Dance: Into the void

Company Wayne McGregor
Deepstaria
director-choreographer-designer Wayne McGregor
dancers Rebecca Bassett-Graham, Naia Bautista, Kevin Beyer, Salvatore De Simone, Chia-Yu Hsu, Hannah Joseph, Jasiah Marshall, Jayla O’Connell, Mariano Zamora Gonzaléz
lighting Theresa Baumgartner
sound Nicolas Becker and LEXX
set Benjamin Males • costumes Ilaria Martello 
Sadler's Wells, London • 27.Feb-2.Mar.25 ★★★★

Taking its name from a genus of jellyfish, Deepstaria is a meditation on humanity's fascination with endless voids like the deep sea and outer space. Wayne McGregor gives his seriously impressive dancers demanding choreography that creates the impression of floating in weightlessness. And the set is a high-tech visual wonder, with inky blacks, dazzling lights and an audio mix that seems to send music and sounds right into our bones. It's an extraordinary experience for the audience, even if it's so intensely serious that emotional resonance feels just out of reach.

The dancers perform the otherworldly moves with unusual fluidity, seemingly floating as they stretch and spin around the stage. While there are a few sections featuring the entire nine-person company, much of this programme features solos and duets, plus a couple of intensely powerful trios. Each performer gets their moment to shine brightly. Movement is big, full-bodied and expressive, and the interaction is laced with subtle touches as dancers come together, sometimes echoing, competing or challenging each other. The highlight is an extended duet between two men that beautifully plays with balance and connection.

All of this takes place on a bare stage that is flooded with always moving lights, creating what looks like currents in the dancers' movements. The set may be made using Vantablack Vision, the light-absorbing coating that is used in telescopes, but it is thoroughly illuminated with lights that refract through constantly swirling mist. This adds to the sense of weightlessness and provides a couple of stunning moments, from a piercing light that breathes straight into our eyes to a shimmering rainfall effect that looks like magic.

Designed to make the most of the dancers' athleticism and physical grace, the costumes shift through the show, from black briefs to paper-thin sweats to tunics that are made from a translucent material called Japanese organza, which seems to drift in slow motion. They are transformed using coloured lighting, which maintains the show's continual shifting nature, as the movement switches from light and sweeping to sharply pointed, between solo numbers and communal pieces.

All of this is simply gorgeous to look at, performed with precision by the gifted dancers, while the complex sound mix is what guides us through a sense of emotional tonality. Intriguingly, this layered audio is programmed through the artificial-intelligence technology Bronze, which adds the unpredictability of live performance and could possibly be something live performers take exception to. But its visceral impact is undeniable.

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photos by Ravi Deepres • 27.Feb.25