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ABOUT |
Lewis Major is an award-winning choreographer, director and creative entrepreneur with a background in sheep shearing and a foreground in contemporary dance theatre.
He honed his skills in dancemaking over a decade spent working with seminal contemporary dance makers Akram Khan, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Russell Maliphant, Hans van den Broeck (Cie Soit/Les Ballets C de la B), Hofesh Shechter and Aakash Odedra amongst others. Unabashedly audience driven, the ethos that drives his work is local focus, global outlook.
His company Lewis Major Projects presents surprisingly real dance works in multiple mediums to diverse audiences across the world, having created 17 different works both independently and on commission and having presented them on 6 continents to widespread critical acclaim.
His work has been presented at, amongst others, Aarhus (Denmark); Sadler's Wells, The Royal Opera House, The Place (UK); Festival de Mayo (Mexico); La Comete, Centre des Arts Enghien Les Bains, La Maison de la Musique de Nanterre, Maison des Arts de Creteil (France); Grand Théâtre de la Ville de Luxembourg (Luxembourg), PUSH Push Festival (Canada); Impulstanz Festival, Ars Electronica Festival (Austria); TED Global (Brazil) and TEDx London; Esplanade Theatres (Singapore); Lyric Theatre (Hong Kong) and the Baryshnikov Art Centre (NYC).
VISION
"The work that we create springs from an acute awareness that people can be put off by contemporary dance if they feel they don’t grasp what is unfolding in front of them and are failing a type of test. We steadfastly reject opaqueness in what we put on stage and our work is unabashedly audience driven.
My work is purposefully, and persistently, non-didactic. I don't want to lecture to audiences or people who come to see our shows; our work is there to act as a mirror. The mirror is a reflection that says: this is who you are, this is what you look like – if you don’t like what you see, why don’t you try and change it?
In creating the work, I don’t have an agenda or overarching political philosophy that I am trying to push through the images, atmosphere or messages that I or my collaborators create on stage. But, as with everything, there is a political influence: my work, as all art, is created under the pressure of a very politicised world and its discontents."
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"Collaboration is vital to my creative process. I form creative partnerships with like-minded artists across design, dramaturgy, sound & light to build an environment/atmosphere that is palpable & visceral. The environment we build is integral to the investigation of how the body relates to it, both physically & emotionally.
Being raised in the rural southeast of South Australia, there was a scarcity of art being made available to regional audiences as I was growing up; as an artist I am therefore passionate about making dance accessible. I consider myself a quintessentially Australian choreographer, making work that is relevant and revelatory to Australian audiences, whilst maintaining an international attitude and global outlook as a citizen of the world."
My work is purposefully, and persistently, non-didactic. I don't want to lecture to audiences or people who come to see our shows; our work is there to act as a mirror. The mirror is a reflection that says: this is who you are, this is what you look like – if you don’t like what you see, why don’t you try and change it?
In creating the work, I don’t have an agenda or overarching political philosophy that I am trying to push through the images, atmosphere or messages that I or my collaborators create on stage. But, as with everything, there is a political influence: my work, as all art, is created under the pressure of a very politicised world and its discontents."
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"Collaboration is vital to my creative process. I form creative partnerships with like-minded artists across design, dramaturgy, sound & light to build an environment/atmosphere that is palpable & visceral. The environment we build is integral to the investigation of how the body relates to it, both physically & emotionally.
Being raised in the rural southeast of South Australia, there was a scarcity of art being made available to regional audiences as I was growing up; as an artist I am therefore passionate about making dance accessible. I consider myself a quintessentially Australian choreographer, making work that is relevant and revelatory to Australian audiences, whilst maintaining an international attitude and global outlook as a citizen of the world."
LEWIS MAJOR PROJECTS
Lewis Major Projects was created in 2015 to act as a vehicle for Lewis' artistic activity and to initiate international exchange. Originally based in Lyon, France, and resident at the Centre National de la danse, in 2016, the company relocated its base to the Australia. Lewis Major Projects exists to deliver exceptional creative experiences for audiences in our home in Australia, and around the world.