Infra: “I had not thought death had undone so many”

The title of this post, “I had not thought death had undone so many,” is a line from the first section The Burial of the Dead of T. S. Eliot's poem The Waste Land. It is quoted in the programme of Wayne McGregor's 2008 ballet Infra [literally meaning 'below'], perhaps suggestive of the apparent (seeming) nonchalance and disinterest of people living the modern city life—seething in speed and overwhelmed by choices—yet with a sense of entwined emotions behind the oblivious masks, so intense and so individualistic that somehow, ironically, the collective force of them all is tipping on the verge of an emotive avalanche.

Unreal City,
Under the brown fog of a winter dawn,
A crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many,
I had not thought death had undone so many.
Sighs, short and infrequent, were exhaled,
And each man fixed his eyes before his feet.

～T. S. Eliot, The Waste Land

Infra, commissioned by Royal Ballet, is my favourite work of British choreographer Wayne McGregor, artistic director of Random Dance (resident company at Sadler's Wells Theatre) and Royal Ballet's resident choreographer. Described by Sarah Crompton as “a piece of sumptuous beauty and shimmering possibility that marks a major step in McGregor's development as a creator,” Infra is a collaboration between choreographer Wayne McGregor, composer Max Richter (whose inspired and thoughtful *music I adore) and artist Julian Opie. I think it is the fact that Infra is the most emotionally engaging work of Wayne McGregor that I have seen, coupled with his signature choreographic emphases on the technical, the physical and the beautiful (but softened and made more fluid and lyrical by its layers of emotional profundity), which draws me into this ballet so much. The moving, evanescent poetry in Max Richter's specially-commissioned music, and the striking, visually challenging vista (where the audience is forced out of the traditional visual focus on a single moving group or object at one given moment) of Julian Opie's installation art, further enhance and complete Infra, contributing successfully to the eloquence of its mesmerising complexity.

“...the dance seems to be providing a literal footnote on the action of life itself, exposing the agonies of indecision, doubt and hope that live under the surface of the skin. To Max Richter's mournful score, 12 outstanding dancers meet and part, whisper to one another, pause and move on. (...) There is a mood of mystery; sometimes the gestures recall a half-forgotten human action; the moods switch from impassioned to enraged in a split second. (...) a sense in which these bodies are also shades, the things that lie beneath. (...) six couples engage in six slithering, complex duets in six parallel squares of light, like a frieze of life, their physical conversations passing from one to the other at quicksilver speed. (...) [Infra is] full of striking images, and redolent of an emotional richness new to McGregor's work.”

～Sarah Crompton

Click here to watch Infra, the full-length ballet (approx. 30 minutes). Be sure to select HQ (high quality) for all videos.

Infra, the final pas de deux (the section I love the most in this ballet)
Dancers: Marianela Nuñez and Edward Watson (my favourite male principal dancer of the Royal Ballet at the moment!)

[Edit 26/Sep/2014: Sadly the videos were removed, but here is a short trailer of the ballet:]



One of the moments which really touches me in the final pas de deux of Infra, is when Marianela had this incredible facial expression of a sigh, mixed with a smile (around 1:25, after Edward kissed her hand and their intertwined port de bras), a kind of relief almost, which I feel is exactly what is being conveyed in the musical phrase of that magical moment... I am so in love with this pas de deux.


Not known, because not looked for
But heard, half-heard, in the stillness
Between two waves of the sea.
Quick now, here, now, always—
A condition of complete simplicity
(Costing not less than everything)
And all shall be well and
All manner of thing shall be well
When the tongues of flame are in-folded
Into the crowned knot of fire
And the fire and the rose are one.

~ T. S. Eliot, from Little Gidding: V, No.4 of Four Quartets

Click here for The Making of Infra: an in-depth and very interesting behind-the-scenes documentary on this ballet. The programme eavesdrops on rehearsals and reveals how three major talents joined forces to create a new piece of modern ballet. Really worth watching! [Sadly also removed... but here is another short one of Wayne McGregor on his creative process:]