LEWIS MAJOR
Lewis Major is an award-winning regional South Australian choreographer, director and creative entrepreneur with a background in sheep shearing and a foreground in contemporary dance theatre. He is the only dance artist he’s ever heard of who can reverse parallel park a tractor and has visited all three axis-of-evil countries.
As a dancer and performer, Lewis honed his career in Europe over a decade, spending time 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), Damien Jalet, and Hofesh Shechter, amongst others.
Unabashedly audience-driven, his artistic work is driven by the ethos of “local focus, global outlook,” he presents surprisingly real dance works in multiple mediums to diverse audiences worldwide.
He has created 17 different works both independently and on commission and has presented them on 6 continents to widespread critical and commercial success at amongst others: Adelaide Festival, Adelaide Festival Centre, Sadler’s Wells, The Royal Opera House and The Place (UK); Galway International Arts Festival (IE), 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 Festival (Canada); Impulstanz Festival, Ars Electronica Festival (Austria); TED Global (Brazil) and TEDx London; Esplanade Theatres (Singapore); and the Baryshnikov Art Centre (NYC).
Selected choreographed works include: A State of Grace (2024), Lien (2023), Torrent (2023), Triptych (2024), Watershed: The Death of Dr. Duncan (2022), Monolith (2022), Ophelia (2021), Little Murmur (2021), The Last Seder (2021), Satori (2021), Unfolding (2021), S/WORDS (2021), Traffic (2020), Epilogue (2019), Body is What Remains (2019), Platypus (2019), Tension (2018), Losers (2018), Mysterious Journey (2017), Memory (2017), Sleep (2016), Spaces Between Us (2016), SUM (2016), Island (2015), Murmur (2014), Resonate (2014), Glasshouses (2013), Longing (2011) and Café Pruekel (2011)
Lewis has been awarded multiple coveted international choreographic residencies and is the recipient of the Frank Ford Award, John Chatway Innovation Award, Dame Roma Mitchell Churchill Fellowship for Excellence in the Performing Arts, a Regional Arts Australia Fellowship, an Impulstanz Vienna DanceWEB Scholarship, the Keith Bain Choreographic Travel Fellowship, Ian Potter Cultural Trust Travel Scholarship, the South Australian DEEWR Creative Young Stars Award, an AMP Foundation Tomorrow Maker Award, Ausdance Innovating in Dance Practice Award, City of Adelaide Business of Being Creative Award and he is an alumni of Business SA’s Young Entrepreneurship Scheme, Curve Theatre’s Young Arts Entrepreneurship program and Creative Australia’s Future Leaders Program. His work has won over 30 best dance works across festivals and performance programs in Australia and Internationally.
LEWIS MAJOR PROJECTS
Lewis Major Projects was created in 2015 to act as a vehicle for Lewis’ artistic activity and to initiate international exchange and collaborations. Originally based in Lyon, France, the company relocated its base to Lewis’ home state of South Australia in 2016.
Lewis Major Projects (LMP) exists to deliver exceptional creative experiences for audiences and to address the divide that sometimes separates live performance from regional Australia. We are based in rural South Australia and create our work here, work that can be seen across the world but is deeply rooted in our connection to our local community. We do not receive ongoing funding from any organisation or government agency but consistently deliver artistic output on a level with many of the funded organisations within our state.
Empowered by a vision to be a leader in the creation of new Australian dance, the company has been consistently recognised with major awards and significant commissioning and touring opportunities that highlight esteem in the company that is held throughout Australia and the world.
Lewis Major is our artistic director: his choreography is intensely physical, original, and theatrical, giving audiences a distinctly visceral total-art experience. His process is focused on rigour, collaboration, openness and experimentation. The artists we work with are inspired by the vibrancy, sophistication and inventiveness of Australian stories and the exhilarating challenges they pose to creating dance and dance theatre of genuine relevance in this modern time. In meeting this challenge, we position our work in a dynamic national and international conversation that is helping to define the future of dance practice.
