The Festival

COLOURS 2025: The stage programme at Theaterhaus Stuttgart

15 stage programmes, including two world premieres as well as four European premieres and three German premieres.

Cutting-edge contemporary dance – that is the shortest way to describe COLOURS. The name of the festival conveys how this mission is to be accomplished. It is the diversity of styles and international trends that are represented here. Accordingly, programme director Meinrad Huber is always on the lookout for new choreographic perspectives and positions.

If there is a common thread running through the multifaceted COLOURS 2025 programme, then it is this: the longing for community, which is almost palpable in most of the pieces and finds its expression in choreographies that intensely evoke togetherness and the harmony of a group. They achieve this in ways that are as different as the artists themselves. Nevertheless, the focus of the selected productions is always on the intense physicality of dance.

Botis Seva / Far From The Norm © Tom Visser
Compagnie Marie Chouinard © Sylvie-Ann Paré
Dance On Ensemble © Jubal Battisti
OtroLado Dance Company

COLOURS in the City

COLOURS brings dance to the people – not only on the Theaterhaus stages! As usual, Eric Gauthier and the company as well as first-rate instructors want to get the whole of Stuttgart moving: mostly open-air and irresistibly persuasive. A new format will be added in 2025: the COLOURS Collaborations in cooperation with Stuttgart culture partners. More information available soon!

COLOURS Playground

Preceding and promoting the festival in Theaterhaus, the dance studio on the central square Schlossplatz charms dance aficionados and spontaneous passers-by alike. With plenty on offer for children and young people, the free open workshops and presentations of the COLOURS Playground invite everybody to dance along in a variety of styles ranging from breakdance to ballet. From 7:00 p.m. there will be introductions to tango (Friday), line dancing (Saturday) and Lindy Hop (Sunday). From 8:00 p.m., the Playground finally switches into enjoyment mode - for a long summer evening of dancing accompanied by live music.

COLOURS Pop-Ups

Shortly before the opening in Theaterhaus, Eric Gauthier is also putting Stuttgart's outskirts in a dancing mood! In a converted pick-up truck with a dance floor, the artistic director of Gauthier Dance will be heading for the Schlossplatz and central squares in the city's districts – the 2025 stops are Löwenmarkt in Stuttgart-Weilimdorf, Kelterplatz in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen, Wilhelm-Geiger-Platz in Stuttgart-Feuerbach, Agnes-Kneher-Platz in Stuttgart-Degerloch, Kelter in Stuttgart-Wangen, the town hall in Stuttgart-Obertürkheim, the market square in Stuttgart-Botnang and Lukasplatz in Stuttgart-Ost.

COLOURS Family Day

It is impossible to imagine the festival without the COLOURS Family Day in co-operation with 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.

COLOURS Collaborations

Zu diesen eingeführten Formaten kam 2025 noch ein neues hinzu: die COLOURS Collaborations. Eric Gauthiers Idee, das Festival durch kurze Auftritte bei führenden Stuttgarter Playern noch präsenter in der Stadt zu machen, funktionierte ganz wunderbar. Sehr bewusst hatte er dabei vor allem andere Kunstgattungen in den Blick genommen und sie auf unterschiedlichste Weise mit dem Tanz verwoben: Gauthier Dance performte Hofesh Shechters Bonus Track vor dem Konzert von Jean-Michael Jarre bei den jazzopen und mischte mit einer Show plus Mittanz-Aktionen das Kessel Festival auf. In Kooperation mit den Arthaus Kinos Stuttgart hatte Meinrad Huber eine Tanzfilm-Reihe zusammengestellt, mit anschließenden Q&As mit Gästen aus der Tanzwelt, und beim Internationalen Trickfilm-Festival Stuttgart feierte Eric Gauthiers Mittanz-Choreo Dance Without Borders Premiere. Der Staatsgalerie Stuttgart hatten Marie Chouinard und ihre Compagnie das partizipative Kultstück In Museum mitgebracht. Last but not least präsentierte sich der Kunstsammler Eric Gauthier in der EXOgallery erstmals als Kurator. Durch die Gruppenausstellung The stage is yours! ließen sich Tänzer:innen von Gauthier Dance außerdem zu einem Tanzabend inmitten der Kunstwerke inspirieren, für den sie eigens neue Stücke kreierten. Zur Finissage am 26. Juli 2025 wird Eric Gauthier zusammen mit der Cellistin Nadja Krasnovid ein Konzert geben.
Die genreübergreifenden Kulturpartnerschaften stießen ausnahmslos auf großartige Resonanz. Entsprechend leicht fällt diese Prognose für COLOURS 2027: Fortsetzung folgt.

COLOURS Specials

There are two COLOURS specials to experience with Sofia Nappi and her company KOMOCO!

COLOURS Residency

Sofia Nappi's world premiere IMA for her company KOMOCO in co-production with COLOURS was one of the major highlights of the last festival. A lot has happened since then, not least Sofia Nappi’s international breakthrough. Now the Italian choreographer is returning to Stuttgart for the COLOURS Residency. She will spend three weeks working on her next piece SORA (Japanese for heaven or emptiness) in the Gauthier Dance studio. The world premiere is planned for February 2026 – with an eye to a performance at COLOURS 2027. On July 12, 2025 at 5:30 p.m., Sofia Nappi will present the first scenes from the new work in progress in a showing in the Theaterhaus Sports Hall.

COLOURS Youth Project

But that's not all. Together with Carmen Scarano from the THEATERHAUS+ education team, KOMOCO is also involved in a creation workshop for the COLOURS Youth Project 2025. Young people aged 14 to 18 will learn a five-minute choreography. And thus become, so to speak, the supporting act for the Gauthier Dance JUNIORS. The results will be shown from Wednesday, July 9, 2025 before each Barker performance.