Wayne McGregor's Deepstaria premiers at Montpellier Danse Festival (using Vantablack Vision® technology on stage)
From the Deepstaria press release:
Wayne McGregor’s Deepstaria, performed by Company Wayne McGregor, will make its anticipated world premiere at the 44th Montpellier Danse Festival (22 – 24 June 2024), closely followed by its Italian premiere at Festival di Spoleto (12 – 14 July 2024).
“Journeying beyond ourselves, we search for knowledge to illuminate and develop our human condition. At the same time, these spaces of infinite blackness, womb-like, are strangely familiar – sounding forgotten connections deep within, and stirring, perhaps, faint echoes of unconscious states of being, floating in places of before and after”. Sir Wayne McGregor CBE
In Deepstaria – a title inspired by an enigmatic species of jellyfish with a stellar-sounding name – McGregor conjures a highly sensory, meditative pure dance and sound experience which reflects on our profound relationship with the void and our own mortality. Since the beginning of time, humankind has had a fascination with the void. From deep sea to deep space, these dark, mysterious zones ignite both our imagination and our desire to explore our world to its limits. Utilising Vantablack Vision® technology on stage to create unfathomable darkness, McGregor visions an environment that disturbs traditional hierarchies of perception. In this void, acoustic imagery and animative music by Oscar-winning sound designer Nicolas Becker and renowned music producer LEXX create a sonic dreamscape that is continuously recomposed and performed by revolutionary digital audio engine Bronze AI* – thus re-configuring the relationship between live dance and live recorded music in real time.
Like the jellyfish with its capacity for regeneration, Deepstaria invites us to dream anew our immortal connection with the universe that holds us.
Deepstaria will embark on a global tour later in the year, beginning in Hong Kong in September 2024.
(Photo credit: Ravi Deepres)