Wayne McGregor Brings Two Works to Sadler's Wells This March

Company Wayne McGregor returns to Sadler's Wells Theatre this March with two works from Sadler's Wells Associate Artist and visionary choreographer Wayne McGregor CBE. His company performs Autobiography (v95 and v96) on 12 & 13 March and UniVerse: A Dark Crystal Odyssey on 15 & 16 March.

Innovative technology and revolutionary choreography bring to life two works by choreographer and director Wayne McGregor, performed by Company Wayne McGregor.

Throughout his career, Wayne McGregor has made choreography that interrogates life through the experience of the body in its multifaceted relationship with technology.

In 2017, McGregor turned his attention to the ‘body as archive' with Autobiography (1.0), the first in a developing series of unique dance portraits inspired and determined by the sequencing of his own genetic code. Layering choreographic imprints over personal memoir and in dialogue with a specially created algorithm that hijacks McGregor's DNA data, Autobiography upends the traditional nature of dance-making as artificial intelligence and instinct converge in creative authorship.

In the most recent iteration of Wayne McGregor's Autobiography (v95 and v96), genetic code, AI and choreography merge in a work that re-imagines and remakes itself anew for every performance. AISOMA - a new AI tool developed with Google Arts and Culture utilising machine-learning trained on 100s of hours of McGregor's choreographic archive - overwrites the configurations of its initial state to present fresh movement options to the performers.

With original music by Jlin, set design and projection by Ben Cullen Williams, lighting design by Lucy Carter, costume design by Aitor Throup, dramaturgy by Uzma Hameed and algorithm design by Nick Rothwell.

Wayne McGregor's UniVerse: A Dark Crystal Odyssey, reimagines Jim Henson's cult 1982 film The Dark Crystal - a darkly fantastical epic with mythological underpinnings and ecological overtones - as a potent tale for today in its depiction of an earth in peril, torn apart by extremes and in desperate need of healing. Performed by the startling dancers of Company Wayne McGregor.

Director and choreographer Wayne McGregor leads a team of world-class creatives, including composer Joel Cadbury, film designer Ravi Deepres, lighting designer Lucy Carter, dramaturg Uzma Hameed, costume designer Philip Delamore, face-and body-artist Alex Box and spoken word artist Isaiah Hull.  This electrifying collaboration explores themes of nature, exploitation, courage and rescue in an epic adventure through an unsettling world, in the context of our own ailing planet.

While fans of the film may recognise the shadow of characters and situations, they are glimpsed through the maelstrom of our contemporary world with its magical characters and environments, and its depiction of the darknesses that lurk within the human psyche.  UniVerse: A Dark Crystal Odyssey, taps into an innate, deep-held knowledge of good and evil, as well as an umbilical connection to the natural world. A modern myth of ecological urgency, McGregor examines how we can come together to be whole again. 

Born in 1970, Wayne McGregor CBE is a multi-award-winning British choreographer and director, internationally renowned for trailblazing innovations in performance that have radically redefined dance in the modern era. He is regularly commissioned by and has works in the repertories of the most important dance companies in the world, including Paris Opera Ballet, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, New York City Ballet, Bolshoi Ballet, Royal Danish Ballet and Australian Ballet.

He is in demand as a choreographer for theatre, opera, film, music videos, fashion shows and TV. More recently, McGregor presented Untitled 2023, his latest work for The Royal Ballet. ABBA Voyage, the revolutionary concert that launched the Swedish pop sensations back onstage in an outstanding avatar performance in 2022, choreographed by McGregor, continues into 2024.

In November 2024, McGregor brings Margaret Atwood's post-apocalyptic vision to the stage in the three-act ballet MADDADDAM based on the writer's acclaimed trilogy of novels: 'Oryx and Crake', 'The Year of the Flood' and 'MaddAddam' to The Royal Opera House.
 

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