By Paola Bassanese
Wayne McGregor returned to London with a new triple bill at Linbury Studios at the Royal Opera House featuring choreographers Robert Binet, Alexander Whitley and Paolo Mangiola.
The first piece, Hertz, juxtaposed the fast pace of modern life with moments of reflection. Music was looped and so was the choreography, playing catch up and running in parallel.
Alliances and conflicts are explored in a continuous evolution; just as modern society evolves so do human relationships. Fluidity is the name of the game, nothing stays the same, Panta Rei as Heraclitus would say.
Alpha Episodes was the central and most moving piece: three male dancers interacted and showed the different sides of masculinity, from sheer physical strength to extreme vulnerability. I was in the third row from the stage and just hearing the breathing from the effort of dancing made the experience memorable and engaging.
The last piece was Life’s Witness and it explored phenomena like abandonment, depression, passion, loneliness. It was intense, emotional and highly technical. The pas de deux was mind-blowing for its technical prowess and dream-like content.
Intricate lifts, emphasis on supination of feet, extreme stretches. Frustrations of the physical body in its limitations, the dance represented how the body needs to shake itself from the confines of bones, tendons and muscles and break free into pure expression. As we know, Wayne McGregor and his dance company are pure genius at work.