"Choreography and the Brain": A Conversation with Random Dance Founder Wayne McGregor September 10, 2009

Wayne McGregor is a multi award-winning British choreographer, renowned for his physically testing choreography and ground-breaking collaborations across dance, film, music, visual art, technology and science. He is the Artistic Director of Wayne McGregor | Random Dance, Resident Company at Sadler's Wells Theatre in London; Resident Choreographer of The Royal Ballet (appointed 2006) and the government's first Youth Dance Champion (appointed 2008). McGregor is also a frequent creator of new work for La Scala, Milan, Paris Opera Ballet, Nederlands Dans Theatre, San Francisco Ballet, Stuttgart Ballet and English National Ballet; as well as movement director for theatre and film (including Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire).

In conversation with McGregor will be Matt Chafee, professor of Neuroscience and primary investigator at the University of Minnesota's Brain Sciences Center.

McGregor's current work, Entity, is based on collaborative research with psychologists, neuroscientists, and software engineers about the relationship between the brain and the moving body and has been described as technically astonishing, emotionally uncompromising and hard-hitting. A staggering blend of athletic bodies, lights, technology, and film, McGregor's work breaks boundaries and defies categorization confirming its place at the cutting edge of contemporary culture.

Official Website: http://www.ias.umn.edu/thursdayscalf09.php