Royal Ballet and Wayne McGregor - Initial Research

Royal Ballet Research

The research for this project started in 2010, and came about from recording a choreographic session between Wayne McGregor and members of the Royal Ballet Company. Much of the focus of the research was on the understudies rather than the principal dancers.

The more I look at the films the less about dance they seem to be and more about learning. The dancers seem to take on an animal concentration almost like a cat looking at its prey. I think what is captured of the dancer is their attempt to understand and touch on the bigger questions of who we are and what is life?

The focus is on/ reveal/ look at the relationship between dancers. They don’t talk to one another, but feel for/ sense each other’s bodies, which makes them, become a single moving body yet maintaining a peculiar sense of being isolated. The initial research reveals a sense of identity and the personality of the dancers in their learning style and confidence in the movement, vulnerability and awkwardness that reminds me of children at school who are not sure what they are meant to be doing and who are trying to catch up.