A new dance for Bowie

Subject to Change: A Dance for David Bowie will premiere in Luxembourg, then play Sadler's Wells in London in autumn twenty twenty-eight and Tokyo in twenty twenty-nine.

Exploring artistic reinvention

Spanish choreographer Marcos Morau will explore how Bowie practised a form of artistic reincarnation through his transformations into personas such as Aladdin Sane and the Thin White Duke.

Morau on artistic change

Morau said Bowie turned change into a way of remaining true to himself. Every new work should force us to let go of certainty, and art should help us accept that life transforms us.

“Bowie turned change into a way of remaining true to himself.”

Not a nostalgic tribute

Morau will weave Bowie's songs with choral sounds from around the world and the voice of Spanish singer Maria Arnal. He wants to explore what happens when the songs leave behind Bowie's voice.

“I'm not interested in reproducing Bowie or creating a nostalgic tribute.”

Transforming the individual

Morau hopes to transform something deeply individual into a collective experience. He believes the best way to remain faithful to Bowie is to dare to change him.

“Perhaps the best way to remain faithful to Bowie is to dare to change him.”

Bowie's body as fiction

Each alter ego brought a different physicality. Morau said Bowie turned his own body into a territory of fiction, allowing those fictions to become part of reality and an act of defiance.

The creative team

Set design is by Max Glaenzel, costumes by Silvia Delagneau, and musical direction by Alex Röser Vatiché and Ben Meerwein. It is co-produced by Sadler's Wells, Bunkamura in Japan and Morau's company La Veronal.

Morau's choice of song

When asked his favourite Bowie song to dance to, Morau chose Space Oddity. He said there is something profoundly choreographic about imagining a body losing gravity and drifting away.

“There's something profoundly choreographic about imagining a body losing gravity and drifting away from everything familiar.”