Word: mcgregor
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...which followed in 2005, was a meditation on the function and symbolism of the heart, performed to a choral score by British composer Sir John Tavener, himself suffering from degenerative heart disease. McGregor and the Random dancers had their own hearts scanned and he even sat in on open-heart surgery. "I fainted," he admits ruefully...
...other words, that could "think" for itself and provide choreographers with new options for physical expression. It's an "out-on-the-horizon" notion, admits DeLahunta, who studies the intersection between art and science at the Amsterdam School of the Arts. But it's a technological dream that McGregor is energetically chasing. "We've got people working on software who understand the algorithms and engineering of artificial intelligence," says DeLahunta. "We hope to have something ready...
...relationship between this theoretical work and the dance that comes out of it is not always direct, but each feeds the other. By immersing himself in research, McGregor says, he is able to walk into the studio, surrender to "the visceral thrill of moving," and create from instinct. Dance breaks down if it's overloaded with theory, but it's the physical rush of the choreography that you take away from a McGregor performance - the mesh of high-speed detail, the interplay between the lyrical and the neurotic, the steely calligraphy of the limbs. Few choreographers make more extreme physical...
...When McGregor started work on Chroma in 2006, he had just finished directing Henry Purcell's opera Dido and Aeneas at La Scala in Milan. At the same time, New York choreographer Mark Morris had been directing another Purcell opera at London's Coliseum Theatre. Commissions like these illustrate the regard in which the world's top choreographers are held. Until very recently, choreographers were subcontracted to set the steps of the ballets that were traditionally inserted into operas, but never consulted as to wider direction. "The thinking had already been done," says McGregor. "You were just there...
...McGregor is the most versatile of conceptual scaffolders, embracing film, education, site-specific installation, technology and dance. But his first commitment is to the cutting edge of performance. "How can we use the body to understand who we are?" he asks. Entity doesn't provide all the answers, but its profound strangeness speaks eloquently of the passion with which he embraces the question...