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W’Art?!

“Tree of Codes” - Olafur Eliasson, Wayne McGregor, Jamie XX

Swan Lake, Romeo and Juliet, Sleeping Beauty or the Nutcracker are all classical ballet that everyone knows. They have marked the dance world and they will continue to be performed over the years. However, people also like change and discovering new representations.

Tree of Codes made the change and included a huge artistic dimension to the dancing performance. Combining music, scenography and choreography, Tree of Codes is a real laboratory of experimentation. Bringing together the dancers of the Company Wayne McGregor and the Paris Opera Ballet, this piece is the product of an artistic collaboration in which space, bodies and architecture interact. The work opens up the spectators’ field of perception by immersing them in a disturbing play of mirrors created by the artist Olafur Eliasson and a techno-pop sound space conceived by the musician Jamie xx.

All choreographers have a personal style. But it would be hard not to recognise a ballet by the British choreographer Wayne McGregor – those sleek, hyper-extended distortions, the extreme articulation of the body, the unexpected twists and turns of movement.

In his works, dancers - whatever the theme - look stunningly beautiful and confusingly strange. They are recognisably human and also bodies from another world.

Created in 2015 for the Manchester International Festival, the Tree of Codes ballet is inspired by the novel of American writer Jonathan Safran Foer, published five years earlier. At the time, this unusual text - an artwork that takes shape as a book - struggled to get published, with many of the words that compose it being removed by the author. A belgian publishing house was the only one to print it. This book - described by the Times as a veritable “work of art” - inspired Wayne McGregor, who decided to adapt and choreograph it.

Classical dance is an artistic practice, it encompasses the theater, costumes, light effects, sets etc ... In order to create a ballet, there is a whole artistic dimension that must be thought through. Tree of Codes highlights this mix of art to set up this ballet.

Aset of mirrors at the back of the stage diffracts the reflections of the bodies, then advances towards the audience, and ends up releasing circles rotating on themselves reflecting iridescent lights. In this graphic fairyland, in which they are embedded, circulate the real bodies of the performers ... or their images.

Collaboration keeps you moving. It stops you being formulaic (...) I want to feel “ motivated when I wake up in the morning. Dance is so collaborative anyway. If you’ve got people who are inspired and inspiring it’s bound to infect your work and infect your practice. Wayne McGregor ”