Creative
Choreography: Lewis Major with the dancers
Lighting Design: Fausto Brusamolino
Dramaturg: Lou Cope
Music: James Brown
Design and Costume: Oliver Lacoon Williamson and Lewis Major
Stills
Work
A tribe flung together in an abandoned theatre as the world burned outside. Rules, rituals, and wry hope.
The genesis of S/WORDS found a tribe of wayward performers flung together in the refuge of an abandoned theatre as the world descended into chaos outside. Negotiating the rules, rituals and traditions that brought us to this place, the wry hope carried while making the work was that the new world emerging from the ashes of the old might focus on the things worth focusing on.
In no man’s land, in monotonous limbo, the act of creating and of caring for one another became an expression of resistance.
Built in home studios in the Adelaide Hills and Mount Gambier through 2020, then brought into the Space Theatre for Adelaide Festival 2021. S/WORDS and Unfolding became, for the company, the living embodiment of that commodity in such short supply that year: hope.
Return
No current booking. First seen as a double bill with Unfolding at Adelaide Festival 2021. Unfolding now sits inside Triptych.
Trailer
Adelaide Festival 2021 — S/WORDS and Unfolding.
Stills
Credits
Choreography: Lewis Major with the dancers
Lighting Design: Fausto Brusamolino
Dramaturg: Lou Cope
Music: James Brown
Design and Costume: Oliver Lacoon Williamson and Lewis Major
Director: Lewis Major
Producer: Rebecca Pearce
Rehearsal Director: Sarah Wilson
Photography: Chris Herzfeld / Camlight Productions
Presented by Lewis Major Projects. Assisted by the Australia Council, the Department of Premier and Cabinet and Country Arts SA.
Clementine Benson, Paulo Castro, Sam Coren, Christopher Dyke, Sam Hall, Stefaan Morrow, Lily Potger, Michael Ramsay, Sophia Van Gent, Georgia Van Gils, Jo Stone, Sarah Wilson
Press
“Unfolding and S/WORDS borders on perfection. Both bills are captivating, revelling in the experimentation and skill that contemporary dance demands. A festival highlight.”
Arts Hub
“A double bill of contemporary dance by locally grown, globally minded choreographer Lewis Major invites a meditation on the universal truths of our times through two contrasting, memorable performances.”
InReview
“Future Festival directors take note: home grown work deserves to be programmed on its own merit!”
Maggie Tonkin, Dance Australia
“There is much youthful exuberance and idealism in this double header. A fitting way to finish the 2021 Adelaide Festival of Arts.”
HiFiWay
History
11–14 Mar 2021
S/WORDS + Unfolding
Space Theatre, Adelaide Festival
2021
S/WORDS
Sir Robert Helpmann Theatre, Mount Gambier