Creation 2026
A piece for 12 dancers
World premiere - June 21st 2026, Opéra Berlioz - Le Corum, Festival MontpellierDanse. 

THE WORK 

Five choreographic tableaus opening five choreographic portals into a deep emotional and structural journey through the human experience.

A rich tapestry of emotions and contrasts, FIVE DAYS IN THE SUN is moving from darkness to light, despair to joy and tension to release offering contrasts between solemnity and ecstasy, introspection and outward motion, drawing a sweeping narrative arc delving into themes of love, mortality, and transformation.

Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 5, composed between 1901 and 1902, marks a significant evolution in his compositional approach, reflecting both personal experiences and a shift towards more abstract musical expression.

In early 1901, Mahler suffered a near-death experience that profoundly influenced his perspective. Later that year, he met Alma Schindler - their whirlwind romance led to marriage in March 1902. These events— his brush with mortality and newfound love—deeply impacted the emotional landscape of the Fifth Symphony.

Departing from his earlier symphonies, which often incorporated vocal elements and explicit narratives, Mahler’s Fifth is purely instrumental and eschews a specific program. He emphasized that the music was conceived without external influences, aiming for a more abstract form of expression. This shift is evident in the symphony’s intricate structures and the absence of descriptive titles.

FIVE DAYS IN THE SUN is a work for 12 dancers, developing over five acts and unfolding in an open space governed by a complex and dynamic lighting storyline. The costumes created by polish designer Inez Vicher, add to the layering and richness of this choreographic voyage, exploring transformation, resilience, and catharsis.

This new work, which will open the 2026 edition of Montpellier Danse before going on tour, is all the more important in Emanuel Gat's career as a choreographer as it opens a new chapter for the company: the creation of a new group of dancers composed of 12 performers coming from around the world to live and work in Marseille.

THE LIGHTS

The scenic concept develops further the original use of analogue lights fixtures from previous works, using lights not only as a way to determine space and atmosphere, but mainly as a musical element following its own storyline. The work around the physical movement of the light sources themselves, as a parallel line of musical and dramaturgical content, takes a whole new level, making the lights’ timeline a third active entity alongside the choreography and music.

THE COSTUMES

Inez Wicher is a Polish designer and co-founder of the fashion brand VICHER, which she created with her sister, Katarzyna Wicher. The brand is known for its bold designs. For FIVE DAYS IN THE SUN, her costume designs will complement the lighting design: long drapes of black, white, and flesh-colored silk, translucent and ultra-light, will highlight and support the performers' bodies.

PRESSE

"The final Adagietto imposes a sense of peace in tune with the music, yet far removed from it in its gestures. The entire Corum rose to applaud the piece. Who else but Gat, decidedly unique in the dance landscape, would still have the ambition to take on such a monumental work?"
LE FIGARO · Ariane Bavelier
"Emanuel Gat illuminates the Montpellier Danse Festival."
LE MONDE · Rosita Boisseau
"A work of striking imagery, with sensual and luxuriant movement. This tension between thought and emotion, between the fluidity of movement and the precise, detailed articulations of muscles and limbs, lies at the heart of this work, at once thoughtful and exhilarating. The overall effect is one of sumptuous beauty."
THE OBSERVER · Sarah Crompton
"Dance becomes as stormy, radiant or swirling as nature... The old refrain that «dance is the song of the body» has rarely rung so true."
TRANSFUGE · Thomas Hahn
"Emanuel Gat transforms Mahler's Fifth Symphony into a pulsing choreographic organism, letting the music dictate the breath of movement."
IL GIORNALE DELLA MUSICA · Stefano Nardelli
"The clarity of the choreography becomes a delightful architecture in the interweaving of swathes of bodies - groups that form and dissolve in the vortex of rotation and at times seem to fly - and in the delicate solos , internalized like meditations."
DANZA&DANZA · Maria Luisa Buzzi
"The art of choreographic composition... works wonders."
LES ECHOS · Philippe Noisette
"In five sequences, the controlled and rigorous work of formal and choreographic composition embraces the vast emotional spectrum of the symphony."
SCENEWEB · Caroline Châtelet
"The dance that emerges is organic; it finds its way through listening, an almost palpable connection that binds the performers together."
COUP D’OEIL · Peter Avondo
"Emanuel Gat opens the Montpellier Danse Festival with his wonderful «Five Days in the Sun»."
LA TERRASSE · Delphine Baffour
"In slow gestures, they seem to glide across the stage in a state of reflection, perhaps inviting a certain kind of meditation. A state far removed from the harsh realities of today’s world."
RESMUSICA · Franck Giroud
"The choreography becomes flexible, organic; the performers seem to be suspended on a continuous breath, in an unsettling calm. The silk dresses return, but an end-of-the-world atmosphere is lurking. As if the sunlit, vibrant youth had already disappeared..."
DANSER CANAL HISTORIQUE · Agnès Izrine
"A way of working that also reflects a form of harmonious and equitable relationship between human beings. Could this art of living together ultimately be a prefiguration of a peaceful world? When art meets Politics!"
CHRONIQUES DE DANSE · Sonia Schoonejans

CREDITS

FIVE DAYS IN THE SUN

Length: approximately 70 minutes

Choreography, scenography and lights: Emanuel Gat

With: Emma Bogerd, Théo Brassart, Geremia Cappagli, Léa Delaporte, Zohar Kotz, Itai Meir, Giulia Quacqueri, Johanne Skogstad, Katherina Solvang, Noah Tyrell, Anaïs Van Caekenberghe, Winter Wieringa

Music: Gustav Mahler, Symphony n° 5 in C sharp minor (movements 1-4), Wiener Philharmoniker, Leonard Bernstein (1987).

Additional sound creation: Emanuel Gat

Costumes: VICHER

Technical director: Guillaume Fevrier

Sound designer: Frédéric Duru

Production: Emanuel Gat Dance

Company management: Marie-Pierre Guiol

Production coordinator: Mélanie Bichot

Coproduction: Agora Cité Internationale de la Danse, Biennale Danza di Venezia, American Dance Festival, Festival de danse de Cannes, Pôle arts de la scène - La Friche Belle de mai, Theater Freiburg

Residencies: Agora Cité Internationale de la Danse, KLAP Maison pour la Danse, SCENE44 . n + n Corsino

Touring in Asia, North/South America: Thierry Bévière - DLB Spectacles - thierry@dlbdance.com

Touring Italy: Valentina Marini - valentina.marini.rm@gmail.com

Emanuel Gat Dance benefits from the support of Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication - DRAC Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, of the Région Sud - Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur and of the Conseil Départemental des Bouches du Rhône.