Eric Gauthier

Eric Gauthier was born in Montréal. He received his initial ballet training at the school of Les Grands Ballets Canadiens in his hometown and subsequently studied at the National Ballet School in Toronto, where he also received music and voice lessons. In 1995 he became an apprentice with the National Ballet of Canada under the artistic direction of Reid Anderson. When Anderson was appointed director of the Stuttgart Ballet in 1996, he invited Gauthier to come to Stuttgart with him as a member of the corps de ballet. In 2000, Gauthier was named demi-soloist, and in 2002 he was promoted to soloist. In Stuttgart, he danced many classical and neo-classical roles including works of Ashton, Balanchine and MacMillan. It was his abilities as a contemporary dancer, however, which were instantly noted by every choreographer who worked with the Stuttgart Ballet between 1996 and 2006. For ten years, Gauthier danced in almost every world or company premiere, and in so doing he danced the works of, or worked directly with, an impressive roster of internationally acclaimed choreographers including Hans van Manen, John Neumeier, Jiří Kylián, Nacho Duato, Paul Lightfoot, Uwe Scholz and James Kudelka. He especially made a name for himself as an outstanding interpreter of the works of William Forsythe, dancing five of his ballets and working often with the American choreographer both in Stuttgart and in Frankfurt. During his time with the Stuttgart Ballet, Gauthier also inspired an impressive list of choreographers to create roles for him, most especially Christian Spuck, former resident choreographer of the Stuttgart Ballet and current artistic director of Zurich Ballet. Other choreographers who have created roles for Gauthier include Mauro Bigonzetti, Itzik Galili, Marguerite Donlon, Daniela Kurz, Nicolo Fonte, Douglas Lee, Marc Spradling, Pascal Touzeau, Trey McIntyre, and many others. In 2005 Gauthier made his debut as a choreographer in the prestigious „Young Choreographers“ programme in Stuttgart. In 2006 he was invited back and created „Ballet 101“, which won the Critics as well as Audience Prizes at the 21. International Choreographic Competition in Hanover. In 2007, shortly after leaving the Stuttgart Ballet, Eric Gauthier starred alongside the legendary dancer Egon Madsen in Christian Spuck’s „Don Q.“, created for the Theaterhaus Stuttgart. The world premiere was a “sensational success” in the words of the critic of Ballet-Tanz magazine. „Don Q.“ has toured to Austria, Italy, Spain, Luxembourg, Korea and Germany, while also presented at the Belgrade Dance Festival. In 2015, Gauthier presented his idea of a biannual dance festival over three weeks called COLOURS – International Dance Festival which delighted the audience and turned the Theaterhaus into a house of dance.