Physicality of the Mind and Body
Since its premiere in 2010, Wayne McGregor's evening-length work FAR has toured the world and gained many accolades for its insightful exploration of the relationship between intellection and physicality, calling into question the conventions of dance. Fascinated by neuroscience and new technologies, the British choreographer was inspired by the book Flesh in the Age of Reason (hence titling his work FAR), where the historian Roy Porter recounts how the view of the body has evolved since the Enlightenment and how medical discoveries challenged then-current beliefs about the mechanisms of thought and emotion. Conducting his own rigorous analysis of the mechanisms of choreography, McGregor pursues in FAR his own studies of the interactions between body and mind in order to expand the scope of his choreography.
Several questions have shaped McGregor’s process behind creating the work, such as how the body expresses or inhibits intention, and what modes of communication are involved in the creative process. McGregor’s own work, especially his collaborations with cognitive scientists, is reflective of the intellectual exploration of the Enlightenment and the revolution in medical perspectives during that time. “What we’ve been doing is unpeeling the layers of the creative process: how do we understand better what happens in the creative process, and how do we arm dancers to build better imaginations? And I thought that stripping away of layers was analogous to the very beginning of the Enlightenment.”
McGregor is renowned for his physicality-testing choreography and collaborations across dance, film, music, visual art, technology, and science. With the company he founded almost twenty years ago, McGregor has developed a signature style blending contemporary ballet and modern dance with cutting-edge technology. McGregor’s own long, lean, and supple physique informs the unique quality of his choreography and dancer’s ability to register movement with peculiar sharpness and speed; at one extreme McGregor’s choreography is a sequence of tiny fractured angles, at the other, it is a whirl of seemingly boneless fluidity.
McGregor largely transforms our view of the body with this visceral, mathematical, and sensual work, testing out all the ways the body might conceivably move. Intelligence and emotion are creatively combined in an incredible futuristic set design that commands your attention, featuring 3,200 computerized LED penlights that shape the atmospheric shifts and emotionality of the work throughout. Set to a score by Ben Frost, which proceeds from Vivaldi to a bestial electronic growl, the ten performers engage in a series of cryptic, intense encounters that invite the spectator to experience a new full-body perception of dance performance.
Get a behind the scenes glimpse at the making of FAR through this video, before seeing the artistic vision of Wayne McGregor | Random Dance come alive next Tuesday, January 14 at 7:30 pm.
Get your tickets online here now or at the Orpheum Theatre box office to reduce fees.
