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Dance

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

21 Jan 17 – 14 Feb 17, Times vary, also 13:30 and 19:00

Woolf Works, Wayne McGregor’s 2015 return to form, is back at the Royal Opera House 2017

By CW Contributor on 10/9/2016

8 CW readers are interested
Alessandra Ferri and Artists of The Royal Ballet in Woolf Works, The Royal Ballet © 2015 ROH. Photograph by Tristram Kenton
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 4 Wayne McGregor's Woolf Works, Royal Opera House Ruth Mattock
Wayne McGregor, Woolf Works review: Culture Whisper says ★★★★★


“What matters anything so long as one’s step is in time — so long as one’s whole body & mind are dancing too — what shall end it?” Virginia Woolf, early journals


When opening night finally arrived in 2015 of Wayne McGregor’s Woolf Works, London was alive with anticipation. There was excitement. But there was also doubt; doubt that Virginia Woolf was well suited to dance, and doubt that the man behind the disappointing Raven Girl could handle her narrative demands.


It didn’t take long to settle the question. Here was a ballet the critics could get behind, winning both an Olivier and a Critics Circle Award for best new dance.


The Woolf Works ballet is in three acts, each dealing with a different slice of the Woolfian oeuvre: Mrs. Dalloway, Orlando and The Waves.


I now, I then opens with the clipped voice of Woolf herself, describing traits of the English language. Meditations on form dissolve into the danced story of Mrs. Dalloway.


In fluttering steps and with a delicacy we haven’t seen from McGregor in some time, the dancers move through the set’s huge wooden frames (by Cigue) as though through windows of time. The past haunts the present.


In Becomings, Max Richter’s score switches to a pulsing beat inspired by the century-hopping, gender-swapping Orlando. On a stage sliced up by Lucy Carter’s lasers, the cast leap through smoke boundaries in an androgynous uniform of gold lamé ruffs and doublets. For better or worse this is trademark McGregor, all aggressive hyperextension and wild contemporary tics.


Third and finally, we come to Woolf herself in Tuesday. Against a really stunning backing film of waves crashing at glacial speed by Ravi Deepres, Helen McCrory reads Woolf’s suicide note. It’s a moment of very real pain in a night of abstracts.


The cast in black masks and diaphanous black crash and wash against Woolf and her partner like the waves that would close over Woolf in her last minutes.


The original cast were a vital part of the 2015 success. Few could resist the liquid eyes of Alessandra Ferri as Woolf/Clarissa Dalloway, drawn out of retirement in her 50s and still moving as though without weight. In Woolf Works 2017 she will alternate the lead role with ex-principal Mara Galeazzi, returning to the stage after her premature retirement.


If the form is unusual, its narrative/abstract mix suits Wayne McGregor, Royal Ballet resident choreographer since 2006, under the guiding hand of dramaturge Uzma Hameed. We advise reading the synopsis though, to really appreciate his achievement.


We wouldn’t miss this triumphant return, and neither should you.



Note: Woolf Works tickets go on sale to the general public at 9am on the 18th October 2016.

Live cinema relay of Woolf Works on the 8th February 2017


What Wayne McGregor's Woolf Works, Royal Opera House
Where Royal Opera House, Bow Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2E 9DD | MAP
Nearest tube Covent Garden (underground)
When 21 Jan 17 – 14 Feb 17, Times vary, also 13:30 and 19:00
Price £4-£65
Website Click here for more information and booking



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  • Wayne McGregor Interview

    We caught up with the choreographer about technology, new ballets and walking his whippets - read the interview here.

    Woolf Works reviews

    ‘It takes both McGregor and the concept of the three-act ballet to a brave and entirely exhilarating new place’

    The Guardian

    'Mr. McGregor has thought big, and he has created a work that is entertaining, absorbing, not always easy, and occasionally contentious. That’s the (Woolfian) spirit.'

    NY Times

    ‘His characters are well drawn, and powerfully performed by his fine cast’

    Independent

    Alessandra Ferri

    After training in Milan and at the Royal Ballet School, Ferri was a principal of the Royal Ballet by the age of 19. She left after only 5 years with the Royal, to join American Ballet Theatre at the invitation of the great Mikhail Baryshnikov, in search of more rigorous training. But she continued to dance as Guest artist at Covent Garden. In 2007 she retired, performing a final Juliet with ABT opposite handsome star Robert Bolle to rapturous reviews. Retirement didn’t last long, however, and this appearance is one of several dramatic, modern roles in recent years.

    Mrs Dalloway

    Clarissa Dalloway is perhaps Virginia Woolf’s most famous character. The novel follows her and surrounding characters for a single day, as Clarissa prepares for a party. But her inner thoughts span decades, and the reader gets a vision of the character through a life’s worth of memories.

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Ferri and Bonelli

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8

Wayne McGregor

Virginia Woolf

Alessandra Ferri

Natalia Osipova

Max Richter

Ravi Deepres

Lucy Carter

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