The ballet was McGregor's first new work for The Royal Ballet in two years, and was created for Bernstein's centennial.[1] The ballet is performed by eleven dancers.[2] The sets are designed by Edmund de Waal, a writer and potter, and features light boxes.[2] The costumes are designed by Shirin Guild, and all dancers are in red loose-fitted outfits.[2] The title of the ballet means the "beauty evoked with an economy of means" in Japanese (幽玄 in kanji).[1][2]
The Guardian's Judith Mackrell wrote, "McGregor’s choreography is expertly musical, seeking out the lyricism of Bernstein’s melodies in long, floating lines, and riding its energies in such cleverly massed configurations that his modest ensemble can look like a tribe."[7]Roslyn Sulcas of the New York Times commented, "remains intensely responsive to the slightly strange fusion of sacred text and tone, with jazzy undercurrents in 'Chichester Psalms.'"[1] The Evening Standard's Emma Byrne wrote that Yugen "marks a new maturity: gone are the attention-grabbing pyrotechnics, and in their place just sumptuous, lyrical movement."[8]
