A decade of daring: Wayne McGregor at the Royal Ballet – in pictures

The Royal Ballet’s resident choreographer is celebrating 10 years at Covent Garden. McGregor’s new piece, Multiverse, set to a score by Steve Reich, is part of a triple bill of one-act ballets including past hits Chroma and Carbon Life. Rediscover his arresting shows inspired by Titian, Virginia Woolf and the White Stripes


  • Qualia, performed at the Royal Opera House in 2003. ‘Making his debut on the big stage is Wayne McGregor, whose ballet Qualia sets 19 dancers on a dazzle of invention and self-discovery,’ wrote Judith Mackrell. ‘There is a genuine seam of strangeness in the work and, with the help of an eerily atmospheric score by Scanner, McGregor seems to put his dancers in touch with a future the rest of us haven’t really glimpsed’
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    Qualia, performed at the Royal Opera House in 2003


  • Alina Cojocaru and Federico Bonelli in Engram (2005), created for an evening celebrating the choreographer Frederick Ashton. It featured music from Godspeed You! Black Emperor
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    Alina Cojocaru and Federico Bonelli in Engram, 2005


  • Mara Galeazzi and Edward Watson in Chroma (2006), performed to music by the White Stripes. The show was ‘fast and furious and totally gripping,’ wrote Emma Brockes
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    Mara Galeazzi and Edward Watson in Chroma, 2006


  • Paul Kay, Jonathan Watkins and Edward Watson in Infra (2008), a portrait of life beneath the surface of the city
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    Paul Kay, Jonathan Watkins and Edward Watson in Infra, 2008


  • McGregor’s version of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas (2009) brought together the Royal Ballet and the Royal Opera House
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    Dido and Aeneas


  • Sarah Lamb and Eric Underwood in Limen (2009). ‘Part ballet, part installation, it creates a radical alchemy between movement and light,’ wrote Judith Mackrell. ‘And, as with all of McGregor’s best projects, it makes things happen on the dance stage that we’ve never seen before’
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    Sarah Lamb and Eric Underwood in Limen, 2009


  • Sarah Lamb and Eric Underwood in Live Fire Exercise (2011), performed against images of warfare
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    Sarah Lamb and Eric Underwood in Live Fire Exercise, 2011


  • Eric Underwood in Carbon Life (2012), performed to music by Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt, with a lighting design by McGregor’s regular collaborator Lucy Carter
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    Eric Underwood in Carbon Life, 2012


  • Tamara Rojo in Machina from Metamorphosis Titian (2012), a triptych of new ballets inspired by the story of Diana and Actaeon
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    Tamara Rojo in Machina from Metamorphosis Titian, 2012


  • Eric Underwood and Natalia Osipova in Tetractys (2014), a work for 12 dancers set to Bach
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    Eric Underwood and Natalia Osipova in Tetractys (2014), a work for 12 dancers set to Bach


  • Sarah Lamb in Raven Girl (2015), whose heroine was modelled on Lamb: ‘It was a dream come true. It was as if Wayne saw me at each stage of my life’
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    Sarah Lamb in Raven Girl (2015), whose heroine was modelled on Lamb: ‘It was a dream come true. It was as if Wayne saw me at each stage of my life’


  • Alessandra Ferri and Federico Bonelli in Woolf Works (2015), a full-length ballet inspired by three of Virginia Woolf’s novels.
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    Alessandra Ferri and Federico Bonelli in Woolf Works (2015), a full-length ballet inspired by three of Virginia Woolf’s novels.


  • Matthew Ball and Calvin Richardson in the all-male Obsidian Tear (2016).
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    Matthew Ball and Calvin Richardson in the all-male Obsidian Tear (2016).


  • Anna Rose O’Sullivan, Edward Watson and Maya Magri in rehearsals for Multiverse, made in collaboration with Steve Reich. The Royal Ballet’s McGregor programme is at the Royal Opera House from 10-19 November.
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    Edward Watson, Ann Rose O’Sullivan and Maya Magri in rehearsal for Multiverse