In Threes

How often have you sat in a dance piece that felt too long? Lewis Major’s “Triptych” successfully rises to the challenge of creating an evening of dance, without overstretching an idea into boredom. We are treated to two of Major’s works and a short introductory work from Major’s mentor, Russell Maliphant. This allows the themes of the works to bounce against each other, similar to walking into a gallery and studying the different assembled works.

Performance

Lewis Major / Russell Maliphant: “Triptych”

Place

DanceBase, Edinburgh, Scotland, August, 2024

Words

Roísín O'Brien

Clementine Benson in “Unfolding” by Lewis Major. Photograph by Chris Herzfeld

Maliphant’s excellent “Two x Three” (developed from a solo for partner Dana Fouras in 1997) is pleasingly retro. Enclosed in sharp, delineated lighting blocks, the three dancers arch towards a pinprick of sound that intensifies and is then joined by a drum track. The likewise precise, torso-led choreography builds to an exact cacophony, where a fun, uncanny mirror effect takes over: the dancers are somewhat in sync and are never messy, but neither are they exact replicas of each other. “Two x Three” builds to its ending and finishes: perfect.

Clementine Benson and Elsi Faulks in Russell Maliphant's “Two x Three.” Photograph by Alessandro Botticelli

“Unfolding” from Major is a taut and complete artistic collaboration between Major’s fluid choreography, a driving composition by James Brown and crisp 3D animations from lighting designer Fausto Brusamolino. The stark contrast of lit and shadowy spaces, with moving beams of light that the dancers interact with while dressed in minimalist, utilitarian black clothes call to mind urban dystopias. You can almost feel a noir-ish glistening rain when Brusamolino’s makes the cut-glass beams of light fragment.

When the light is widened to cover more of the stage, Major’s wonderful dancers move in expansive arcs, ricocheting off each other. When it’s pared back down or incorporated with projections to create patterns reminiscent of cracked earth or galaxies, the dancers become figureheads for the abstract concepts layered onto them. A slightly clunky moment when the dancers remove their clothes is soon smoothed over when the stage is bathed in the warmth light, inviting a more human and gentler environment. With such abstraction, audiences can choose to map almost any philosophical concept or narrative journey onto what they see; but might instead experience “Unfolding” at a primarily sensory level. Either way, it is satisfying to see such an artistically whole piece of theatre.

Clementine Benson in Lewis Major's “Epilogue.” Photograph by Yo

From these cool environments, we travel to the first part of “Epilogue,” which is an intense duet that takes place under a radiating red landscape and is accompanied by powerful vocals from A Filetta. Maybe we are in a future scorched Earth—or have fled to Mars. Dancer Stefaan Morrow showcases an impressive combination of lithe floor work and vaulting tour en l’airs. When he is joined by Elsi Faulks, she intricately wraps herself around him, in sometimes caring or sad embraces. It’s a resonant, emotional counterpart to the complexity that has come before.

We end with “Epilogue” part two, a solo danced by with Clementine Benson. Benson starts as a poised statue framed by a pool of light, slowly shedding white powder to a composition by Dane Yates after Claude Debussy. You almost want Benson to remain here in this pooled circle, but the dance expands out, her circling footwork creating spirographs across the dusty floor. As the music veers out of its minimalist piano into an ominous reverberation, she ends back where she began; a poised Grecian statue. A final, refined artwork to consider upon exiting the “Triptych” gallery.

Roísín O'Brien

Róisín is a dance artist and writer based in Edinburgh, Scotland. She regularly writes for Springback Magazine, The Skinny and Seeing Dance, and has contributed to The Guardian and Film Stories. She loves being in the studio working on a new choreography with a group of dancers, or talking to brilliant people in the dance world about their projects and opinions. She tries not to spend too much time obsessing over Crystal Pite.

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