Practitioner study 2 - Wayne McGregor, Infra

Wayne McGregor created Infra for The Royal Ballet in 2008 and was inspired by the words ‘vide infra’ meaning to see below. The piece is about the emotions that are not always visible when people communicate with each other and go about their day to day lives. Influenced by the London bombings of 2005, it explores how the city behaved as a result. People being too busy, too scared and wrapped up in their own world to interact and how things around you go unnoticed. McGregor wanted the piece to be very much about inference, a conclusion reached from evidence and reasoning. I understand this to mean an exploration of movement and emotion that uses the body to outwardly demonstrate what has been learnt from your thoughts, something you cannot explain or are too afraid to talk about. He worked with Max Richter to create a ‘piece that reveals an emotive journey across oscillating individual and societal landscapes.’ (Max Richter, 2010) exploring how the world around us and certain events can trigger emotions and the way we act.

In Infra there is a clear narrative to follow that helps an audience understand what the movements suggest. I think this is helped by the music choice. The dancers and the music work as one, they match each other and explore the shapes your body can create. In contrast, within Chroma the interaction is between the dancers and the set, and the movements do not feel emotive, however they seem to reflect the music in a similar way to Infra. Both are a visual interpretation of what you hear. McGregor did not want to choreograph movement to match the music but have the music influence how the body behaves. In Infra’s last duet the choreography looks as though it is a natural response to the music. I believe both pieces have very different movement styles and intentions, even though they both contain similar steps for example a leg extension in Chroma is much more placed and dynamic, in contrast to Infra where there is much more tension and resistance of the whole body. However, both feel as though they are a continuous stream of movement and work from the start to end. 

Infra was the first piece where McGregor and Richter worked collaboratively together and believed ‘it was a very discursive process.’ (McGregor, 2017) going backwards and forwards with ideas before reaching a conclusion. I believe therefore as a result the movement and music are so well matched. I believe McGregor’s choreographic method is very similar in both pieces and he uses every beat of the music. Chroma looks more rehearsed and choreographed, more abrupt, unpredictable with an unhuman like quality to their movement. It can appear robotic and disjointed in the step choices and is difficult to predict what comes next. Infra looks like a more natural progression where the steps look like they belong together. They are hypnotic in their rhythm and the steps merge into one another. The overriding impact of Infra is struggle, pressure, resistance and bringing emotion from within out into your movements. I find it difficult to agree with the review that 'The emotions feel empty' and 'Infra is not much different from other Wayne McGregor ballets' (M. Harss) as I am completely drawn in by the emotive voice of their movement. I agree more with the opinion that 'The audience went wild' (H. Weibye) as I can appreciate the impact on an audience that this intensity of movement has. I can appreciate the overwhelming and at times, uncomfortable style is not for everyone, however it is a quality I aspire to. 

Within my choreography I would like to have a section at the end that shows a concentrated, internal struggle that displays my theme of chaos. I originally wanted the end of my piece to show outward chaos, dramatic, quick paced music paired with dynamic, uncontrollable, disordered, disruptive, and explosive choreography. However, after watching Infra, I do not want to take the more literal approach as you would expect chaos to be shown, instead I would like my movements to be more insular, restricted, grounded and orientated around my core. They will be more personal to me and my interpretation of emotion, internal struggle and I need to think about how this will be viewed and if the audience will understand my intention.

Infra Final Duet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjERnGQiJfg&list=RDbjERnGQiJfg&start_radio=1

References: 

Max Richter Music, 2010, Infra, Available at: https://www.maxrichtermusic.com/albums/infra/ Accessed date: 23/01/22

Royal Opera House, 2017, Max Richter and Wayne Mcgregor on the secrets of there creative process (The Royal Ballet) Available at:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FV4CZCrs1Ew Accessed date: 23/01/22

Royal Opera House, 2018, Infra - Final Duet (The Royal Ballet) Available at:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjERnGQiJfg&list=RDbjERnGQiJfg&start_radio= Accessed date: 23/01/22

M.Harss, 2015, The Royal Ballet - Infra, Divertissements, The Age of Anxiety, The Dream, Song of the Earth - New York, Available at: https://dancetabs.com/2015/06/royal-ballet-infra-divertissements-age-of-anxiety-dream-song-of-the-earth-new-york/ Accessed date: 23/01/22

H.Weibye, 2012, Top-notch Contemporary Ballet from The Royal Ballets Trinity of modern choreographers, Available at: https://bachtrack.com/review-royal-ballet-viscera-infra-fools-paradise, Accessed date: 23/01/22