New David Bowie dance piece in development

A new dance work will celebrate the legacy of David Bowie.

Marcos Morau’s piece is titled Subject to Change – A Dance for David Bowie, and is in production by Sadler’s Wells, Bunkamura and La Veronal.

The UK premiere will take place at Sadler’s Wells Theatre in autumn 2028, following a world premiere in Luxembourg’s Les Théâtres de la Ville in spring 2028. An Asian premiere at Bunkamura in Tokyo is expected in spring 2029.

Morau, known for his abstract movement and physical theatre, will explore each Bowie persona and the cultural landscape they helped to transform. The piece will feature iconic Bowie songs and original vocals, reimagined and interwoven with choral sounds and vocalist María Arnal.

Musical direction comes from Alex Röser Vatiché and Ben Meerwein of OZCUR, with costume design by Silvia Delagneau and set design by Max Glaenzel.

Co-producers include Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg, LAC Lugano Arte e Cultura, La Biennale di Venezia, Centro Cultural de Belém (Lisboa/PT). Casting is to be confirmed.

Morau said: “David Bowie practised a form of artistic reincarnation. Throughout his career, he created a succession of personas and destroyed each one so that the next could be born. He appeared as Ziggy Stardust, then deliberately ended it to re-emerge as Aladdin Sane. He lived for a moment as Halloween Jack and later transformed into the Thin White Duke. Each time the persona changed, the previous one disappeared. The final transformation was Blackstar. Bowie turned his own death into part of the artwork itself.

He added that the show is “a work about that cycle of reincarnation,” commenting: “About the phenomenon itself: the act of dying and being reborn, again and again, as a way of remaining alive. I’m looking forward to having the opportunity to, in my own way, bring to life a new work that responds to Bowie’s creation, and re-creation, through dance. The cycle that Bowie enacted across his artistic life is re-enacted here, in sound and movement, in real time, on stage. It is an honour to create a new piece that takes its cue from an artist who is a great personal inspiration to me.”