✕ ✕
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

Wayne McGregor: Tree of Codes, Sadler’s Wells

04 Mar 17 – 11 Mar 17, at 4pm on Sunday 5

Created by Olafur Eliasson, Jamie xx and Wayne McGregor, Tree of Codes is a visual spectacular featuring stars from the Paris Opera Ballet, in London

By CW Contributor on 6/12/2016

1 CW reader is interested
Wayne McGregor Tree of Codes ballet Sadler's Wells
Wayne McGregor Tree of Codes ballet Sadler's Wells
Wayne McGregor: Tree of Codes, Sadler’s Wells Wayne McGregor: Tree of Codes, Sadler’s Wells Ruth Mattock
After the bamboozled audience emerged from the premiere in Manchester 2015, and the dust flung up by much anticipation had settled, critical opinion agreed that for all its splendour, Wayne McGregor’s Tree of Codes ballet had no heart.


But what splendour. A technical spectacular, it’s the fruit of collaboration between Wayne McGregor, Olafur Eliasson, artist behind the 2003 Weather Project at Tate Modern, and Jamie xx, composer and third leg of The XX. These are all names with cachet, and the production cashed in on their cool to deliver a production so slick it conjured ovations from the audience.


McGregor is a choreographer all about process, and while the inspiration is usually in the bones of the work you can rarely see it in its face. McGregor’s source here is Tree of Codes by Jonathan Safran Foer, an artwork/novel in which the author meticulously sliced out words from his own inspiration, Bruno Schulz’s 1934 Street of Crocodiles, to create a new work.


Such obsession with process might be joy to McGregor, but it’s most visible onstage in Eliasson’s visual concept. The space is spliced through with mirrors and transparent shapes that turn and shift. The dancers are shattered and replicated as though through stained glass, mirrored so many times it’s hard to know if you’re watching being or reflection.



It’s intensely cerebral choreography. We open in pitch black, the dancers bodies scattered with tiny white lights that constellate on the stage. Then clouds of colour flood over dance that happens in pieces, twos and threes drilling relentlessly into the ground.


The dancers of Company Wayne McGregor are powerful beasts, but there’s extra pleasure as they are joined by six dancers from the Paris Opera Ballet. Jérémie Bélingard stands out even amongst McGregor’s stunning athletes, but rarest of all treats is the mighty étoile Marie-Agnès Gillot. With the long and rangy body of a cheetah she commands the stage.


Mercury Prize winner Jamie xx has gone to town, the score a rushing mélange of swooping strings, percussive beats, electro and house. There were complaints from some critics of too little chemistry between movement and music, and while Jamie xx holds the emotional reins of the piece, the dance pays little heed to its directions.


It’s necessary to prepare your expectations for Tree of Codes. Leave your desires for emotional revelation and story-telling at home. But for a barrage of relentless innovation, for talent in a pure and diamond-hard form, we suspect this is unmissable.



What Wayne McGregor: Tree of Codes, Sadler’s Wells
Where Sadler's Wells, Rosebery Avenue, London, EC1R 4TN | MAP
Nearest tube Angel (underground)
When 04 Mar 17 – 11 Mar 17, at 4pm on Sunday 5
Price £12-45
Website Click here to book via Sadler's Wells



Most popular

Things to do in London this weekend: 8–10 December
Things to do in London this weekend: 8–10 December
Thoughtful Gifts under £100
Thoughtful gifts under £100
Rose Leslie and Suranne Jones in Vigil series 2, BBC One (Photo: BBC)
What to watch on TV this week
  • What the critics say

    'We should let McGregor razzle-dazzle us, and enjoy the marvels that he conjures up, but we should not be persuaded that any profound truths wait behind the smoke and mirrors.'

    Observer

    'The immense expenditure of energy by 15 incredible dancers, from Company Wayne McGregor and the Paris Opera Ballet, is almost heartbreaking, given how little it yields in the way of emotional or narrative resonance.'

    NYTimes

    'Superficially spectacular rather than stirring, and as dance it falls a long way short of the McGregor’s excellent best. I’m left feeling impatient for a time when he and Eliasson will be reunited on a project that will explore the depths of both their talents.'

    Guardian

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).

the 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
1

Wayne McGregor

Paris Opera Ballet

Marie-Agnès Gillot

Sadler's Wells 2017

You might like

  • Alessandra Ferri and Artists of The Royal Ballet in Woolf Works, The Royal Ballet © 2015 ROH. Photograph by Tristram Kenton

    Wayne McGregor's Woolf Works, Royal Opera House ★★★★★

  • The Rite of Spring, Tanztheater Wuppertal photo Uli Weiss for Pina Bausch

    ENB Rite of Spring Triple Bill, Sadler's Wells

  • After the Rain. Artists of The Royal Ballet ©ROH, 2016. Photographed by Bill Cooper

    The Royal Ballet Pite/Dawson/Wheeldon Programme

  • Ruth Amarante in Masurca Fogo photo Zerrin Aydin-Herwegh

    Pina Bausch: Masurca Fogo ★★★★★



  • 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).
×