Wayne McGregor
McGregor is regularly commissioned by and has works in the repertories of the most important ballet companies around the world including Paris Opera Ballet, La Scala, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, New York City Ballet, Bolshoi Ballet, Royal Danish Ballet and Australian Ballet.
He is in demand as a choreographer for theatre (Old Vic, National Theatre, Royal Court, Donmar), opera (La Scala/Royal Opera, ENO), film (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, The Legend of Tarzan, Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them, 1, 2, 3 Sing, Mary Queen of Scots), and music videos (Radiohead, The Chemical Brothers). McGregor choreographed the highly anticipated ABBA Voyage concert which premiered in London in May 2022.
Some of the long list of artists who have partnered with McGregor through more than twenty years of collaborative multi-disciplinary work include Margaret Atwood, John Tavener, Audrey Niffenegger, Jamie xx, Max Richter, Jlin, Olafur Eliasson, Ben Frost, Kaija Saariaho, Tacita Dean, Thom Yorke, Mark Wallinger, Random International, Jon Hopkins, John Pawson and Mark-Anthony Turnage, Daniel Lee, Gareth Pugh, and Grace Wales-Bonner.
More recently, Wayne McGregor brought Margaret Atwood’s post-apocalyptic vision to the stage in a three-act ballet MADDADDAM based on the writer’s acclaimed trilogy of novels: ‘Oryx and Crake’, ‘The Year of the Flood’ and ‘MaddAddam’. Co-commissioned by the National Ballet of Canada and The Royal Ballet, MADDADDAM featured a specially commissioned score from Max Richter, costume design by Gareth Pugh, lighting by Lucy Carter, design by We Not I, film by Ravi Deepres, and dramaturgy by Uzma Hameed. In May 2023 McGregor premiered UniVerse: A Dark Crystal Odyssey with Company Wayne McGregor at The Royal Opera House. This new work reimagined Jim Henson’s cult 1982 film The Dark Crystal – darkly fantastical epic with mythological underpinnings and ecological overtones – as a potent tale for today in its depiction of an earth in peril, torn apart by extremes and in desperate need of healing. In June 2023 McGregor presented Untitled 2023, his latest work for The Royal Ballet, set to music by Anna Throvaldsdottir, with lighting by Lucy Carter, set design by the late Cuban-American artist Carmen Herrera, and costumes by Burberry’s Daniel Lee. ABBA Voyage, the revolutionary concert that launched the Swedish pop sensations back onstage in an outstanding avatar performance in 2022, choreographed by McGregor, continues into 2024.
McGregor is Professor of Choreography at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance.
McGregor’s work has earned him Four Critics’ Circle Awards, two Time Out Awards, two South Bank Show Award and two Olivier’s. In January 2011 McGregor was awarded a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) for Services to Dance, and in 2021 was honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Prix de Lausanne.