Wayne McGregor Employs AI In One Choreographic Work & Addresses The Climate Crisis In Another This Week @ Sadler's Wells In London

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text by Lara Monro

This week, the multi-award-winning choreographer and director Wayne McGregor CBE will present Autobiography (v95 and v96) and UniVerse: A Dark Crystal Odyssey at Sadlers Wells, London. 

For over twenty five years, McGregor’s multi-dimensional choreographic work has radically redefined dance in the modern era, securing his position at the cutting edge of contemporary arts. Take, for example, his appointment as the first choreographer from a contemporary dance background to be Resident Choreographer at The Royal Ballet in 2006, where he has created over twenty productions that daringly reconfigure classical language. 

Alongside his multiple cross-sector collaborations and role at The Royal Ballet, Studio Wayne McGregor is the creative engine of his life-long enquiry into thinking through and with the body. The 30+ works created since being established in 1992 (as Random Dance) showcase the evolution of his distinctive visual style and reveal the movement possibilities of the body in ever more precise degrees of articulation. 

McGregor’s Autobiography (v95 and v96) is the latest iteration of Autobiography (1.0), a series of unique dance portraits inspired and determined by the sequencing of his own genetic code. The work upends the traditional nature of dance-making by using the new AI tool AISOMA to hijack his DNA data through its specially created algorithm, which overwrites the configurations of 100 hours+ of his choreographic learning to present fresh movement options to the performers. The meshing of artificial intelligence and instinct converge to create a totally unique dance sequence that complements the medium’s ephemeral quality. 

While v95 and v96 shines a light on the cutting edge innovation capabilities of dance and future facing technology, UniVerse: A Dark Crystal Odyssey is a moving meditation on the climate crisis. Inspired by the Jim Henson cult classic, The Dark Crystal, it depicts an Earth driven by extremes and urgently in need of healing; a modern eco-myth that asks how we can come together to be whole again. The combination of cutting-edge costumes paired with the digital landscapes creates a stunning blend of fantasy and documentary. 

Autobiography (v95 and v96) will be showcased this Tuesday and Wednesday (March 12th & 13th), while UniVerse: A Dark Crystal Odyssey will be showcased this Friday and Saturday (March 15 & 16th) at Sadlers Wells, London. 

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scene from Autobiography (v95 and v96)

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scene from UniVerse: A Dark Crystal Odyssey

Wayne McGregor's "Woolf Works" Premieres @ The Royal Opera House in London

Alessandra Ferri, William Bracewell in Wayne McGregor's Woolf Works ©2023 Asya Verzhbinsky

text by Lara Monro

“The book is not form that you see but emotion that you feel”

— Virginia Woolf 

Born in Stockport in 1970, Wayne McGregor CBE completed his dance studies at Breton Hall College at the University of Leeds and the Jose Limon School in New York. His signature experimental style is defined by accelerated speeds and sharply articulated detail paired with an intellectual quality that explores the theatrical possibilities of technology and science. In 1992, he established the dance company Random Dance and was also appointed choreographer in residence at The Place. Over the last decade he has created works for Paris Opera House, New York City Ballet and Teatro Alla Scarla, to name a few.

McGregor’s appointment as The Royal Ballet’s Resident Choreographer in 2006 was considered a radical break from tradition given that his reputation was strongly rooted in contemporary dance. His masterpiece, Woolf Works, is exemplary of his ability to transcend the confines of what ballet should or shouldn’t be. At its premiere in 2015, it was met with outstanding critical acclaim, winning McGregor the Critics’ Circle Award for Best Classical Choreography and the Olivier Award for Best New Dance Production. 

This March, the Royal Opera House are bringing back the three act performance, which presents a physical manifestation of Virginia Woolf’s complex literary pieces; Mrs. Dalloway, Orlando, and The Waves. It is a Gesamtkunstwerk of movement, sound, design and light that are indissolubly linked. Max Richter's score takes us on a transcendental journey, delving into the three distinct universes of Woolf’s works while Lucy Carter’s lighting design and Morizt Jung’s costumes seamlessly complement and translate her rich inner narratives. All the while, McGregor’s choreography carries the musical fingerprint and enforces the fully authentic voice of the author. 

Alessandra Ferri, artists of The Royal Ballet in Wayne McGregor's Woolf Works ©2023 Asya Verzhbinsky

Act one delves into Woolf’s famous novel, Mrs. Dalloway, which details a day in the life of the fictional upper-class woman, Clarissa Dalloway. Alessandra Ferri, the 59-year-old Royal Ballet principal, embodies both Woolf and Clarissa while the multi-layered, elusive web of music, I now, I then, begins with a recording of Woolf from 1937 reading her essay “On Craftmanship” before it develops into disparate and melodic strands. Movement and sound offer a stream of consciousness into the past choices and present realities of the book's three main characters: Septimus, Peter, and Sally. This includes a powerful representation of Septimus’s shellshock as a WWI veteran through contorted bodies and jarring movement. 

In act two, classical and contemporary styles clash and collide; bodies shape-shift, becoming one before they break apart. Fractured and flowing they represent the transformative qualities of Orlando; a journey into the main protagonist’s transformation from man to woman, and their ability to time travel over centuries. The stage becomes a sci-fi playground as the universe and dancers continually evolve. Adorned in golden Elizabethan ruffs and androgynous garments, laser beams capture the dancers’ pointe shoes like comets streaking through the air. The musical score, Becomings, mixes the classical with contemporary as Richter meshes La Folia from the 17th century with electronic, analogue modular synthesis, sequencing and digital processing. 

Alessandra Ferri, artists of The Royal Ballet in Wayne McGregor's Woolf Works ©2023 Asya Verzhbinsky

In act three, we move away from the intense and high energy performance of Orlando into the most consciously poetic of Woolf’s works, The Waves. Regarded as her most experimental piece, the novel follows its six narrators from childhood through adulthood with a strong focus on the individual consciousness. Pounding waves occupy a large screen while Gillian Anderson’s voice introduces the act by reading Woolf’s last note to her husband before taking her life in 1941. The poignancy and emotional depths of the final scene are complemented by Richter’s score, Tuesday. The melodic contours build over twenty minutes with a beautifully haunting solo soprano carrying the dancers until they gradually evaporate into darkness. Fassi is left alone. Like a gentle wave meeting the shore, she folds out motionless onto the stage; a subtle yet profound symbol of Woolf’s tragic end and that of the performance. 

Woolf’s words dissolve in McGregor’s gesuntkunstwerk yet still manage to possess their literary wonder. Thanks to the collaborative mastery; the dancers’ unfathomable skill and dramatic performances, the music, lighting, and design — we are able to comprehend the beautifully complex world of Woolf and her works.   

Woolf Works is playing at the Royal Opera House until March 23. Click here to reserve tickets

Joseph Sissens in Wayne McGregor's Woolf Works ©2023 Asya Verzhbinsky