Week 9 - Critical Review of Dance Piece #2





Woolf Works by Wayne McGregor was choreographed in 2015 and was performed by The Royal Ballet. The stimulus of the piece was “themes from three of Woolf's landmark novels, Mrs Dalloway, Orlando, and The Waves, with elements of her letters, essays and diaries.” (Studio Wayne McGregor, 2019). Similar to ‘Infra’, the music was composed by Max Richter and the score was specially commissioned for the piece incorporating electronic and orchestral music (Roh.org.uk, 2019).

The piece starts with one large white spotlight on the stage with travelling sequences across the spotlight in pairs. The duet work includes jumps such as pas de chats, temps levés and small leaps. There is also travelling lifts with jumps, kicks and slides, also plies and lots of body ripples.  The movement is constantly drifting into and out of the spotlight like an eb and flow.

The theme of moving through the spotlight is continued throughout the piece as they increase to 3 spotlights while the dancers are in a straight-line doing movements in canon which reduces to two spotlights as the dancers are in two circles. The lighting within this piece was used a lot more and had a greater impact on the piece than in ‘Infra’ as there was just a beam of white light coming from the side rather than the lighting being used directly in the piece, affecting the movement and pathways.
Similar to ‘Infra’, ‘Woolf Works’ has relatively simple costumes, the female dancers are wearing a nude leotard and the male dancers wear a similar bike-tard type costume. This allows the form of the body to be seen but also allows the focus to be on the movement rather than the costume.

This piece had a chaotic energy due to lots of change in direction, running and jumping. Also, it is a group piece including duets and solos as well as incorporating unison and canon. In contrast, the extract from ‘Infra’ that I reviewed was a duet and they mostly danced in contact and was calmer and more controlled with leg extensions, lifts and gestures showing the relationship between the dancers. Whereas ‘Woolf Works’ was more energetic and disordered was harder to establish a relationship between the dancers. Additionally, the piece contains a lot more variety within movement and choreographic devices due to it being a group piece it is able to use canon which is seen less in the ‘Infra’ duet.  The use of these techniques allows the tension to build within the piece and keeps the audience involved and stimulated when watching.


“Woolf Works won Best New Dance Production at the Olivier Awards, with Ferri the recipient of the award for Outstanding Achievement in Dance. Woolf Works is also the winner of two National Dance Awards - Wayne McGregor was awarded Best Classical Choreography, and Alessandra Ferri won Best Female Dancer for her performance .” (Studio Wayne McGregor, 2019).


Bibliography
Roh.org.uk. (2019). Woolf Works — Productions — Royal Opera House. [online] Available at: https://www.roh.org.uk/productions/woolf-works-by-wayne-mcgregor [Accessed 10 Nov. 2019].

Studio Wayne McGregor. (2019). Woolf Works. [online] Available at: https://waynemcgregor.com/productions/woolf-works [Accessed 10 Nov. 2019].








Woolf Works - Wayne McGregor ( video link )

Comments

  1. Rachel Donald18 November 2019 at 11:46

    This is a very good blog post. You have compared 'Woolf Works' to 'Infra' very well. Additionally, I like the way you have gone into detail about the movements featured in this piece and discussed the energy expressed. Overall did you enjoy watching this piece of choreography?

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    Replies
    1. Mhairi Wallace28 November 2019 at 13:35

      Thank you for your comment. Yes, I did enjoy this piece as I felt very engaged while watching it and thought it was quite exciting to watch due to the pathways the dancers made which were constantly changing. Additionally, there was a lot of travelling jumps and lifts at a fast pace which added highlights and also kept suspense within the audience. I like that it is a group piece as it allows more varied shapes and pathways to be used compared to a solo or duet.

      Delete
  2. Megan Foster20 November 2019 at 10:08

    Well done, this is a great blog! You spoke about the use of the spotlight throughout the piece and the impact this gave, why do you think this is so effective? And did you like how the dancers were travelling into the spotlight?

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    Replies
    1. Mhairi Wallace28 November 2019 at 13:44

      Thank you for your comment. I think the use of the spotlight was effective as it gave direction to the piece and obviously had significance within the piece as the movement was travelling around or through the spotlights. This gave structure to the dance as it enabled pathways to be established and highlighted the dancers. I liked this because the movement through the spotlight added a lot of excitement and suspense to the piece due to the jumps and lifts that travelled through it.

      Delete
  3. NHorn Choreography30 November 2019 at 06:13

    I really enjoyed reading your blog and how you interpreted the piece Mhairi, I was wondering if you thought why McGregor decided to use the moving spotlights throughout and whether this added to the piece at all?

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    1. Mhairi Wallace2 December 2019 at 13:16

      Thank you for your comment. I think he decided to use them to complement the movements and patterns he has created as it is almost like the dancers are reacting to the light through their movement. I think it added a lot as it changed throughout the piece so it added a lot of interest to the audience rather than just one light setting.

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  4. Nanson1 December 2019 at 03:11

    Do you think having a commissioned piece of music to work to affected the choreography? Did the unique music create a more unique movement, as opposed to using something already in existance?

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    Replies
    1. Mhairi Wallace2 December 2019 at 13:18

      Thank you for your comment. I definitely feel that the piece having its own commissioned music led to much more unique movement as the music was uniquely made for the piece. I liked this as I felt the movement and the music were very suited due to this.

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  5. Miss Norman3 December 2019 at 17:57

    You have included some interesting points discussing McGregor's piece, however, I would like you to go into further detail when analysing and comparing the piece to other works. In your view, what do you think the piece trying to communicate or say to its audience? Please further discuss the style and movement used? What is the purpose behind the choreography and what impact did the music have and how did this have an effect on the piece? In your opinion, do you think the piece was successful - were there any parts you liked/disliked? In comparison to your first critical analysis, can you notice any similarities and differences between the two pieces? Please expand your analysis by discussing how the emotion and dynamic/ intention differed? Overall a well presented critical analysis.

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    Replies
    1. Mhairi Wallace5 December 2019 at 15:11


      Thank you for your comment. I think the piece is trying to communicate the idea of freedom due to the use of jumps, runs, lifts and travelling steps. Also, the spotlights may be implying the idea of hope or light at the end of the tunnel. The movement was very energetic while still flowing well, it wasn’t particularly sharp however it still had a lot of energy and power behind it. The music was quite dramatic, complementing the movement well, the music and the highlights of the dance suited each other well. I think this piece was successful as the movement created was very powerful to the audience when watching. However, I disliked that it was difficult to fully understand the stimulus as I've not read the novels, so the intention of the piece was not fully portrayed to me. The first piece I analysed was a lot softer, had less jumps and was more grounded whereas this piece has a lot more excitement in it. The emotion in the first piece was a lot more mellow, trying the show the relationship between the two dancers and the love between them. Woolf works didn’t really have much emotion behind it from what I could tell, potentially anger?

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