New dates added to Lewis Major's one-on-one dance show Lien at Edinburgh Festival Fringe

New dates added to Lewis Major’s one-on-one dance show Lien at Edinburgh Festival Fringe

New dates have been added for the UK premiere of Lien, an extraordinary one-on-one experience between a performer and a viewer, from choreographer-to-watch Lewis Major. Lien is one of two shows from Major being presented at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival by House of Oz, the philanthropic organisation whose mission is to platform Australian creative arts for export.

In Lien, one audience member and one dancer come together for ten minutes on an otherwise empty stage, the lights dimmed to near blackness. At first with their identities concealed, they begin a conversation. As a connection is made, the dancer begins to craft a performance in response. A singular ten-minute encounter unfolds, never to be repeated. This powerful and moving event is a testimony to community and empathy.

Based between the deep south of Australia and Adelaide, Lewis Major is a dance artist with a background in sheep shearing and a foreground in contemporary dance theatre. He grew up on his family’s 11,000-acre farm (more than half the size of Brighton), attended bush school and didn’t set foot in a theatre until his teens. He took up gymnastics but when he saw Garry Stewart’s work for Australian Dance Theatre was driven to move into dance. In his early 20s, while studying ballet at New Zealand School of Dance, he broke his back and discovered a congenital condition which took him away from performance and into choreography.  Lewis has worked with some of the biggest names in international contemporary dance including Akram Khan, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Russell Maliphant, Hofesh Shechter and Aakash Odedra. His company, Lewis Major Projects was in residence at the Centre National de la danse in Lyon until 2017 when he decided to move back to his home state of South Australia, feeling it was the right place to pursue his creation of unabashedly audience-driven work with a local focus and a global outlook.

From 2 to 25 August, Lewis Major’s triple bill, Triptych, featuring works by Major and Russell Maliphant, can be seen at Assembly @ Dance Base. Both shows are part of a portfolio of twelve shows that House of Oz is presenting on its third visit to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Listings information for both shows may be found at https://assemblyfestival.com/

Tickets begin at £14.

Lewis Major’s Triptych, Unfolding, photo Chris Herzfeld