Wayne McGregor, +/- Human at The Roundhouse

Choreographer Wayne McGregor is everywhere these days: Covent Garden, Sadler’s Wells, his own studio complex in east London… and now also in one of the most versatile of London venues, the Roundhouse.


Here McGregor curates +/- Human, a unique and original set of experiences which fuses an immersive installation with live dance and music.

McGregor’s new work aims to further the choreographer's ongoing exploration of the connections between dance, visual art, science and technology.

+/- Human will include a new installation, Zoological, specially created by Random International with electronic music by Warp Records artists, and open to the public all day.

An immersive work, Zoological is described as a flock of flying spheres that surrounds visitors. McGregor is fascinated by science, and uses it as inspiration for much of his work. Here, too, the behaviour of those flying spheres is determined by algorithms that enable them to select specific individuals and react to them.

Just think: it could be you...

And if that is not intriguing enough, between 2pm and 3pm every Friday throughout the run of +/- Human there will be pop-up performances by young artists responding to the work.

On Friday and Saturday nights +/- Human will bring us new choreography by McGregor performed by dancers from his own company and the Royal Ballet. It's the first time in 16 years that dancers from Company Wayne McGregor have performed with their counterparts in the Royal Ballet.

McGregor has been resident choreographer with the Royal Ballet for more than 10 years, so this collaboration between the two groups of dancers may come a little belatedly, but it's only natural.

Lighting for the show comes from McGregor’s longstanding lighting designer, Lucy Carter; this groundbreaking multimedia work is commissioned by the Roundhouse with support from the Royal Ballet.

Should you require a steer through McGregor's complex linkage between high science and dance, the man himself is in conversation with broadcaster and academic Aleks Krotoski on Sunday, 13 August.

The conversation will take place within the installation and will be streamed on YouTube and Facebook on the Bloomberg Broadcast Programme.