📚 Infra — 6d.4
Choreographic Content
Four movement examples · RADS · Devices · DLIE · Interpretation
📚 What you'll learn on this page
- Describe four key moments in Infra using RADS vocabulary
- Identify the choreographic devices used in each section
- Sort statements into D / L / I / E and check your answers
- Explore different ways of interpreting what you see — and choose yours
📽️ Watch before you begin
Official Trailer
AQA Interview — Wayne McGregor
🎓
Want to watch the full recording? Your teacher may be able to give you access to the full professional performance of Infra — ask them about this. The four sections below are much easier to study once you have seen the whole work.
How to use this page
For each movement example: read the overview, then open RADS. Next, look at the choreographic devices. Then try the DLIE sort — click a statement to select it, then click the correct slot. Finally, open the interpretation cards and compare your own reading to the model answers.
6d.4.1 Movement Example 1 — Opening Trio (Section 1)
1
Opening Trio
Three male solos · No interaction · Approx. 0:00 – 3:40
Three male dancers are in the space — but they are not together. Think of it like three strangers on a tube platform waiting for a train. They are in the same place at the same time, but they are not talking, not looking at each other. One dancer even has his back to the audience.
The movement is McGregor's typical style: big arm gestures, fast shifts of weight, large leg extensions — and sudden moments of stillness. McGregor called this a "stylistically accurate" blend of gesture, ballet and fast weight transfers.
There is no contact, no interaction at all between the three. McGregor's intent is to show human relationships — or here, the lack of them. In a city, this is normal. Three people can share a space and be completely cut off from each other.
Actions
Large arm gestures · leg extensions · transfer of weight · turning · elevation · walking · running · stillness. One dancer stands facing upstage for much of the section.
Dynamics
Mainly sudden and abrupt · fast weight transfers · direct · also moments of stillness and sustained movement. Sharp contrasts between fast and held.
Space
Curved and linear pathways. High and middle levels. Large and small movement. Facing different directions — including upstage (back to audience). Foreground and background used.
Relationships
Mostly individual — no contact at all. Counterpoint: performing simultaneously but independently, unaware of each other. Brief moments of near-contact but no acknowledgement.
Manipulation of number
Motif & development
Manipulation of number — McGregor starts with the smallest unit and builds. Beginning with just three solos makes the later duets and full ensemble feel much bigger and more intense by comparison.
Motif & development — the arm gesture vocabulary introduced here is McGregor's signature style. You will see these gestures developed and recalled throughout the rest of the piece.
Relationship term (RADS): The three dancers performing simultaneously but completely unaware of each other is called counterpoint — this is a relationship, which belongs in your RADS analysis (see above), not in the choreographic devices section.
Click a statement to select it, then click the right DLIE slot to place it. Click a filled slot to return a card.
💡 D and L are facts. I and E are your opinions — they use "This could suggest…" and "This is effective because…"
D Describe✓
Click to place here
L Link✓
Click to place here
I Interpret✓
Click to place here
E Evaluate✓
Click to place here
Three male dancers perform individual solos with no contact or interaction. The movement includes large arm gestures, leg extensions, fast weight transfers and stillness. One dancer stands facing upstage.
This links directly to McGregor's intent of exploring human interactions — here, the complete absence of any connection between the three men reflects the disconnection of city life, where people share space without truly seeing each other.
This could suggest three strangers who don't know each other — like people on a tube platform waiting for a train. They're in the same place but completely cut off from one another.
This is effective because starting with no relationship at all makes the later duets feel much more intense — the audience learns what connection can look like in Infra only by first seeing what its absence looks like.
💬 Tap each card to see an interpretation or evaluation:
Interpret AThe three men could be like strangers on a tube platform…›
This could suggest three strangers waiting for a tube — they are in the same space but there is a silent agreement to ignore each other. This is an everyday experience in a city. McGregor is showing us what city life actually feels like from the inside.
Interpret BThe dancer with his back to us could suggest…›
In my opinion, the dancer facing upstage — turning his back on the audience — could suggest someone who has completely closed themselves off. He is present but not participating. This could represent the emotional walls people build in cities to protect themselves.
Interpret CThe absence of any contact between the three could mean…›
This could suggest that no connection exists at all — not even a shared look or nod. In McGregor's view, this is what ordinary city life looks like: three people in the same world, living in completely separate ones. The lack of relationship is itself a statement about what a city does to people.
Evaluate AStarting with solos is effective because…›
This is effective because it gives the audience time to learn McGregor's movement language before the piece gets more complex. By starting simply, he makes the audience comfortable — so that when six couples appear simultaneously later, the eye already knows how to read the movement.
Evaluate BThe contrast with later sections is effective because…›
This is effective because the silence and isolation of the opening makes the physical contact in later sections feel like a release. When bodies finally touch in the duets, the audience feels the emotional weight of that — which they would not feel if connection had been present from the start.
💜 Your turn — 6d.4.1.d
When you watch the three dancers, do they feel like strangers to you, or people who know each other but are falling apart? What in the movement gives you that impression?
Can you think of a real moment in your own life where you were in the same space as someone but felt completely disconnected from them?
6d.4.2 Movement Example 2 — Six Rectangles (Section 4)
2
Six Simultaneous Duets — The Climax
All 12 dancers · Six rectangular pools of light · Approx. 9:54 – 13:10
Six rectangular blocks of white light appear across the downstage area. A different couple appears in each one — six duets happening at the same time. You cannot watch all six at once. McGregor designed it this way on purpose.
Focus on the first three boxes. Boxes 1 and 2 are fast, tense and almost argumentative — the two dancers pull away from each other a lot even while in close contact. Box 3 is completely different: close, tender, slow. The guy gently strokes the back of the girl's neck. Light and shade in the same moment.
This is the climax of the piece — the moment of most complexity and energy, where McGregor shows that the city contains many different kinds of relationship happening all at once, invisibly, side by side.
Actions
Turns · elevation · transfer of weight · arm and hand gestures · lifts · pull · push · kick · twist · arabesque · pirouette · petite allegro (fast footwork). Female dancers on pointe.
Dynamics
Fast · sudden · tense · rhythmical · direct · precise. Box 3 contrasts: tender and gentle. Ends abruptly as the section closes.
Space
Contained within individual rectangular pools — restricted, cannot move far. Mainly high level. Vertical use of space. Each couple stays in their own lit area.
Relationships
Close contact within each duet. Boxes 1 & 2: action/reaction, pull apart. Box 3: complement and contrast, tender close contact. Counterpoint across all six couples simultaneously.
Key exam detail: boxes 1–3
You don't need to describe all six duets. Focus on the contrast between boxes 1 & 2 (fast and argumentative) and box 3 (tender and gentle). This contrast within the same section is a strong analysis point — it shows McGregor presenting different types of relationship simultaneously.
Climax
Manipulation of number
Contrast
Unison
Climax — this is the structural high point of the piece. All 12 dancers are on stage at once for the first time. The complexity of six stories happening simultaneously is overwhelming — which is exactly the point.
Manipulation of number — one couple enters, then another, building to all six. The increase makes the space feel fuller and more intense with each addition.
Contrast — boxes 1 and 2 versus box 3. Fast and argumentative beside tender and close. Two completely different kinds of human relationship shown at the same moment.
Unison — at certain moments two or more couples perform the same movement simultaneously across different pools, creating brief moments of shared rhythm across separate stories.
Relationship term (RADS): Six couples performing simultaneously but independently is counterpoint — a relationship. It belongs in the Relationships row of your RADS analysis.
Click a statement to select it, then click the right slot.
💡 D and L are facts. I and E are your opinions.
D Describe✓
Click to place here
L Link✓
Click to place here
I Interpret✓
Click to place here
E Evaluate✓
Click to place here
Six couples perform duets simultaneously, each in a separate rectangular pool of white light. Boxes 1 and 2 are fast and tense with pulling away; box 3 is tender and close. Female dancers work on pointe.
This is the climax — it links to McGregor's intent of showing what lies below the surface. Six different relationships happening at once mirrors the reality of a city, where no one knows what is happening in the home or life next door.
The six rectangles could suggest windows of houses at night — walking down a street you catch glimpses of people's lives behind lit windows. You see a moment, but not the whole story.
This is effective because the audience can't watch all six couples at once — they have to choose. This is exactly how it feels to be in a city, and it makes the audience part of McGregor's idea rather than just watching it.
💬 Tap each card to see an interpretation or evaluation:
Interpret AThe rectangles could be windows of houses at night…›
This could suggest looking through the windows of houses as you walk down a street at night — you see lit snapshots of people's lives but you don't know the full story. McGregor is literally showing us what lies below the surface of city life.
Interpret BThe shapes on the floor could suggest train carriage windows or drain covers…›
In my opinion, the rectangular shapes look like windows in a train carriage — connecting directly to the London bombings stimulus and the idea of the underground. Or they could suggest drain covers or grates in the pavement: light coming up from below, where the real life is happening. All of these are valid readings.
Interpret CBoxes 1 and 2 contrasted with box 3 could suggest…›
This could suggest that relationships in a city are all different — an argument happening in one home, tenderness in the next. No relationship is the same, but they all exist simultaneously, hidden from each other. McGregor shows this in a single moment.
Evaluate AHaving to choose what to look at is effective because…›
This is effective because it puts the audience in the same position as someone walking through a city — surrounded by lives they can only partially see. The audience becomes aware that they are missing things, which is exactly what McGregor wants them to feel.
Evaluate BThe contrast between fast/argumentative and tender is effective because…›
This is effective because it shows the full range of human experience within a single moment. The audience sees not one emotion but many at once — anger, tenderness, urgency, gentleness — all happening in the same city, at the same time, behind closed doors.
💜 Your turn — 6d.4.2.d
When you watch the six rectangles, which one does your eye go to first? Is it the most energetic? The most tender? What does that tell you about what you are looking for?
If you had to choose just one interpretation of what the rectangular shapes represent — windows, train carriages, drain covers — which feels most right to you? Why?
6d.4.3 Movement Example 3 — Section 7a: The Grief Trio
3
The Grief Trio — Duet vs Solo
Two female dancers + one male dancer · Cold blue lighting · Approx. 20:48 – 23:10
Before this section begins, something happens that is easy to miss: the two women look towards the solo man, whisper behind their hands, look again — and then walk away. That small moment sets everything up. There is a barrier between them and him, and it is up to us to decide what it means.
The two women then perform a slow, supportive duet — upstage right. They mirror each other, follow each other, share weight. There is clearly a close relationship between them. Meanwhile, the man performs a solo downstage left: slow, gestural, picking up something small, brushing dust very slowly. He is completely alone.
The lighting is a deep cold blue with sidelights. Everything slows right down. The mood is quiet, sad, melancholic — a complete contrast to Section 4's energy.
Actions
Duet: gesture · transfer of weight · stillness · embrace · turning · contracting. Solo: everyday gestures — picking up something small, slowly brushing off dust, looking, pausing.
Dynamics
Slow · smooth · flowing · vanishing · sustained. Mournful quality. Everything decelerates compared to Section 4. Quiet and contained.
Space
Duet upstage right. Solo downstage left — physically separated across the stage. Middle level. Small use of space throughout. Cold blue wash with sidelights.
Relationships
Duet: mirroring · lead and follow · action and reaction · shared weight — a close, supportive relationship. Solo man: isolated, alone. Counterpoint between the two groups.
Contrast
Manipulation of number
Motif & development
Contrast — the close, supportive female duet is placed directly against the isolated male solo. Two and one. Together and alone. This contrast is the whole point of the section.
Manipulation of number — 2 against 1. This is a specific choice: not a trio, not all three separate, but a pair and a single. It makes the man's isolation feel deliberate and pointed.
Motif & development — the everyday gesture vocabulary (picking up, brushing, looking) is developed from the arm gestures introduced in Section 1. But now they are magnified and slowed down so they feel deeply personal rather than anonymous.
Relationship term (RADS): The duet and solo happening simultaneously but independently is counterpoint — a relationship, not a choreographic device.
Click a statement to select it, then click the right slot.
💡 D and L are facts. I and E are your opinions.
D Describe✓
Click to place here
L Link✓
Click to place here
I Interpret✓
Click to place here
E Evaluate✓
Click to place here
Two female dancers perform a slow, supportive duet using mirroring, lead and follow and shared weight upstage right. Simultaneously, one male dancer performs a solo of slow, everyday gestures — picking up, brushing, pausing — downstage left. Cold blue lighting.
This links to McGregor's intent of showing hidden human emotions — here, the contrast between two people supporting each other and one person completely alone reveals different ways of experiencing grief or sadness, both of which usually stay hidden beneath the surface.
This could suggest someone who has received bad news or suffered a loss — the two women may know what has happened to him, while he processes it alone. The everyday gestures (picking up, brushing) could suggest someone going through the motions after something devastating.
This is effective because placing the supportive duet and the isolated solo side by side forces the audience to compare them. The contrast between togetherness and loneliness, in the same cold blue light, makes both feel more powerful than either would alone.
💬 Tap each card to see an interpretation or evaluation:
Interpret AThe whispering women turning away could suggest…›
This could suggest that the women know something about the man — bad news, a loss, a reason for his sadness — and are discussing it quietly before turning away. Whether they are leaving him to grieve alone out of respect or indifference is left open. McGregor gives us the moment, not the explanation.
Interpret BThe slow everyday gestures — picking up, brushing off — could suggest…›
This could suggest someone going through the motions after grief — doing ordinary things because you have to, even though nothing feels normal. In my opinion, the slow brushing of dust is one of the most affecting moments in the piece — a tiny action that feels enormous in the silence.
Interpret CTwo women supporting each other while the man is alone could suggest…›
This could suggest that grief is sometimes shared and sometimes completely private — even among people who know each other, everyone has their own way of carrying sadness. The city is full of people feeling things that those around them will never see.
Evaluate AThe deep contrast with Section 4 is effective because…›
This is effective because moving from twelve dancers in fast, tense rectangles to three people in slow, blue quiet is a huge emotional drop. The audience feels the stillness much more sharply because of what came before. McGregor uses the structure of the whole piece to make individual moments land harder.
Evaluate BUsing everyday gestures for grief is effective because…›
This is effective because everyone recognises the feeling of doing something very small and ordinary when you are in pain — making a cup of tea, tidying, adjusting something. It makes the man's emotion immediately relatable. McGregor's pedestrian language works here because it feels real.
💜 Your turn — 6d.4.3.d
What do you think has happened to the solo man? Does it feel like a loss, a disagreement, or something else? Use what you see — not what you assume — to explain your answer.
The women whisper and then walk away. Is that unkind, or is giving someone space to grieve alone actually the most respectful thing to do?
6d.4.4 Movement Example 4 — Section 7b: Collapse in a Crowd
4
Collapse in a Crowd — The Highlight
One female dancer + whole crowd · Every contrast · Approx. 23:13 – 25:00
A woman is centre stage. She spirals, slows, stops — and collapses to the floor, curling into herself. She is crying. At the same time, a large crowd of people walks across the stage from right to left — the whole cast plus extra performers in ordinary street clothes. They do not look at her. They do not stop. They walk straight past.
Everything McGregor does here is a contrast: many vs one, moving vs still, standing vs floor, oblivious vs private grief. And then, at this exact moment, look up at the LED screen above — the digital figures are walking in the same direction as the crowd. For one moment, the surface world and the world below it are the same. Which makes her the only thing that is different.
This is the highlight of the piece — not the most technically complex moment, but the most emotionally powerful. It is the moment McGregor's entire intent comes true in one image.
Actions
Solo: spiral · turn · pause · contract · collapse to floor · foetal position.
Crowd: walking only — continuous, ordinary pedestrian walking.
Crowd: walking only — continuous, ordinary pedestrian walking.
Dynamics
Solo: slow, heavy, weight descending, quiet despair. Crowd: steady, continuous, uniform — no variation. The contrast between the two makes both more visible.
Space
Solo: small — contracts from standing to floor, centre stage, facing audience. Crowd: large — full stage width, horizontal linear pathway, stage right to left. High level vs low level.
Relationships
The crowd is entirely oblivious to the solo dancer. No acknowledgement whatsoever. One person stops and looks — then keeps walking. Counterpoint: many vs one, walking vs collapse, oblivious vs private grief.
Look up at the LED screen during this section
The digital Opie figures above the stage walk in the same direction as the crowd. For one moment, the surface of the city (above) and the world below it are the same — ordinary, moving, forward-facing. The collapsed woman is the only thing that isn't.
Highlight
Contrast
Manipulation of number
Highlight — the most emotionally powerful single moment in the work. Different from the climax (Section 4), which was the most technically complex. The highlight is about emotional impact, not complexity.
Contrast — everything about the woman's movement contrasts with the crowd: direction, level, speed, weight, scale. McGregor uses every contrast available to make her impossible to ignore — and yet the crowd ignores her anyway.
Manipulation of number — moving from the 2 against 1 of Section 7a to the whole crowd against 1 here is a deliberate escalation. The isolation gets bigger even as the emotion gets quieter.
Relationship term (RADS): The crowd moving obliviously while the solo dancer collapses is counterpoint — a relationship between the two groups. Put this in your RADS Relationships analysis.
Click a statement to select it, then click the right slot.
💡 D and L are facts. I and E are your opinions.
D Describe✓
Click to place here
L Link✓
Click to place here
I Interpret✓
Click to place here
E Evaluate✓
Click to place here
A female dancer slowly spirals then collapses to the floor in a foetal position, centre stage. At the same time, a large crowd of people in ordinary street clothes walks continuously from stage right to stage left, completely ignoring her.
This is the highlight of the piece and directly shows McGregor's intent — a person's private grief goes completely unseen by the crowd around her, just as real emotions remain hidden beneath the surface of ordinary city life.
The crowd's complete obliviousness could suggest that this happens in real life all the time — someone could be falling apart in public and simply not be seen. Everyone in the crowd is too absorbed in their own world to notice what is happening in someone else's.
This is effective because it is the clearest and most direct statement of McGregor's whole idea. Everything in the piece has been building to this image — and the audience feels it because by now they have spent the whole performance watching people's hidden lives.
💬 Tap each card to see an interpretation or evaluation:
Interpret AThe crowd wearing ordinary street clothes could suggest…›
This could suggest these are not performers — they are meant to be real people. And real people walk past someone in pain every day in a city. McGregor is not judging them. He is simply showing something true: this is what ordinary city life looks like. It is not cruel. It is normal. That is the point.
Interpret BThe LED figures walking the same way as the crowd could suggest…›
In my opinion, this is the most important single moment in the whole piece. For once, above and below are identical — the city's surface and its hidden world are doing the same thing. Which means the woman on the floor is completely outside of both worlds. She is the only person who isn't moving forward.
Interpret CThe foetal position she curls into could suggest…›
This could suggest returning to the most basic, private human position — the body curling in on itself to protect itself. It is a position of complete vulnerability. In the middle of a crowd, surrounded by people, she is more alone than anyone else on stage.
Evaluate AThis moment is effective because everything has been leading to it…›
This is effective because the whole piece has been training the audience to see hidden emotions — in the solos, in the duets, in the rectangles. By the time this moment arrives, the audience is primed to care about what they see. McGregor has built the entire piece so that this one image lands as hard as it does.
Evaluate BThe contrast between many and one is effective because…›
This is effective because scale is doing the emotional work. The bigger the crowd gets, the smaller and more alone she looks. McGregor uses manipulation of number here not just structurally but emotionally — the crowd doesn't just fill the stage, it makes her grief feel impossible to miss and impossible to reach.
💜 Your turn — 6d.4.4.d
Have you ever been upset in a public space and felt invisible to the people around you? Or walked past someone who was clearly in distress? How did that feel? How does watching this moment relate to that?
Is the crowd being cruel? Or is their behaviour simply what cities do to people? Does McGregor want us to judge them — or just to see something true?
✍️ Revision Check — 6d.4
8 questions across all four sections. Answer all 8 then submit.
1. In the opening trio, what is the relationship between the three dancers?
2. For the exam, which duets in Section 4 (six rectangles) should you focus on?
3. What is different about box 3 compared to boxes 1 and 2 in Section 4?
4. What do the two women do at the very start of Section 7a that sets up the whole section?
5. What is the difference between the climax (Section 4) and the highlight (Section 7b)?
6. During the collapse in Section 7b, what happens on the LED screen above the stage?
7. Why is the crowd wearing ordinary street clothes in Section 7b?
8. In which section does counterpoint show "2 against 1" — and which shows "a whole crowd against 1"?
Take a screenshot of your score and paste it into your ePortfolio so your teacher can see your progress.