Tag: Wayne McGregor

New Arts Space From Wayne McGregor

Wayne McGregor | Random DanceIconic choreographer Wayne McGregor is set to create a new world-class arts space in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in east London. The leading company Wayne McGregor | Random Dance has set its sights on 2016 for the space to materialise. Studio Wayne McGregor – to be built within Here East – will be a home for McGregor, his company and collaborators, and a major resource for the arts and for the communities of east London.

Here East is transforming the former Press and Broadcast Centres in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park into a world-class centre of innovation and enterprise, driving the regeneration of east London and stimulating long-term economic growth in the UK. It is a space that combines business, technology, media, education and data in the pursuit of innovation. As the first cultural organisation to move into the Park, Studio Wayne McGregor will be a leader for the new education and cultural district being developed.

Comprising three extraordinary studios and additional work spaces, Studio Wayne McGregor will host all of McGregor’s creative work alongside artist development and creative learning programmes based on the trading of space, time and skills: through ‘FreeSpace’, artists will be offered access to world-class studios regardless of funding or stage of development. Space will be offered in blocks of time for rehearsal, creation, research and development. In return, artists will be asked to trade their time to deliver creative engagement for local schools and communities through ‘Free2Create’.

Studio Wayne McGregor aims to be a shared space for making, where artists can exchange knowledge and invent together to collaborate across disciplines. The space will also provide a base from which the company can work with local communities and young people to share experiences and nurture creativity. This is another major step in delivering a combination of education, employment and innovation, and is a major coup for East London in education and the arts.

The Royal Ballet 2013/14 Season

The Royal Ballet

Artistic Director Kevin O’Hare’s second season at The Royal Ballet has seen the announcement of the programming of The Royal Ballet’s 2013/14 season. In view of the artistic decisions, the company is leveraging its current strong box office position to focus on new, full-length works which will make up six world premieres, and this will also protect the company’s heritage.

Guest Principal Carlos Acosta is currently working on his new production of Don Quixote: Acosta has danced the lead role in many countries and has vast experience and knowledge of the role and narrative. Acosta’s production of Don Quixote will be the company’s own production for the very first time, and O’Hare’s decision to open the new season with this is hoped to be a successful one.

Artistic Associate Christopher Wheeldon will premiere his second full length work for the company based on Shakespeare’s A Winter’s Tale, with Wheeldon collaborating with the team responsible for Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. O’Hare has also extended another invitation to former Royal Ballet School student and Birmingham Royal Ballet dancer David Dawson, who will create a new work as part of the first triple bill of the season, alongside Wayne McGregor’s Chroma and Kenneth MacMillan’s Rite of Spring to complete the bill. Artist in Residence Liam Scarlett’s Sweet Violets will return in a triple bill alongside Wheeldon’s DGV : Dance a Grande Vitesse and George Balanchine’s Serenade but Scarlett has no new work programmed for the season.

The final triple bill of the season will see a new work by Alastair Marriott, following his success in the Titian collaboration. Frederick Ashton’s The Dream and Jerome Robbins’ The Concert, which has not been seen at the Royal Opera House for 10 years, will then complete the programme. Full works will intersperse the triple bills, with Kenneth MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet, Peter Wright’s Giselle and Monica Mason and Christopher Newton’s The Sleeping Beauty each making an appearance.

Once the London season has closed after The Nutcracker and Balanchine’s Jewels at Christmas, the company will tour to Moscow making a temporary home in The Bolshoi Theatre.

The h.Club 100 winners!

Hospital Club

Earlier this year the Hospital Club and popular magazine Time Out devised the h.Club 100, a search for the most original and influential people in the UK creative and media industries. Having counted all the votes up the results are available to view, and below is a snapshot of the performance and theatre winners, the talent that is shaping the future after an incredible year for the arts in the UK.

Wayne McGregor – Choreographer, Wayne McGregor | Random Dance, Royal Ballet

In the last 12 months Wayne McGregor | Random Dance has toured, presented participatory performances, including Big Dance Trafalgar Square 2012, and worked on collaborations such as Rain Room at the Barbican Centre. McGregor advocated that during the London hype of the Olympics, new work and visiting international productions was on the top of his list of priorities as part of that spectacular event. He then felt motivated to be more risk-taking, daring and adventurous to test the unusual and challenging, with London’s richly diverse audiences and participants.

Tim Minchin – Performer

Over the last year Minchin has become the ‘darling’ of the West End, as the co-writer of Olivier Award-winning hit Matilda the Musical and after a critically acclaimed portrayal of Judas in the summer 2012 UK tour of Jesus Christ Superstar. Minchin seems set to continue this journey of success into 2013, taking the theatre world by storm.

Sheridan Smith – Actor

Having already starred in a variety of productions such as The Royale Family and Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps, Smith has since won two Olivier Awards in two consecutive years for her roles in Legally Blonde and Flare Path. Her triumph in Hedda Gabler suggests that a serious star is born – watch this space!

Image courtesy of The Hospital Club.

The Hospital Club Top 100

The Hospital Club

It has been revealed that choreographer Wayne McGregor, Former Director of The Royal Ballet, Monica Mason and First Artist of The Royal Ballet Liam Scarlett have been nominated for the Hospital Club Top 100 list, an annual list which celebrates those who have influenced the creative industries over the previous year, be it through pointe shoes, jazz pants, tutus or tap shoes. The list is spread over ten categories from Art & Design and Performance to Fashion and Film.

As The Royal Ballet’s Resident Choreographer, Wayne has created a number of pieces for the company, including Carbon Life and Machina from the Metamorphosis: Titian 2012 collaboration with the National Gallery. Over the coming season, Wayne will present Infra and Raven Girl which is a collaboration with The Time Traveller’s Wife author Audrey Niffenegger. This will be in addition to presenting FAR with his own company Wayne McGregor|Random Dance.

Mason retired as the Director of The Royal Ballet at the end of the last season after spending 54 years with the Company as both a dancer and in an administrative capacity, with Kevin O’Hare stepping into her ballet shoes to take over the reins. As well as dancing with The Royal Ballet, Scarlett has choreographed a number of pieces for The Royal Ballet, including Diana & Actaeon from Metamorphosis: Titian 2012, Sweet Violets – which was seen being rehearsed during The Royal Ballet live broadcast on YouTube – and Asphodel Meadows. Within the 2012/13 season, Scarlett will be presenting Viscera, a piece originally choreographed for the Miami City Ballet, in addition to a yet untitled new work.

The final list will be announced at an event at the Hospital Club in early November and is decided by public vote. All voters will be entered into a draw to win a day’s access to the Hospital Club and £150 to spend in any of the club’s bars or lounges. Voters are able to vote online as to who they feel should make the final list.

Image courtesy of The Hospital Club.

Wayne McGregor and John Travolta

Wayne McGregor

Wayne McGregor CBE, the resident choreographer at The Royal Ballet, has revealed that he first became interested in dance while growing up in the 1970s. It was seeing John Travolta in Grease and Saturday Night Fever at the cinema that made him realise that was the type of dancing he wanted to do, with those moves and dance forms the ones he began to imitate, which many a jazz shoe clad dancer may still emanate today. Shaking his hips and donning his flares and high-heeled boots, Wayne McGregor set out on a dance journey that he probably would never have guessed would lead him to one of the most prestigious, tutu wearing ballet companies in the world: The Royal Ballet.

McGregor’s parents encouraged him to be academic, but also gave him the confidence to try anything. He went on to take part in amateur dramatics, organise tea dances and form his own dance company (Wayne McGregor | Random Dance) but never set out to hold such a key post at The Royal Ballet. One of McGregor’s most recent works, Carbon Life, saw a very different style of ballet: black ‘block’ pointe shoes dominated the stage, accentuating the lines of the leg in a different capacity through abstract, cube-like costumes, a far cry from McGregor’s Travolta inspiration!

McGregor has revealed that he is obsessed with the technology of the body, reflecting the values of Carbon Life and at an extension, creating super-human bodies for his dancers. In addition to his contemporary and classical credits, McGregor is also known for choreographing Radiohead’s Lotus Flower video and for serving as movement director of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire… both of which lacked leotards and ballet shoes! Part of McGregor’s aim is to continually find a way to communicate ideas through the body to audiences in order to help them think differently about the world around them… and dance itself.

Image courtesy of body_pixel on Flickr.

Big Dance 2012 – Sadler’s Wells and Wayne McGregor

Sadler's WellsAs part of the Big Dance 2012 Schools Pledge, Sadler’s Wells will join schools and venues across the world in an attempt to set a new Guinness World Record for ‘Largest Dance Routine – Multi Venue’, on 18th May at 1:00pm, to coincide with the arrival of the Olympic torch relay in the UK. Big Dance is one of the world’s biggest and most influential dance festivals, featuring dance in unusual spaces and showcasing the diversity of dance styles in the capital and across the UK.

The Record Breaker event will see thousands of school children dancing a specially created 5 minute work by Sadler’s Wells Associate Artist, CBE Wayne McGregor. In light of the upcoming Olympic events, sport and dance have never been combined so closely, seemingly working to encourage children and young people to don their dancewear, pop on their jazz sneakers and get involved. Over 60 local residents and children from local schools are expected to gather in Sadler’s Wells’ main foyer. The current record is held by the Netherlands with 264,188 people in 1,472 locations and it is estimated around 600,000 school children across 20,000 schools in the UK will be taking part in the attempt, with schools in 55 other countries around the world also taking part.

The choreography has been devised to depict different Olympic sports, including fencing, rowing, running and basketball, emphasising the accessibility of dance aside from the stereotypical leotard and ballet shoes. Big Dance is one of the principle projects of the Cultural Olympiad’s London 2012 Festival, and the record attempt will mark the official countdown period to the Big Dance Festival (7th – 15th July). This will be concluded with another mass Wayne McGregor performance on 14th July, when one thousand school children will perform a specially commissioned McGregor work in Trafalgar Square. Such a fantastic and fun opportunity cannot be passed by, especially by those who have never had the opportunity before to engage with dance. A unique moment will be shared by all those involved, conveying the utmost passion and unison with regards to the art form that has prevailed throughout history.

Youth Dance England’s Young Creatives

Youth Dance England

May 4th marked the showcasing of the spectacular work born of the Youth Dance England Young Creatives at the Royal Opera House, demonstrating the sheer talent of young choreographers. 12 works were premiered in a variety of dance styles created by the participants selected to take part in the programme, delivered by Youth Dance England in partnership with the Royal Opera House and The Royal Ballet School.

Each year, YDE Young Creatives aims to support young choreographers aged 15-19 and their dance passions in order to improve their skills and understanding of choreography, and consequently create a dance piece. The programme included a Skill Boosting Weekend, which took place in January, where participants had the opportunity to improve their understanding of the choreographic process. A 3 month mentoring period followed this, where the young choreographers were each paired with professionals for their new creations, enabling them to gain an insight into the world of choreography and increase their knowledge of the sector. The penultimate experience was seen through a 4 day residential at The Royal Ballet School’s White Lodge, where the participants sported their dance practice-wear and took part in workshops, working closely with their peers and the experienced professionals to refine their pieces.

The Young Creatives’ journey culminated with their performance at the Royal Opera House’s Linbury Studio Theatre, performed by their dancers and shown off to the audience, the dance genres hosting fantastic tap shoe, ballet shoe and leotard-clad talent. The performance was introduced by renowned choreographer Wayne McGregor, Artistic Director of Wayne McGregor|Random Dance and the Resident Choreographer of The Royal Ballet, the epitome of “choreography”. McGregor’s fusion of pointe shoes and his fluid, abstract contemporary dance represents an important strand of the Young Creatives ethos, famous nationwide for the refreshing creativity of its participants and the high standards of performances.

One wonders what the 2013 programme will bring!

The Royal Ballet Live

The Royal Opera House

Friday 23rd March was a mesmerising and completely unique day for ballet fans all over the world. The Royal Ballet at The Royal Opera House was streamed live all day from 10.30am on YouTube and The Guardian website, a world-first for dance.

The real-time day began with how every dancer’s day begins. The ritual of daily company class was followed by a whole day of rehearsals of the current season, such as the hi-tech spectacle of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. The broadcast included interviews and an examination of dancers’ lives, countering the numerous myths which have arisen surrounding the “notorious” side of the ballet world. Finalising the day was an exclusive Insights event, which explored Resident Choreographer Wayne McGregor’s new ballet in collaboration with musician Mark Ronson, Carbon Life. Contemporary McGregor demands entirely different physical aesthetics from the dancers, for example the abstract form and nude-coloured dance underwear of CHROMA.

Running parallel to the streaming was a Twitter trend, a constant feed by both official parties and fans alike, tweeting tales of tutus and discussing the blood, sweat and tears it takes to be a dancer in the famous pointe shoes of one of the world’s greatest ballet companies. The immense fan-base of The Royal Ballet was immeasurable, notably inspiring many followers to release their inner dancer and don their legwarmers!

The spectacular events unveiled online by The Royal Ballet give way to the speculation of a phenomenon inextricably linked to the streaming: the virtual ballet class. This would increase the accessibility of high-end ballet to general dance fans, providing a means for many more people to actively engage with dance by downloading or following a live, online ballet class. Dusting off the leotards and pink practice shoes may prompt the realisation of the integral “daily class” strand of ballet to the success of principal dancers to those participating in their first class.