Wayne McGregor | Random Dance, 'Entity'

Sadlers Wells, 6th June 2009



Transposing dance into words is a challenge, particularly when the dance in question possesses such a staggeringly pure, unbounded, yet precise, vocabulary of movement as ‘Entity’ by Wayne McGregor Random Dance.

Also a Research Fellow in Cognition and Choreography in the Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Cambridge, McGregor is fascinated with ‘the technology of the body’: with what he calls the ‘implicit synergy and empathy between cognitive capacity and physical translation’. In exploring this kinaesthetic intelligence McGregor tends to operate a minimalist aesthetic in which the only visual adornments to the dance itself are the stark, but highly evocative, flickering cinematic images that often accompany his pieces. Music tends to be urban, edgy and haunting. McGregor enjoys using the work of new composers, and I always come home wanting to get hold of the music I have discovered at his dances.

In ‘Entity’ the stage, for the most part, is bare and bleached of all colour, and the dancers wear almost nothing. The spectacle is pared right down to focus purely on movement. It is mesmerising. It reminds me of poetic form, in which each word must be vital and meaningful. Every twist and step in this visceral piece is brilliantly communicative and in place. Yet the choreography is far from constricted: as ever McGregor pushes the boundaries to discover new and exciting forms, while the staccato undulations that dominate this piece have clearly become hallmarks of his physical language. Words now fail me. Go and see this piece. Or anything else by McGregor.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PRreBNlSuI

For details of Wayne McGregor Random Dance’s tour go to http://www.randomdance.org/tour_dates1