Studio Wayne McGregor

Autobiography
2017

Company
Company Wayne McGregor

Duration
80 minutes

Concept and Direction
Wayne McGregor

Choreography
Wayne McGregor, in collaboration with the dancers

Original Music
Jlin

Additional Music
Hildur Gudnadottir, Zelienople, Arcangelo Corelli, Max Richter, and Carsten Nicolai and Ryoichi Sakamoto

Set Design and Projection
Ben Cullen Williams

Lighting Design
Lucy Carter

Costume Design
Aitor Throup

Dramaturgy
Uzma Hameed

Autobiography Algorithm
Nick Rothwell

Originally danced by
Rebecca Bassett-Graham, Jordan James Bridge, Travis Clausen-Knight, Louis McMiller, Daniela Neugebauer, Jacob O’Connell, James Pett, Fukiko Takase, Po-Lin Tung and Jessica Wright

Premiere date and venue
4 October 2017, Sadler's Wells, London, UK

Dates

For 25 years, British choreographer and director Wayne McGregor has made choreography that interrogates life through the experience of the body. Now McGregor turns his attention to the body as archive, with a dance portrait illuminated by the sequencing of his own genome. In a continuous reimagining, Autobiography is constantly reinvented; the order of the dance pieces algorithmically-assembled from a collection of 23 choreographic volumes which unfold uniquely at each performance. 

McGregor is joined by an impressive set of collaborators: electronic musician and producer Jlin (who regularly performs the score live at performances), visual artist Ben Cullen-Williams (winner of 2018 D&AD award for Autobiography's set design) , lighting designer Lucy Carter, artist and designer Aitor Throup (costumes) and dramaturg Uzma Hameed. The Autobiography algorithm which determines the performance order was developed in collaboration with Nick Rothwell.

Produced by Studio Wayne McGregor.

Co-produced by Sadler’s Wells, London, UK; Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg; Edinburgh International Festival, UK; Festspielhaus St Pölten, Austria; Carolina Performing Arts at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA; Movimentos Festwochen der Autostadt in Wolfsburg, Germany. 

Co-commissioned by West Kowloon Cultural District, Hong Kong; Festival Diaghilev. P.S., St Petersburg, Russia; Centro Cultural Vila Flor, Guimarães, Portugal; Seattle Theatre Group, USA (music); Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, London, UK.

Music by Jlin in partnership with Unsound.
With thanks to AT Studio.

Images: Ben Cullen Williams, Richard Davies, Andrej Uspenski.