'Wayne McGregor: Alchemies' review — a transfixing triple bill of contemporary dance

Read our review of Wayne McGregor: Alchemies, now in performances at the Royal Opera House to 6 May.

Summary

• Wayne McGregor's triple bill Alchemies is performed at the Royal Opera House
• The highlight is the emotionally attuned work Yugen
• The new Quantum Souls features an otherworldly insect-like swarm
• The performance by the Royal Ballet is transfixing

It’s not an exaggeration to say that Wayne McGregor has reshaped the language of contemporary ballet. As resident choreographer at the Royal Ballet, he has built a reputation for extracting movement that feels at once urgent, intimate, and layered with multiple meanings – his steps seem to originate from deep within the dancers’ bodies, rather than reading as pre-programmed choreography.

In Alchemies – a triple bill bringing together Untitled, 2023, Yugen, and the new Quantum Souls – we encounter some of McGregor’s most emotionally driven abstract thinking. But though there are sections of undeniable, hypnotic beauty, taken as a whole the evening feels overly composed, even mannered – a collection that prioritises aesthetic surface over intellectual depth.

We begin with Untitled, 2023, inspired by the work of American abstract minimalist Carmen Herrera and set to a score by Icelandic composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir. With Herrera’s emerald slash cutting across the back wall, the dancers appear almost born from the painting itself – each body split into green and white halves, defined by sharply etched lines and a sense of visual duality. The imagery is striking, but the choreography soon feels stagnant in its own franticness, as if caught in a mesmerising loop.

The second work, Yugen – easily the strongest of the evening – reveals McGregor at his most emotionally attuned. Dressed in deep red, the dancers move with a softer, more expansive quality; the steps have a lyrical, almost Broadway-inflected fluidity. With echoes of West Side Story in the sweeping arms and grounded, rhythmic phrasing, it is a piece that feels earthed in drama. With each high kick and arm swoop, it feels as though McGregor is allowing his dancers a moment of release.

So, it’s already been a mixed evening when the curtain for the premiere of Quantum Souls finally rises – after a 40-minute interval to set the scene, no less. It opens with a troupe of dancers seemingly performing a series of silent warm-up exercises, before the lighting snaps into a lurid lime green, pushing the stage into a heightened, almost otherworldly register. The dancers’ jittering, hyper-articulated movements morph them into an insect-like swarm – a colony of possessed grasshoppers. Their costumes – designed by Saul Nash – carry the high-fashion sheen of the catwalk, colours blurring from acid green to shadowy darks.

With no two performances the same – owing to the improvised score by Bushra El-Turk – it is a wonder that everything aligns so neatly. The ballet has a sinister core, with erratic movements pouring out of the dancers as if they are trying to escape.

Is it transfixing? Absolutely. But the dreamlike state McGregor draws us into feels only half-formed. Ultimately, this trio proves him to be a choreographer of undeniable beauty – but not always of substance.

Wayne McGregor: Alchemies is at the Royal Opera House to 6 May. Book Wayne McGregor: Alchemies tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk

Photo credit: Wayne McGregor: Alchemies (Photos by Andrej Uspenski)