Artificial intelligence (AI) has been used to help create a live dance performance coming to Sadler's Wells.

Choreographer Wayne McGregor and his dance company are behind the shows Autobiography on March 12 and 13, followed by UniVerse: A Dark Crystal Odyssey on March 15 and 16. 

AI and choreography merge in Autobiography in a work that “reimagines and remakes itself” for every performance.

A new tool developed with Google Arts and Culture utilises machine-learning, based on hundreds of hours of McGregor’s choreography archive that overwrites the configurations with fresh movement for the performers.

UniVerse reimagines Jim Henson’s cult 1982 film The Dark Crystal, a fantasy epic with ecology overtones as a tale for today’s world with its depiction of “Earth in peril” torn by extremes and in desperate need of healing.

McGregor founded his own company in 1993 for his pioneering projects, now established as the resident company at Sadler’s Wells with 30 works he has created using technological interventions in dance, film, music, visual art, technology and science.

He is in demand as a choreographer for theatre including the Old Vic and for films like Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, The Legend of Tarzan, Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them and Mary Queen of Scots, as well as live concerts such as Abba Voyage that opened in London in 2022.