Wayne McGregor knows all about making the right moves - especially the ones that cause gasps of amazement from his audience. The multiple award winning choreographer, known for stretching contemporary dance to its limits, arrives in High Wycombe next month with his latest work, Entity.
Performed by his own company, Random Dance, and with a soundtrack from Jon Hopkins (Coldplay, Massive Attack) and award-winning composer Joby Talbot (The Divine Comedy, White Stripes), Entity is the product of Wayne's personal interest in science. For the past few years he's even been working with a group of neuroscientists "to help map how the brain engages with the body".
The 38-year-old explains: "People always find it fascinating that I, as an artist, could love science so much as well, but to me there's really not that much of a divide.
"Just look at Leonardo Da Vinci - he was a well-known artist, who also happened to be an inventor and deeply interested in science.
"At one time in history the two disciplines were extremely well-connected and it's only in the past few centuries that they have been less so."
Wayne adds: "What I would really love is for my work to help people to understand better how movement comes together.
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"Brain science is relatively new and there's so much we still don't know about how the brain controls the body."
Wayne's interest in all things neurological comes to the fore in Entity, where a company of ten dancers twist their bodies in unexpected directions.
Some curl their legs and arms into different shapes, while others demonstrate frantic kicks and jumps, to show, Wayne tells me, "the differences between movement that is instinctive and movement that is intentional".
The Cheshire-born choreographer adds: "People have told me these movements look unnatural, but I don't think they are at all, simply because the body is able to do them. In that sense, they are very natural.
I think what’s interesting is that if we train and work our bodies in different ways, then the things we can do with them can expand beyond our expectations."
Wayne McGregor
"I think what's interesting is that if we train and work our bodies in different ways, then the things we can do with them can expand beyond our expectations."
Wayne also believes the boundaries of dance will be pushed even further one day, with the help of "an entity" or artificial intelligence that could
co-ordinate choreography.
"I'm not trying to do myself out of a job," muses Wayne. "I think there will always a need for a real dancing body, but I'm interested in how artificial intelligence and humans could one day work together."
Wayne, who was appointed resident choreographer of The Royal Ballet and has worked on such diverse projects as the Glastonbury Festival, Paris Opera Ballet and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, says Entity provides "something physically and visually different".
He adds:"I think you can never second guess an audience. Some people will love it, others will dislike it, but what would really make me happy is that they have a reaction to it. That's what gives me the buzz."
Wayne McGregor's Random Dance: Entity arrives at Wycombe Swan on Wednesday, May 7 at 8pm. Tickets: 01494 512000 or www.wycombeswan.co.uk
Watch a video of the making of Entity here
You can also watch the video and download an audio programme at www.randomdance.org
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