25 Moments That Define Studio Wayne McGregor

Studio Wayne McGregor forms the nucleus for all of the polymath’s endeavours – a vital hub for the diverse network of artists, dancers, designers, technologists, scientists and educators that he works alongside to investigate the true potential of the thinking human body in motion. And the home of his multi-award winning, contemporary dance outfit: Company Wayne McGregor.      

As a promising young choreographer, McGregor establishes Random Dance – the independent company that will evolve into the multifaceted enterprise that is Studio Wayne McGregor. Since then, its 60+ cast members have performed over 30 of his works in more than 50 countries. McGregor’s oeuvre now boasts 160+ pieces of dance, which have been enjoyed live by over a million people.      

Fascinated by computer technology since childhood, McGregor continually seeks to harness its burgeoning capabilities to manipulate both on-stage presentation and audience experience. For 53 Bytes in a Movement, an early live broadband link enables simultaneous, interactive live and digital performances in Berlin and Canada. That same year, McGregor and digital video artist, Ravi Deprees present Neurotransmission, which features the melding of real and virtual performance, video and graphic design. McGregor then premieres cutting-edge work, The Millennarium, a fusion of flesh and digital bodies, virtual space and computer-generated graphics.  

Another long-standing member of Wayne’s team is Odette Hughes, who started as a dancer in 1997, and was subsequently Rehearsal Director for the company many years, before becoming Associate Director. She is integral to all that Company Wayne McGregor does.  

McGregor embarks on an ongoing series of inquiries into creativity and physical thinking with researchers from the fields of cognitive and social science.  This drive to uncover revelatory knowledge about the thinking human body will see him act as Research Fellow at Cambridge University’s Department of Experimental Psychology and Innovator in Residence for the University of California, San Diego.      

Via these placements, McGregor forges long-standing connections with the latter institute’s Professor David Kirsh (Cognitive Sciences), and Professor Philip Barnard of the former’s Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit.        

In the same year, dancer Jessica Wright joins Company Wayne McGregor. She is the longest serving Company member, leaving 11 years later in 2019. She remains an integral part of the Studio, directing the Company’s restaging works around the world.  

McGregor creates his first work for an American dance company following an invitation from the New York City Ballet to join the bill of their Architecture of Dance Festival. The striking contemporary work is informed by the choreographer’s fondness for the minimalist and purposeful Bauhaus school.    

McGregor unpacks his artistic practice on stage at TEDGlobal as depicted by real-time, live choreography. The video affirms his profound understanding of the human body as a thinking entity and solidifies his status as a singular, thought-leader. 

The intriguing show featured interactive choreographic software in the guise of a virtual 3-D dancer. Additional space was allocated to exploration of choreographic thinking tools, developed by McGregor and partners in the scientific and social science spheres. The related reaching resource, Mind + Movement was published in tandem with the exhibition. 

McGregor ensures his dancers’ costumes are impactful by engaging top talents such as Moritz Junge, Acne Studios, Aitor Throup and Shirin Guild. For Carbon Life (The Royal Ballet, 2012), he partnered with experimental designer, Gareth Pugh, who then invited the choreographer to direct movement for his S/S15 presentation at New York Fashion Week. 

McGregor is famed for infusing his performances with scientific and technological material. In 2015, a pair of astonishing new pieces – Tree of Codes, created on his company with dancers from the Paris Opera Ballet and instigated by an enigmatic text by Jonathan Safran Foer...

Uzma Hameed, the dramaturg for the outstanding latter piece would go on to work with McGregor on Obsidian Tear and Multiverse (both for The Royal Ballet, 2016) and Autobiography (Company Wayne McGregor, 2017).    

The Studio welcomes the primary intake of ten artists into its Questlab Network – a development programme focusing on intersections between dance and technology, funded by Arts Council England. Participants are provided with access to the Studio’s incredible pool of researchers, technologists and commercial associates to assist them in realising progressive performance and engagement projects.

The Google Arts & Culture Lab partners with Studio Wayne McGregor to invent a pioneering, artificially intelligent choreographic tool trained upon the choreographer’s video archive.