✕ ✕
Turning tips into memories
Login
Signup

You have reached the limit of free articles.


To enjoy unlimited access to Culture Whisper sign up for FREE.
Find out more about Culture Whisper

Please fix the following input errors:

  • dummy

Each week, we send newsletters and communication featuring articles, our latest tickets invitations, and exclusive offers.

Occasional information about discounts, special offers and promotions.


OR
LOG IN

OR
  • LOG IN WITH FACEBOOK

Thanks for signing up to Culture Whisper.
Please check your inbox for a confirmation email and click the link to verify your account.



EXPLORE CULTURE WHISPER
✕ ✕
Turning tips into memories
Login
Signup

Please fix the following input errors:

  • dummy
Forgot your username or password?
Don't have an account? Sign Up

OR
  • LOG IN WITH FACEBOOK

If you click «Log in with Facebook» and are not a Culture Whisper user, you agree to our Terms & Conditions and to our Privacy Policy, which includes our Cookie Use

Support Us Login
  • Home
  • Going Out
    • Things to do
    • Food & Drink
    • Theatre
    • Visual Arts
    • Cinema
    • Kids
    • Festival
    • Gigs
    • Dance
    • Classical Music
    • Opera
    • Immersive
    • Talks
  • Staying In
    • TV
    • Books
    • Cook
    • Podcast
    • Design
    • Netflix
  • Life & Style
    • Beauty
    • Fashion
    • Gifting
    • Wellbeing
    • Lifestyle
    • Shopping
    • Jewellery
  • Explore
  • Shopping
  • CW SHOPS
  • Support Us
  • Get Started
  • Tickets
  • CW SHOPS
Get the Best of London Life, Culture and Style
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).
Dance

Atomos: Random Dance Company, Sadler's Wells

13 Feb 15 – 14 Feb 15, 7:30 PM – 9:30 PM

Contemporary dance’s favourite enfant terrible, Wayne McGregor, brings his own Random Dance Company to Sadler’s Wells with his newest piece, Atomos.

By CW Contributor on 8/12/2014

Photo by Ravi Deepres
Photo by Ravi Deepres
Atomos: Random Dance Company, Sadler's Wells Atomos: Random Dance Company, Sadler's Wells Ruth Mattock
Below is our preview, which explains the background to the show. Click here to read our Wayne McGregor | Random Dance: Atomos review.


When Wayne McGregor’s Atomos came to the stage in 2013, critics called it ‘thrilling’, ‘ravishingly textured,’ and ‘extraordinary’. Under Lucy Carter’s ambient, pixellated lighting, the stunning dancers of McGregor’s Random Dance Company played out a piece laden with ambitious collaborations. Concerned with atoms, and the breaking down of things into their smallest constituent parts, Atomos shows off the many reasons McGregor has such a big role in current contemporary dance.
Inspiration apparently came from two sources. The first is an unnamed 80s sci-fi film, which McGregor reduced to a series of colours. A computer mapped movement in the film, and McGregor translated this to his dancers.
The second source was a collaboration with tech-fashion team Studio XO (purveyors of ‘digital skins and body architectures’). They monitored biological states of action and concentration in the dancers, then mapped this data onto actual structures. The Random dancers then experimented with these sheets of plastic and rib-like cages to create movement.
If that process sounds weird and cerebral, it’s nothing short of what we’ve come to expect from McGregor. His process is all about prompting the body into action via new paths, and it makes him a gripping character to watch in action. But don’t let it put you off the performance - the really brain-freezing stuff is kept for creation, leaving his soaring kaleidoscope of movement to take over the stage.
McGregor’s vocabulary is unique in being so unlike anything else it’s instantly recognisable, yet he’s capable of turning out hours, days of movement without ever repeating himself.
Never was a choreographer so exhaustively porous to ideas from outside dance. But in Atomos there’s unexpected pleasure in the unusually classical forms. Sure, McGregor subverts a ballet step wherever he finds it. But the years as Resident Choreographer at the Royal Ballet seem to be getting into his blood, and classical lines are more evident here than in previous works.
Lighting designer Lucy Carter, who has collaborated on all but one of McGregor’s works, contributes much to the atmosphere, dividing the stage with red, blue and green, and trapping dancers in squares of light. The music is a mutinously dark score by composing duo A Winged Victory for the Sullen; and a vanishing screen reflects projections by Ravi Deepres of everything from ants to industrial landscapes.
McGregor is always described as ‘bold’ and ‘cutting-edge’ and, of course, those appellations are true. But more than anything he is a dance-maker of limitless imagination, his movements an incredible fusion of twisted lyricism and spectacular, hyperactive power. For this, and for a company of dancers that have few rivals for athleticism, the return of Atomos is not to be missed.


McGregor will be providing another of the exciting ballets on in London this year: find out more here.

by RM

What Atomos: Random Dance Company, Sadler's Wells
Where Sadler's Wells, Roseberry Avenue, London, EC1R 4TN | MAP
Nearest tube Angel (underground)
When 13 Feb 15 – 14 Feb 15, 7:30 PM – 9:30 PM
Price £12-32
Website Click here to book via the Sadler's Wells website



Most popular

Things to do in London this weekend: 20 - 22 May
Things to do in London this weekend: 20 - 22 May
Queen’s Jubilee 2022: where to celebrate
Queen’s Jubilee 2022: where to celebrate
London Theatre Guide: best plays on now in London (Photograph: Peter Lewicki)
London Theatre Guide: best plays on now in London, 2022
  • EXPLORE MORE DANCE

Sign up to CW’s newsletter
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).

Wayne McGregor talks about Atomos

Watch the Atomos trailer

We recommend nearby

  • Sushi Tetsu

    Feast on top-notch sushi, sashimi and udon at the sophisticated Sushi Tetsu. This tiny shrine to the best of Japanese food has only half a dozen seats at the counter, so advanced booking is definitely necessary.

    Read more...
    Book Map

Wayne McGregor

Random Dance

Sadler's Wells

Dance

Contemporary dance

Fashion tech

Lucy Carter

We love

You might like

  • Ksenia Osvyanick and James Forbat in Petite Mort, (c) David Jenso

    Modern Masters, English National Ballet at Sadler's Wells ★★★★★

  • Akash Odedra in Inked

    Aakash Odedra Company: Murmur / Inked, Linbury Studio

  • photo by Toni Nandi

    Rambert: New Choreography at The Place

  • BalletBoyz: Young Men, credit Hugo Glendinning

    BalletBoyz: The TALENT, Young Men at Sadler's Wells



  • The Culture Whisper team
  • Support Us
  • Tickets
  • Contact us
  • Press
  • FAQ
  • Privacy
  • Terms and conditions
  • Cookies
  • Discover
  • Venues
  • Restaurants
  • Stations
  • Boroughs
Sign up to CW’s newsletter
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).
×