In 2020, the eight commissioned artists of the Keir Choreographic Award share their Development Diaries with us. Works will be developed all over Australia, with the four finalists performing at Carriageworks in the finale season, 12-14 March.
In this diary we follow Adelaide-based artist Lewis Major.
3 Mar 2020
Lewis Major presents his work ‘Lien’ in Melbourne at Dancehouse for the 2020 Keir Choreographic Award Semi Final.
24 Feb 2020
Lewis shares the details of his work for KCA 2020, Lien.
With major fluctuations and disruptions presenting themselves across the world, Major observes an increased awareness of the competing identities that exist within himself as an artist and within his work. Lien is concerned with cultural, artistic and autobiographical notions of being between places and groups as well as concepts of division, hierarchy, conquest, colonization — the thraldom of man by man. Unpacking the world that our ancestors have bequeathed to us, Lien interrogates the foundations of our current zeitgeist and asks at what price we enjoy the comforts we have inherited. The work explores the degree to which we are responsible for the deeds and the choices of those from whom we descend. As we build our own stories and our own world in relation to theirs, Lien flows from private to public, intimacy to extroversion, and the individual to the collective. Choices of connection, space and community are made between the performers and the audience. Through the dual lenses of action and inaction, Major investigates the complex and unrelenting theme of man against the world and the personal versus the political.
Lewis Major is a Bungandidj artist with a background in sheep farming and a foreground in experimental dance theatre. He examines everything from the physical body and its relation to conceptual thought, feminism, queer and gender coding in body language, transforming identity, freedom, different forms of expression and behavioural representations in diverse cultural contexts. Major has presented work at, amongst others, TED Global (Brazil), Baryshnikov Art Centre (NYC) and The Place (London).
See images of Lewis’ previous works below.
