Gauthier Dance//Dance Company Theaterhaus Stuttgart: LUCK / UNLUCK

World premieres by Aszure Barton & Hofesh Shechter

A double evening that makes hearts beat faster! Not only does LUCK / UNLUCK unite two of the three artists in residence at Gauthier Dance. The piece duo also scores with a strong contrast full of playful tension. With the contrast that gives the program its name, Eric Gauthier has struck a nerve with both artists. For both Aszure Barton and Hofesh Shechter, these categories are directly related to the creative process itself. Or to put it another way: a new creation is always a bet.

Aszure Barton thinks she is lucky to be alive. Not because life is fair - it isn't. But because it happened at all. After all, it is extremely unlikely that we exist! We arrive in bodies we didn't ask for and are thrown into systems that already exist. And yet we make things happen.

Luck is not fair. It is not moral. It doesn't reward us for behaving well. But it is attracted to movement. So: get moving. Time is racing. Aszure Barton lives her work - she researches, prepares and her thoughts constantly revolve around it. But theory alone is not enough. Barton believes in movement. It is only because she prepares rigorously that she can let go. She uses the studio as a multitasking space to get to grips with her planning side. She reacts to the people in front of her.

The unexpected becomes the material. The mistake is the magic. Bad luck becomes good luck. And the dancers are part of the conspiracy. The result is a collective push forward. Each body expands the field, multiplies the risk and creates more places where luck can land. The collective knows things that a single mind cannot grasp. Aszure Barton says: "It's my job to get people moving - to trust their instincts, to be creative. The dancers, we are here - incredibly present, alive. I celebrate that we are here together. Yes, we are human. We are selfish, absurd, we wait, we want, we hope, open-mouthed and hungry. To be less lonely - maybe that's why we're here! We expand the surface together. Happiness falls where it wants, like bird droppings. Brutal, crude, beautiful, random." Creating is provocation, she says. So when Eric Gauthier challenges her with LUCK , it's time to play. Time to place her bet ...

Hofesh Shechter is also placing a bet. What's more, with UNLUCK he is going all out and tempting fate. Behind this declaration of intent lies at least as much self-irony as anxious expectation. The choreographer from Great Britain is aiming to turn the rehearsal process for his new piece into a test of courage - as he says, half tongue-in-cheek, half seriously. Shechter: "As a creative person, I want to believe that the impact, quality and authenticity of my work does not depend on a superstitious attitude or luck." Unfortunately, Shechter has apparently paved his everyday life with all kinds of superstitious rituals. These include banal things like making his bed in the morning and not changing his pants while the creative process is ongoing. But there are also more fundamental psychological aspects. For example, never talking positively about the choreography in advance. Not allowing any press during rehearsals.

But that's over now! Shechter sets about conjuring up his own misfortune on a grand scale. He willfully breaks all the tried and tested iron rules he has set himself. Working against all his instincts? That's a gift! Because there is a gain in knowledge that counts far more than the success or failure of a single premiere: finally finding out what happens when we throw our ingrained habits overboard. The former H. Shechter would have feared: "This way, my new play is guaranteed to be an artistic disaster." The new Hofesh S. says: "My new play will be a triumph." So that would be ... UNLUCK.

A production by Theaterhaus Stuttgart
in co-production with Orsolina28 Art Foundation