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Lewis Major: Triptych

 
Stephanie Green Review by Stephanie Green 5 Published: 13 Aug 2024 Assembly @ Dance Base Show Dates: 2 Aug 2024-25 Aug 2024

Mesmerising and minimalist in style, this quadruple bill of dance and light will stay in your memory as dance, lighting, and music all meld into an exquisite whole. The first piece, Two X Three, is choreographed by Russell Maliphant, and echoed in style by the Australian Lewis Major, who choreographs the second piece, Unfolding, and has been mentored by Maliphant and worked with Akram Khan, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, and others.

The precision and simplicity is intensely moving

Two X Three was originally created for Maliphant’s wife, then expanded for three dancers in three spotlit diamond-shaped areas, designed by Michael Hulls. The dancer at the front, Clementine Benson, is arresting, standing still with one arm raised, which she then slowly lowers to the sound of a single electronic note falling intermittently like a water drop. A slow turn of the head. The audience is rapt, proving that less is more. Two more dancers in spotlit diamonds behind her eventually join in, copying her movements. The precision and simplicity are intensely moving, considering how abstract it is. All is in the intensity.

In Unfolding, a wide shaft of light (designed by Fausto Brusamolino) rakes the stage, and the dancers, joined by Macon Riley, are briefly illuminated. Again, the choreography is simple, less static, with rotations and arms raised in fifth or third, but as the electronic music becomes more frantic, the light washes over the stage like foam. As the dancers lie on the floor, the light plays over them, then shrinks to a single circle before it disappears. Spellbinding.

Lewis Major is not only the choreographer but also the lighting designer of the last two pieces, Act 1 and Act 2 of Epilogue. Act 1 starts with Elsi Faulks balanced on the back of Stefaan Morrow, who is lying on the floor. An amusing beginning develops into an astounding exhibition of strength by Morrow and agility by Faulks, as her body never touches the ground throughout the piece while he lifts and swings her around his body, over his shoulders, and back again, twisting and turning her. Morrow’s panting is clearly audible, making the stamina required evident. The lighting is more sombre, with much of the stage in darkness, matching this almost grim sequence of bravado.

The mood is beautifully contrasted in Act 2 with a meditative, slow solo by Clementine Benson, who appears centre stage out of the darkness in a nude-like costume with her blonde hair loose down her back. One hand is raised, and her statuesque posture is reminiscent of Maliphant’s in the first piece. White powder falls gently from her shoulders, and then as she moves slowly, more powder descends from her upturned hands, her stomach, and her back, as she creates circles with the powder on the floor with her feet. Finally, as she shakes her hair, a torrent.

Lewis Major is clearly an emerging star as a choreographer—quite a journey for someone who started life as a sheep-shearer.

Amir Nisi

Stephanie Green

Stephanie Green has reviewed Theatre and Dance in Edinburgh since 2011 but previously travelled widely, mainly in Eastern Europe and Russia, writing about puppetry. She also studied shadow puppetry and sacred dance in Bali. In the 1970s, she trained as a puppeteer at the Little Angel, London and later worked at the alternative In the Heart of the Beast Mask and Puppet Theater in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.A. After training at the Place, the London School of Contemporary Dance, in her 20s she then gave up dancing until starting again in her 60s just for fun. She has recently danced in a community group with Barrowland Ballet (at the Edinburgh Fringe, 2013), Oceanallover and at the South Bank, London as part of the Festival of the Silver Age. She is also a novelist, playwright and poet. www.stephaniegreen.org.uk/

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The Blurb:

A unique collaboration performance between the rising star of Australian dance, choreographer-director Lewis Major, and his company, with his mentor 'Britain's leading modern dance creator' (Daily Express), the legendary Russell Maliphant OBE. Three unique repertoire pieces investigate various poetic possibilities, universal rhythms and cycles performed by Major's company of dancers. This is a captivating evening of dance, of connection between internal and external worlds – of non-duality – all set within a whirling maelstrom of movement, sound and light.
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