Choreographers: Wayne McGregor, Odette Hughes, Louis McMiller, Jessica Wright, Rebecca Bassett-Graham, in collaboration with the dancers
Director: Wayne McGregor
At Sadler’s Wells East, Augmented: Dance powered by MAM + AISOMA brings together dancers from Rambert School and Juilliard School in a collaboration guided by Wayne McGregor. The result is an hour of highly physical, entirely abstract dance that places two leading training institutions within a distinctive choreographic framework.
It is refreshing to see such pure dance inhabit the stage at Sadler’s Wells East. Sometimes an abundance of theatrical devices or effusive programme notes can muddy the essence of a work. Not so here.
Here, perhaps echoing the differing skillsets of the respective dance schools, there is a constant sense of opposing forces: push and pull, elegant extensions and blunted limbs. Sequences move rapidly between bursts of motion and sculptural forms. Clean shapes are constantly dissolved by clusters of movement flowing across the stage. Ensemble work shifts into tight motifs before giving way to more eloquent solo passages; the choreography has a slightly unsettled quality, as if the body is never quite allowed to finish what it starts.
Transitions are continuous, and the piece rarely pauses for breath. At times, this is energising; at others, it becomes visually busy. The pace is relentless.
There are moments when unison work is a little messy, suggesting that the exploration of ideas takes precedence over precision. However, this adds to the sense that the work is being generated rather than performed, as if the dancers are working through a set of ideas in real time.
There is very little in the way of theatrical dressing. Lighting by Theresa Baumgartner is minimal, often angled in from the wings, with little variation beyond subtle tonal shifts until the closing moments, and the dancers wear loosely uniform rehearsal-style costumes in a muted palette. DJ Yraki is on stage throughout, though it remains unclear how far the music is being shaped live. Shifting between the abstract, filter cut-offs, ultra-high frequencies, and more conventional rhythmic passages, the soundscape is noisy, brutal and dissonant, dynamics that are echoed in the dance language.
There is no doubting the skill and commitment of the performers, and the piece has real energy, particularly in its faster, more expansive passages. But the lack of an emotional anchor means that interest is not always easy to sustain. There are stretches where ideas begin to blur, and what initially feels exciting can start to jar.
As a showcase for emerging dancers working within Wayne McGregor’s distinctive style, it is undeniably accomplished. As a fully satisfying piece in its own right, it proves a little more uneven.
Runs until 2 May 2026
