The Dying Swans Project: A Dance Film for Gauthier Dance

2021, in the middle of lockdown: Eric Gauthier invites 16 choreographers to create one solo each for the 16 dancers of his company, every one of them as its own film. One of them is “Taleb's Theory” by Anita Hanke, danced by Shawn Wu. We directed it, shot it on the stage of Theaterhaus Stuttgart, edited and graded it.

The idea: 16 swans against the standstill

In early 2021 Gauthier Dance's tours were cancelled. Instead of waiting, Eric Gauthier started a new project under the motto “Culture is unstoppable!”: 16 choreographers, eight women and eight men, reinterpret Michel Fokine's “The Dying Swan”. Each solo runs three to four minutes, has its own music and is realised as its own film. In total, 64 artists from dance, choreography, music and film took part.

Rehearsals began in February 2021. From 16 April the films were released one by one, free of charge, on the Theaterhaus YouTube channel and on Instagram. In May came “The Dying Swans live experience”, a stage evening of films and live solos.

Eric Gauthier and his company

Eric Gauthier, born in Montreal in 1977, danced with Stuttgart Ballet from 1996, as a soloist from 2002. In 2007 he founded his own company at Theaterhaus Stuttgart, starting with six dancers. Today there are 16, and Gauthier Dance tours internationally. In 2015 he also launched the Stuttgart dance festival COLOURS.

The choreographer: Anita Hanke

Anita Hanke is a trained movement and dance teacher. She founded Tanztheater Markgröningen in 1990 and opened a second location in Ludwigsburg in 2008. As artistic director of Tanztheater Hanke she teaches jazz and contemporary dance; further training took her to London, Rochester and New York. For the Dying Swans Project she created “Taleb's Theory” to music by Marc Strobel.

The dancer: Shawn Wu

Shawn Wu (Chen-Chiang Wu) is from Taiwan. He studied at Taipei National University of the Arts and the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, covering ballet, contemporary and Chinese dance, acrobatics and martial arts. After time in Lisbon and New York he danced as a soloist at Theater St. Gallen. He has been with Gauthier Dance since the 2020/21 season.

The solo: “Taleb's Theory”

The piece opens calmly, to cool jazz. Then the music turns, the movements become jerky and bird-like, and black feathers grow on Shawn Wu's back and eyebrows. The white swan becomes a black one.

For us: right in the middle of the stage

For us, the project came at just the right time in 2021. Alongside WeLive, our concert film format from the pandemic years, it let us work on a stage production during lockdown.

Dance is usually recorded live, with an audience in the room. The camera has to hold back: fixed positions, distance from the action, nothing may disturb. “Taleb's Theory” was different. We were allowed onto the stage with the camera, close to the dancer, and could turn the choreography into a film instead of just recording it. No audience to watch out for, and no worry about getting too close to the dancer.

The shoot: the stage as a studio

We shot on the stage of Theaterhaus Stuttgart, with no audience, no set and two cameras. Raphael Federer was DoP and operated the main camera, Maik the second. Raphael designed the light with the lighting technicians on site: the black space, focused light and black and white put all the attention on the dancer. The camera moves with him instead of recording from outside. Maik edited and graded the film: the edit follows the music and the break in the middle of the piece, and the grade gives the image its hard contrast.

Result

“Taleb's Theory” is on the Theaterhaus Stuttgart YouTube channel and in the 3sat media library. More about the project at Gauthier Dance and Theaterhaus Stuttgart.

What this means for your project

Whether it's a dance film for the camera or a recording of a full performance: we plan camera and edit together with the choreography. More on our page for dance and theatre films.

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