Tuesday 2 September 2025

Eternity Theatre, Darlinghurst

Lewis Major Projects

Review by Paul Neeson (Arts Wednesday)

Through a series of curious circumstances, Lewis Major went from a future as a sheep shearer in South Australia to becoming a celebrated choreographer. He left the farm to learn dance, but an onstage accident left him unable to pursue a career as a dancer, and fast-tracked his move to choreography. His story is similar to that of Shaun Parker who went from living on a grape-growing property near Mildura to become one of the leading contemporary choreographers today. What is it about the rural life in southern Australia that produces such talent?

Lewis Major’s work Triptych is featuring now until 6 September after a season at the Edinburgh Fringe. Let me say it is wonderful to have the Eternity Theatre finally re-open for the Sydney Fringe Festival. This triple bill is a combination of stunning lighting effects, eclectic music scores and excellence in contemporary work from his dancers. Throughout the choreography there was a constant motif of circling; circling around each other, circling around the space, circling around the topic. The beauty Major creates from that simple premise shows a mind of endless variation.

The opening work on the program, Prologue, is a short intense piece with electronic score by Koki Nakano. It begins slowly and in very low light creating a somewhat shadowy ambiance, but gradually ramps up in speed, movement and light. From the outset we get a sense that Major’s work explores the poetry of the human body. Don’t necessarily look for meanings, just enjoy the beauty, the shapes and the silhouettes that he creates, simultaneously geometric and organic, that conjur a sense of balance, stability, and harmony giving us a focal point. It feels like we’ve arrived but conversely still have far to go.

This was followed by Unfolding, a piece that has had a successful life as a stand-alone work and deservedly was positioned as the centre-piece of Triptych. Choreographed for five dancers, they formed mainly in pairs, m/f, f/f and finally m/m, disrupting our sense of the gender binary. In dance, especially contemporary dance, meaning is only alluded to and it is always up to the viewer to decide their own interpretation. Again a harsh electronic score, this time by James Brown (no not that one) kept the viewer off balance. But the hero of this work is the lighting by Fausto Brusamolino. The single overhead light complete with lasers, produced an endless array of bright white light that varied from razor-sharp square stabs of light that the dancers moved through, to shimmering underwater effects. The dancing and the lighting were constantly echoing each other, so that the light became one of the troupe. The binaries set up with stark white and pitch black, and also harsh and unsettling moods to calming pulsing ripples, established a dialogue that was at once, captivating and mesmerising. But throughout, the fluidity of the choreography was what held it all together. 

The final piece, Epilogue,  is a workin 2 acts: Lament and Act 2. Lament is a pas de deux with a score by A Filetta. The choreography again is primarily about creating an endless array of forms and contours as the dancers perform the work; Stefaan Morrow and Rebecca Bassett Graham glued together in an incredibly intimate display of sensual fluid dance. But it was the final work Act 2 that stole the show for me. A lonely solo performer, Rebecca Bassett Graham, held our gaze as she began statue-like under a single spotlight, the dust with which she was covered filling the air and mixing with the smoke that had permeated the theatre from the outset. And it was in this piece that the circling motif reached its peak, as the lonely figure traced a circle in the dust with her foot. The circle became wider and more encompassing as the steps became more animated. The inclusion of Debussy’s Clair de Lune added to the dreaminess of the choreography: solo dancer against solo piano. Brilliant!

Lewis Major only obliquely presents us with meanings and narratives. His style is not about that, but more about creating structures, illusions and emotions. You get a sense of his resistance to meaning by the titles of his work – Prologue, Unfolding and Epilogue. Not a lot of clues to work with there (although  Unfolding does give you a sense of the choreography). But his ability to combine a beautiful style of dance with electrifying music and lighting is really where his strength lies. 

I can only give thanks to all the graziers and viticulturists who rear not only great agricultural produce but highly talented artistic children.