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Wayne McGregor, one of the dance world’s most sought after choreographers, returns to his own ground-breaking company for an all-new production, FAR.
The Enlightenment is the subject of the latest piece, and the science, rationality and reason that it brought to the world. In particular, McGregor was interested in the increasing prominence of anatomy, where knowledge of the human body advanced significantly during this period.
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This is classical McGregor territory, naturally. His vocabulary remains so distinct and inherently his that it’s impossible not to recognise his work, whether he is with his own Wayne McGregor | Random Dance or the Royal Ballet (where he is resident choreographer) or other commissioned pieces elsewhere. His style possesses a fluidity and jaw-dropping agility: a paradox of softness and strength; boneless yet rock solid. His superb group of dancers move from hyperextensions to high kicks to upper body distortions with an ease that betrays their technical difficulty. At the choreography’s most structured – when there are some very balletic movements – the dancers perform these with streamlined precision. You can’t help but wonder if his choreography is itself a mini enlightenment – to watch McGregor is to be amazed by what the human body is capable of.
As always, McGregor surrounds himself with great collaborators. Art collective rAndom International has created a beautiful light installation that sets the backdrop as well as the pace of FAR. From the small glows at the beginning that signal the start of something revolutionary to the countdown clock that suggests the moving forward of history, the lights tell their very own story. Furthermore, this backdrop contrasts with the opening of the dance, where a central couple is framed by others holding torches of light: a nod to simpler times. As the lights appear, the dancers come alive, as if exploring their bodies in a way they have never experienced before.
But McGregor also seems to imply that the Enlightenment is not always a good thing (or, perhaps, that a deeper understanding of the human involves the good as well as the bad): in one scene, with lights flashing manically, one dancer is left alone and helpless, brutalised by the others with their primitive aggression. This poses the question of whether the advancement that the age of reason brings, while radically changing the way we think, merely reinforces the status quo of power structures.
Whether it is due to the subject matter or the philosophical source text for the dance (Roy Porter’s Flesh in the Age of Reason), FAR feels like a more ‘difficult’ piece. Crucially, it also loses focus at times – the energy flagged in the middle sections and some parts simply did not stand out. Nevertheless, it is hard to let this complaint detract from a piece that, for the most part, looks and feels resolutely different from everything else around.
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dance reviews
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American Ballet Theatre (Prog 1), Sadler's Wells, London
Swan Lake, Royal Opera House, London
Giselle, Royal Opera House, London
Romeo and Juliet, Coliseum, London
Peter and the Wolf / Tales of Beatrix Potter, Royal Opera House, London
The Nutcracker, Coliseum, London
Cinderella, Royal Opera House, London
theatre
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