An absorbing hour with the man who redefined dance
It is not hyperbole to say that Wayne Mcgregor has redefined the world of dance. His work pushes the boundaries of the form by utilising cutting edge technology, but so does his choreography style. As Deborah Bull put it in Imagine… Wayne Mcgregor: Dancing on the Edge (BBC One), certain movements were once considered ugly, whether that be a hip sticking out or an elbow dropped. “These rules are drilled in from a very early age,” she said. “There is a defined concept of what is beautiful, and Wayne makes and finds beauty in other places.”
The latest edition of Alan Yentob’s arts series was an accessible way into the seemingly rarefied world of contemporary dance. Mcgregor discussed his early influences, from the dance teacher who ran classes above a tile shop in Stockport, to his passion for John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever. These days he is resident choreographer at The Royal Ballet and director of dance for the Venice Biennale; the latter provided one of those nice-work-if-you-can-get-it jobs for Yentob, travelling out to Venice and interviewing Mcgregor in a water taxi.
Performances from some of Mcgregor’s most acclaimed works punctuated the film, and they were truly extraordinary. The breadth of his projects is remarkable, from the works of Virginia Woolf to the 7/7 London bombings. The Woolf ballet starred Alessandra Ferri, then 52, whom Mcgregor persuaded to come out of retirement for the role. “I am so grateful to have met Wayne when
I did,” said Ferri. “He somehow opened the door for me to be, at my age, part of the present moment. Otherwise I would have just been part of a page that has been turned.”
One of Mcgregor’s most intriguing current projects was the one about which we heard the least. He is choreographing the new Abba show, which will see avatars of the band performing on stage in east London. Benny, Bjorn and co weren’t known for their acrobatic dance moves, so what could this possibly entail? The level of secrecy surrounding the show meant we learned precious little about it.
This was an absorbing film, but one that demonstrated the limitations of the Imagine format. Because Yentob sets out to celebrate an artist, he does not pose any difficult questions. When Mcgregor began talking about an artificial intelligence project made in collaboration with Google, he was excited about the possibilities of dancers being able to dance “even perhaps when they are no longer here”. This digital resurrection surely throws up some ethical questions, but none were asked.
The three-part Moors Murders (Channel 4) documentary represented a new low for forensic psychologists on the truecrime circuit. A woman called Kerry Daynes shared her insights into Ian Brady’s habit of visiting a cemetery in Glasgow, where he spent hours drinking alone. “I think that the rather morbid fascination that Brady shows with graveyards is because this is a quiet environment where he doesn’t have people to annoy him, because all the people are dead,” she declared. Very profound. “But also, there is something more sinister here.” Do you think?
If you were unfamiliar with these murders, then the details were laid out. And the vivid opening testimony of David Smith, Myra Hindley’s brotherin-law, was certainly riveting. Smith was present when Brady attacked teenage victim Edward Evans with an axe and it was Smith who raised the alarm with the police.
But the interview with Smith was recorded in 2003 (he died in 2012) and he recounted events with a practised air. The twisted relationship between Hindley and Brady has been picked over for decades. The programme promised “never-before-seen prison letters” from Brady and Hindley to Janie Jones, who befriended Hindley in Holloway Prison. But Jones has spoken about that friendship for decades, and published many of these Hindley letters in a book. The programme muddied the waters over what was new and what was not.
Photographs of Evans’s bloodied body were shown repeatedly. Worst of all, though, was the decision to jazz up those infamous mugshots with digital technology, allowing Hindley and Brady to come alive and blink at us. What on earth were the programme-makers thinking?
Clive Entwistle, a reporter who covered the case at the time, discussed events in an unsensational manner. But towards the end, he said of Brady and Hindley: “It’s unfortunate that they will be long remembered. I think it would be better if they were totally forgotten.” Which begged the question of what he was doing on a programme such as this.
Imagine… Wayne Mcgregor ★★★★ Moors Murders ★