Imagine: Wayne McGregor, 21st February 2022, BBC1

[alison]

On 10/02/2022 at 22:22, jmhopton said:

BBC1 Monday 21st Feb 10.35-11.55. Imagine with Alan Yentob, featuring Wayne Macgregor

Resident Choreographer at The Royal Ballet and director of his own dance company, Wayne McGregor's dance achievements know no bounds both at home and internationally. Alan Yentob joins Wayne over a busy few months, from his role as director at the Venice Dance Biennale, creating a new production with his own company of dancers, to the rehearsals and opening of The Dante Project, a new ballet at the Royal Opera House in London

 

I often wonder when McGregor ever doesn't have a "busy few months"!  Talking of which, he was on BBC Radio 3's In Tune this evening - somewhere around 30 minutes in, I'd guess, although I missed the start of it.

 

And I actually saw trailers for this programme several times yesterday.  It's amazing what happens when you put dance on BBC1, isn't it?

[Beryl H]

I found the Wayne McGregor documentary really interesting, great locations too, Wayne has a beautiful house in the Devon countryside, and it was the first time I have seen Diaghilev's tomb on a Venetian island, I've always found it strange that a man who was terrified of the sea wanted to be buried there. The connection between Infra and the London July bombings was fascinating too.

 

Also plenty of choreography new to me, those incredible movements!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[alison]

Yes, I found most of it very interesting, too.  And wished I'd known about the last 10 minutes (of Dante Project) in advance - they'd have made a nice filler for the spare space on the DVD ...

[Odyssey]

Yes, I echo the positive comments above. It was a very wide ranging and interesting documentary. Would thoroughly recommend a watch.

[Richard LH]

Wayne McGregor is such an interesting, positive  and articulate character, and is quite fascinating  with some of  his ideas about dance, and  about the relationship between choreography, the body, and technology.

 

I was surprised at the number of works he has created and it seems to me he is constantly having to move on to the next thing - super hyperactive. His choreography methods appear rather  like a stream of consciousness so you never quite know what will be happening. However I feel  this does mean a lot of the work rates as experimental, and the pieces becomes rather indistinguishable from each other, and thus not likely to  be  remembered and repeatedly performed.

 

His methods also mean he is not really into "narrative" ballet, because I don't think he likes to be tied down into any particular detailed portrayal prior to creating the choreography. This is perhaps a shame because where he takes on a bit more of a nod to narrative, as with Woolf Works, and The Dante Project, it seems to me he creates his best work. 

 

Edited February 25, 2022 by Richard LH

[zxDaveM]

Yes, the documentary flew by - felt more like an hour than the 90mins it was.

Richard - the "not likely to be remembered and repeatedly performed"; I vaguely remember him saying in his early days at the RB, that he wasn't that interested in 'repeats', and beyond the original cast, in the original run, was almost content to just let them go. The RB do like multiple casts though (and at least two runs of most things), to give more dancers the chance to dance roles/pieces to stretch them. So he relented in that respect, though still the 'second' cast often dance fewer performances than the opening night one. I also don't think he quite expected some to become so popular (Chroma, Infra and Woolf Works for example) and that other companies would want to add them to their rep, again something he has now relented on. If I'm right, often the staging elsewhere or restaging in the original company, often not done by Wayne himself, but by others he trusts to do so