Exploring just how far the body will go, Wayne McGregor - Random Dance’s highly-acclaimed performance Far will doubtlessly turn heads at the Malta Arts Festival. Jo Caruana learns more.
As momentum increases towards the next instalment of the Malta Arts Festival this July, a number of international artists are already planning their local performances.
Far presents an extreme, distorted and beautiful view of what the body can potentially do when creating movement
Among them, Far by the UK-based Wayne McGregor - Random Dance Company, which is led by celebrated choreographer and artistic director Wayne McGregor, promises to be a genuine highlight.
The production binds cutting-edge design with choreography made from a radical cognitive research process. Inspired by the controversial Age of Enlightenment and by the 18th-century French philosopher Diderot’s very first set of encyclopaedia, the show mines an era that first placed ‘a body in question’.
“It was the time when people really got interested in the body anatomically,” explains Polly Hunt, the company’s media manager. “Rather than just talking about it, they started conducting scientific experiments to properly understand its physical workings.”
Spearheading the project and throughout his own research processes, McGregor has worked with cognitive scientists and other experts to really inform the piece on a fundamental level.
In fact, the show pushes the company dancers’ bodies as far as they will go; it presents an extreme, distorted and beautiful view of what the body can potentially do when creating movement.
The results have been very successful and the production, which first launched in 2010 at the Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London, has since toured both the UK and internationally, receiving fantastic and consistent reviews.
The company has a core audience that follows McGregor’s work wherever he takes it. He is, after all, a multi-award-winning choreographer, renowned for his physically-testing choreography and ground-breaking collaborations across dance, film, music, visual art, technology and science.
He is a frequent creator of new work for international companies including La Scala, Milan, Paris Opera Ballet, Nederlands Dans Theatre, San Francisco Ballet, Stuttgart Ballet and the New York City Ballet, as well as movement director for theatre, film (such as Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire), and music videos (including Radiohead’s Lotus Flower in 2011 and Atoms for Peace’s Ingenue in 2013). Completing his list of achievements so far, McGregor was awarded a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the New Year Honours List in 2011.
“There’s a thread that underlines a lot of what he does and that gets a great response,” Hunt continues. “The ideas used in one production will often feature in the next one in some way, so people are often keen to see how his ideas have developed.
“Of course, the pieces always attract new audiences too, and everyone from school children to college groups respond very well to them.
“I think they enjoy them because they aren’t being forced to understand anything specific (as is so often the case with contemporary works), but simply to take their own meaning from the pieces. I think they find it refreshing.”
Danced by an ensemble of 10 performers, Far is made all the more unique thanks to its haunting score by electronic superstar and Brian Eno collaborator Ben Frost.
The visual ambience of it is also striking, and it is set within a mesmerising environment of shadow and light designed by artistic collective Random International (which, despite the name, isn’t directly linked to Random House in any way) and Lucy Carter.
And although the piece is usually performed at the traditional Proscenium Arch Theatre, the local version will be presented open air in Valletta. “It will be very interesting to see how Far is adapted to the space, and I have no doubt it will be wonderful,” Hunt continues.
“We always like to perform our work in as many diverse places as possible, and it’s also nice to be part of something bigger, like the Malta Arts Festival.
“Meanwhile, we are certainly looking forward to our time in Malta and to experiencing local reactions to our work.
“I am sure it will be a completely new kind of contemporary dance experience for both dance lovers and newbies to enjoy,” she adds.
Far will take place on July 13 as part of the Malta Arts Festival.
www.maltaartsfestival.org