Lewis Major: Triptych dance review – Light fantastic
Lewis Major refinines his striking fusion of dance, light and sound into something even more mesmerising
Under a warm Adelaide sky at WOMADelaide, Lewis Major unveiled a brand-new version of Triptych and somehow managed the near-impossible: improving on something that already felt close to perfect.
At its core, Triptych is a fusion of light, sound and dance. The stage becomes a living canvas where stark contrasts of light and dark, black and white play against each other, blurring the boundaries of contemporary dance and visual art. What could easily feel clinical instead becomes something strangely warm and human.
Major’s choreography leans into precision but never loses its sense of wonder. The dancers move with an almost painterly quality, their bodies carving shapes through space as if sketching lines across the air. Lighting design shifts the mood in an instant: one moment crisp and architectural, the next soft and dreamlike, turning the performers into silhouettes, shadows and bursts of motion. There’s a whimsical quality too; unexpected moments where the sheer beauty of the human body in motion feels playful rather than precious. The performers seem to flirt with gravity, folding and unfolding like living origami.
What makes this new iteration so striking is its clarity. Every element of soundscape, lighting and choreography locks together like clockwork, yet the overall effect feels effortless. It’s rare to see a work where design and movement speak so fluently to each other and rarer still to see an artist revisit their own creation and elevate it. Triptych doesn’t just blur the boundaries of contemporary dance, it redraws them entirely.
Triptych was reviewed at WOMADelaide and continues at Sir Robert Helpmann Theatre on March 17.