When Technology Met Wayne McGregor

Computer literate from an early age, McGregor instinctually understood that technology was to play a key role in his creative practice. And so he never viewed it as alien, threat, toy nor gimmick, but simply as evolving series’ of tools that might aid us in expanding our shared understanding of human experience.       

Today, Studio Wayne McGregor is the east London locus of his multiple in-house teams, eponymous dance company’s and collaborative network’s joint projects – from making dance alongside movement-generating algorithms designed in partnership with Google Arts & Culture’s Lab, to producing education and outreach initiatives that guide people of all ages and abilities towards a better understanding of their physicality.

As well as commissioning and co-designing technologically-augmented scenery and sets, McGregor continually interrogates humanity’s relationship with technology through movement by parlaying the excitement, confusion, attachment and wonder that we feel when we engage with or contemplate technology into dance. In 1996, he debuted Cyborg, a solo inspired by the simulated actions of an AI robot, which he also performed.    

That same year, McGregor’s commitment to technological advancement saw him undertake research trips to Canada and Tokyo to investigate innovations in connecting live spaces and the relationships between architecture and light, respectively. Back home, following further research, he began working on landmark dance triptych – The Trilogy, which was additionally informed by the elemental states of earth, water, wind and fire.   

Having landed a National Lottery grant, Company Wayne McGregor were in possession of equipment such as laptops, animation software, digital and thermal cameras and projectors as they shaped follow-up, Sulphur 16 (1998). In the studio, McGregor opted to work with Poser, a 3D computer graphics program, to craft movements on a virtual dancer that were transposed back onto the company dancers.      

As well as shaping exhilarating performances for professional dancers, McGregor and his Company have long been community-minded. Since the 1990’s, led by Jasmine Wilson, Director of the Studio’s Learning & Engagement wing, Studio Wayne McGregor has sought inventive ways to captivate participants from professional dance students to movement novices as they strive to build upon their movements skills and creativity. 

That same year, McGregor utilised a satellite link and computer screens to connect professional dancers with digital representations of fellow cast members in Germany and Canada, as they simultaneously performed his 53 Bytes in a Movement live across three venues. With the advent of ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) telephone lines in 2002, he was able to stage Game of Halves, a remote location Learning & Engagement production, featuring Company members and children dancing together in North and South Wales.   

Company Wayne McGregor celebrated a decade of existence with the insect and virtual reality-themed Nemesis (2002). Created by a talented team of collaborators, including McGregor’s long-standing creative partners: lighting designer, Lucy Carter and video artist, Ravi Deprees, as well as costume design by Stonewood & Bryce with animatronics by Jim Henson’s Creature Workshop...  

...the striking piece featured holograms dancing with humans wearing aluminium and carbon fibre prosthetic limbs to an original composition by Scanner that sampled mobile phone conversations.

The collaboration was continued when Company Wayne McGregor dancers performed in Random International’s popular Barbican installation, Rain Room.    

Devised especially for capacious London venue, The Roundhouse, McGregor’s spectacular immersive installation +/-Human, featured an autonomous flock of algorithmically-driven drones made by Random International. Live performances in the space saw the drones ‘dance’ with members of his Company and The Royal Ballet, of which McGregor has been Choreographer-in-Residence since 2006.     

How does one faithfully depict the subjective complexities of one’s life story? For McGregor’s ingenious and enlivening Autobiography (Sadlers Wells, 2017), the polymath had his genome sequenced then transmuted into an algorithm, created in partnership with the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute.       

Studio Wayne McGregor launched its QuestLab Network in 2018. The hugely worthwhile development initiative aims to foster fruitful connections between dance artists, developers, technologists and commercial organisations, with the intention of facilitating new performance and engagement projects. The Studio also supports up-and-coming artists, including many who work with technology by donating its creation-geared spaces to those who wish to ideate and make in exchange for time spent on education or community outreach.        

Not only is the resultant, revolutionary tool able to suggest 30 original movement phrases per action, it’s capable of doing so in the style of any one of McGregor’s current cast of extraordinary dancers – and in real-time via live video input. This trailblazing feat of wo/mxn-machine collaboration was designed specifically to supply unexpected creative possibilities, rather than replace a single human.