dance festival was originally scheduled for 2021. However, as hard as it was for the organisers – the decision to postpone the festival also meant more time for in-depth programme planning. Therefore, the audience can rely on one thing: COLOURS 2022 will be a truly diverse, state-of-the-art showcase of contemporary dance. Programme director Meinrad Huber is constantly on the lookout for new choreographic perspectives and styles. Nevertheless, the focus of the selected productions is always on the intense physicality of dance.
COLOURS 2022: The open-air programme in Stuttgart
COLOURS brings dance to the people – not only on the Theaterhaus stages! Just like they did in the first three editions, Eric Gauthier and the company want to get Stuttgart moving, open-air and right in the city. In 2022 a new element will be added: For the first time, the participatory events will extend beyond the city centre and also include some districts of Stuttgart. However, the organisers will not finalise their plans for the open-air programme before the actual conditions in summer 2022 are known.
COLOURS Playground on June 25 & 26, 2022
At the third edition of the festival in 2019, the COLOURS Playground on the central Schlossplatz square wowed dance fans and spontaneous passers-by alike. With free open classes and presentations, the COLOURS open-air studio invited them to dance along in a variety of styles ranging from hip hop to ballroom. In the evening hours, one could indulge in nostalgic dance teas with live music. In 2022, the COLOURS Playground will take place in cooperation with the 18th Stuttgart Children and Family Festival. Accordingly, the programme during the day caters for the tastes of children and young people. In the evening, it will be the turn of the adults, with atmospheric dance teas on the big stage at Königstraße 11-15.
The COLOURS Pop-Up Workshops
Meet Eric Gauthier on the road in this new format! With a converted pick-up truck fitted with a dance floor, the artistic director of Gauthier Dance will be heading for central locations in the city districts, amongst others the Löwenmarkt (Stuttgart-Weilimdorf), Wilhelm-Geiger-Platz (Stuttgart-Feuerbach), Marienplatz (Stuttgart-Süd) and Villa Berg Park (Stuttgart-Ost). With his dynamic pop-up shows, the inspiring „leader of the dance“ will no doubt get people to join in.
Another destination of the COLOURS truck are schoolyards, which Gauthier wants to stir up with surprising flash performances during the big breaks. This is also part of the MOVES FOR FUTURE programme, which will take Eric Gauthier to numerous Stuttgart education institutions from April 2022.
The COLOURS Family Day on July 10, 2022
It is impossible to imagine the festival without the Family Sunday at Stuttgart's zoological-botanical gardens Wilhelma. Eric Gauthier's animal dances, demonstrated and performed by his dancers, have an almost magical attraction for children and transform them into dancing animals in no time at all. At his traditional favourite appointment on site for COLOURS, the head of Gauthier Dance recently picked suitable additional locations for the performances. For he is planning to create several new animal choreographies for 2022.
COLOURS International Dance Festival 2021 is supported by the city of Stuttgart, the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, as well as the official main sponsor Mercedes-Benz Bank and Mercedes-Benz AG.
As part of its social commitment, Mercedes-Benz engages in a wide range of activities to promote respect, tolerance and freedom in the vicinity of its locations and worldwide in order to create sustainable benefits for the common good. With the COLOURS dance festival, Mercedes-Benz and Mercedes-Benz Bank are sending a signal for diversity and tolerance, showing that economic success and social responsibility can go hand in hand even in challenging times. True to the motto „We Move You“, there will once again be many moving moments for the visitors of the festival’s fourth edition in Stuttgart. Mercedes-Benz Bank has been a main sponsor since the beginning and thus for the fourth time. The company is a long-standing partner and direct neighbour of Theaterhaus on Stuttgart's Pragsattel.
