Critique 2- Wayne McGregor's 'Woolf Works'

The piece ‘Woolf Works’ by Wayne McGregor was an engaging piece to watch, it made me feel sympathy, anxious and distress because Alessandra Feri (the principal dancer) takes us on an emotional journey with her character. Her character informs the audience at the start of the performance that she has a disease which she is battling and faces a dilemma where she wants her partner to leave her before this illness takes her away from him. This was delivered through a voiceover that starts the piece with Feri standing in front of a projected picture of the ocean, before her partner, joins her to start a sequence. I felt sympathy because at a certain point in the performance a group of children joins the woman on stage along with a young girl who comforts the woman, where the children are playing and laughing, and the woman appears isolated from them. It created a lonesome atmosphere even though there were laughing sound effects and the children were enjoying themselves, therefore this is a juxtaposition between happiness and misery.(P//) The dancers tended to move in a classical ballet style; however, they seemed to manipulate the movement in either a group or duet. The sense of manipulation was mainly created in lifts as the person/people who were lifting an individual may place or hold a body part to fixate and form a new pathway. I found this very fascinating to watch as some of the lifts or movements had an essence of sea wave-like behaviours to them, for example at the beginning when the man joined the woman he moved her body parts to look like she was floating in the sea and the waves were impacting on her body to make them move. Although it was enjoyable to watch, I can’t find a clear link between the sea and the storyline described in the voice-over.(P//) In this piece by McGregor, I found there was a lot of contrast between solo and group unison work because in some key moments of the performance the woman had a lot of solo sequences, which I believe was to portray the isolation and loneliness she was feeling. I also feel as though the unison sections also created the same atmosphere but with more distress and anxiety, since Feri was standing in the middle of a variety of groups who were performing separate sequences. In each small group, the unison was always present, however, it wasn’t sharp and precise, and each dancer had their own artistry to the sequence which made the phrases look organic and less robotic. Choreographic devices that I observed were unison, canon, accumulation, and contrast. I noticed that in a large group section canon and accumulation were used very effectively and it seemed to compliment the movements very well. They were both used in the same section in a large group, and it had an impact on me as an audience member where I felt it created a climax in the piece and influenced the woman battling a disease to spiral into a visible panic.(P//) I believe that the message was delivered well; however, if the voice-over wasn’t there at the beginning I am not confident that I would’ve understood the storyline. My interpretation of this piece was that there is a love story between a man and woman, and the woman is on a journey with this illness, and she feels as though the inevitable end in this disease will result in the man’s heart breaking. The clarity of the storyline is especially highlighted at the end when Alessandra Feri’s movement becomes more reliable on her partner and lifeless, as this is the section where her character gives into the disease and unfortunately dies.(P//) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jbpFP46pVQ (McGregor.W, 2015) Refrences: McGregor.W, 2015. Woolf Works.[Online video] Availible at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jbpFP46pVQ [Accessed November 21th 2021] Bibliography: McGregor.W, 2015. Woolf Works.[Online video] Availible at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jbpFP46pVQ [Accessed November 21th 2021]