Lewis Major was born in country South Australia. He’s from the land and the open sky that goes with it. At first glance his work would seem to have nothing to do with a rural environment. The three pieces in the sleek, elegant Triptych zoom in tightly to look at bodies and how they respond in the presence of light.

Triptych. Photo © Jane Hobson

Triptych is as much a visual arts experience as it is dance. There are no characters, no narrative. There is, however, a powerful sense of the star-filled canopy above us as Major’s superlative dancers reach for the sky again and again and, particularly in the work titled Unfolding, could themselves be part of the cosmos. 

Other viewers may have an entirely different response. That’s the beauty of dance and of Triptych. It can hold multiple meanings simultaneously. Triptych can be small and vast. Nothing is wrong.

A brief trio, Prologue, is formal, gestural and hypnotic, suggesting some of the building blocks of classical dance. Unfolding is for a small group and awesome lighting – the adjective is appropriate – that deceives the eye and fools the...