Review: Wayne McGregor’s Alchemies – changing expectations at The Royal Ballet
Kathrina Farrugia-Kriel sees Wayne McGregor: Alchemies with The Royal Ballet – This exhilarating triple bill is the very essence of alchemies of curiosity: absorbing, engaging, daring.
| Title | Wayne McGregor: Alchemies Untitled, 2023 | Yugen | Quantum Souls |
| Company | The Royal Ballet |
| Venue | Royal Ballet and Opera, London |
| Date | 18 April 2026 |
| Reviewer | Kathrina Farrugia-Kriel |
Twenty years ago, the then-daring choreographer Wayne McGregor challenged his audiences at the Royal Opera House with jagged and undulating movements against steps that were easily recognisable as ‘balletic’. He invited outsiders, like the White Stripes’ Joby Talbot, architects like John Pawson, and emerging costume designers like Mortiz Junge, to tackle the aural and visual elements of performance. What I am describing is one of his early pieces for the Royal Ballet: Chroma (2006). In two decades, McGregor has transformed ballet. He has changed the ‘expectation’ of what ballet could look and feel like, for audiences, dancers and collaborators alike. Wayne McGregor: Alchemies opened on Saturday 18 April at the Royal Opera House, the same artistic space that has been his stomping ground as ‘Resident Choreographer’ for the last twenty years.
Three works, Untitled, 2023, Yugen and Quantum Souls, offer enigmatic curiosities into collaborations with a diverse range of artists. Under the baton of master conductor Koen Kessels and lighting designs by long-term collaborator Lucy Carter, the three works could not have been different – yet the thread that binds the triple bill is an unwavering and insatiable desire to experiment with movement, sound and visual design. McGregor continues to find new ways to collaborate, with no sense of repeating himself or finding stillness in his creativity. And while narrative ballets haven’t always been the success (here the exception of course is the sublime Wolf Works and The Dante Project), the components of this triple bill capitalise on McGregor’s strength in the ‘alchemy of creativity’. It is his mastery of bringing together intriguing combinations that elevates his work beyond his contemporaries.
In Untitled, 2023, Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s enigmatic, shifting score allows the dancers to rise through the composition, sometimes moving alongside the sounds, sometimes ignoring the sonic shifts to great effect. The individualised costumes, a thread running through all three works, add to the complexity of what the audience experiences. As the dancers move through the unpredictable groupings, McGregor asks his audience to immerse themselves in the shape-shifting ballet, an opportunity to temporarily forget the outside world. The boldness of Joseph Sissens‘ opening solo in Untitled accumulates through the breadth of experiences in the company, from Melissa Hamilton‘s long-standing experience to the up-and-coming members of the company that are now finding their feet in understanding of McGregor’s style, like Marianna Tsembenhoi.
Yugen is a joy to revisit, now on its 8th performance since the Bernstein Centenary in 2018. The Chichester Psalms offer a reminder to ballets infrequently danced by companies in London – Jiří Kylián‘s Symphony of Psalms comes to mind. McGregor uses the Berstein score to a sublime effect. There is pathos in the movement, enough to keep audiences curious, but not overdone to unbalance the synergy between the richness of the Bernstein score (so many cadences remind me of Bernstein’s captivating compositional features in works like Fancy Free), and Edmund de Waals’ large vessels that allow the dancers to emerge into life, dressed in shades of red by Shirin Guild. Matthew Ball and the emerging talent of Marco Masciari are the true highlights of this Yugen. On taking the male lead in the duet originally created by Calvin Richardson, Masciari brings a new fluidity to the Yugen, one that transcends intensity and lightness all at the same time.
Now to the new work, Quantum Souls. This feels more like a return to the ‘experimental McGregor’ (for those who have been around the Royal Ballet block for a while, Carbon Life (2012) also experimented with musicians on stage). With composition by Bushra el-Turk with Beibei Wang as solo percussionist, the work pulsates with rhythm. Eleven dancers, dressed uniquely in fitness-inspired costumes by Saul Nash, shift within their location on stage; a twelfth dancer joins onstage and what ensues over the next forty minutes is an episode of enigmatic shifts and changes. Here, the company excels at showcasing the diversity of casting. Lukas B. Brændsrød, Emile Gooding, Tsembenhoi and Viola Pantuso shine alongside their principal dancers. Quantum Souls isn’t necessarily the most beautiful of works, but it does offer useful reminders of what McGregor can do. And that is his ability to morph new works out of new collaborators. I may be proved wrong, but Quantum Souls feels like a work which will go down alongside other ballets like Live Fire Exercise and Carbon Life. It has joy written all over its creativity, a trademark of McGregor’s curiosity.
Wayne McGregor: Alchemies delivers precisely what McGregor has set out to do at the Royal Ballet: change expectations on what ballet can be in a contemporary moment. This exhilarating triple bill is the very essence of alchemies of curiosity; it is absorbing, engaging, and filled with moments of (un) expected creativity from the still-daring, maverick of collaboration.
