Why Virginia Woolf? Wayne McGregor on the inspiration behind Woolf Works (The Royal Ballet)

McGregor’s critically acclaimed ballet triptych is set to music by British composer Max Richter and is inspired by the works of Virginia Woolf. Wayne McGregor’s Woolf Works will be performed at the Royal Opera House 17 January – 13 February 2026. Book tickets now – https://www.rbo.org.uk/tickets-and-ev... Woolf Works is available to watch now – along with over 80 other extraordinary productions – on Royal Ballet and Opera Stream. Watch the whole performance now at https://www.rbo.org.uk/tickets-and-ev... Each act of the ballet draws on one of Virginia Woolf's best-loved novels – Mrs Dalloway, Orlando and The Waves – as well as extracts of her autobiographical writings, to capture her unique way of representing the world. Wayne McGregor’s ballet triptych Woolf Works, inspired by the writings of Virginia Woolf, met with outstanding critical acclaim on its premiere in 2015, and went on to win McGregor the Critics’ Circle Award for Best Classical Choreography and the Olivier Award for Best New Dance Production. The Observer described it as ‘a compellingly moving experience’; for The Independent it ‘glows with ambition… a brave, thoughtful work’; The Guardian concluded that ‘it takes both McGregor – and the concept of the three-act ballet – to a brave and entirely exhilarating new place’. Each of the three acts springs from one of Woolf’s landmark novels: Mrs Dalloway, Orlando and The Waves – but these inspirations are also enmeshed with elements from her letters, essays and diaries. Woolf Works expresses the heart of an artistic life driven to discover a freer, uniquely modern realism, and brings to life Woolf’s world of ‘granite and rainbow’, where human beings are at once both physical body and uncontained essence. Woolf Works was McGregor’s first full-length work for The Royal Ballet, and saw him reunited with regular collaborator Max Richter, who provides a commissioned score incorporating electronic and orchestral music.