Broken White Vessel 1995

A performance as part of the 1995 British Butoh festival. Broken White Vessel refers to the 22 bones which make up the human skull.

By far the most inventive and original piece of the evening was Nic Sandiland’s Broken White Vessel, a duet with Dianne Hepple, cellist Ian Thomposon and Yogos Askouris.

A multimedia piece incorporating live music, slides, and video, it opened with life-size images of each performer projected onto themselves. These apparitions seemed trapped inside their own bodies, the slightest movement insinuating torment.

Throughout the piece the cellists lay on the floor either side of the stage, their discordant sounds building fiercely, supporting a series of images on a video screen: snails, a bowl, rivulets of water.

The combination of effects and the slow, inevitable coming together of the dancer’s centre stage, created an absorbing and tense piece of work.

For me this was “New British Butoh”. Something truly original created through the concept of Butoh without relying on the image.

- Fiona Millward, Total Theatre, 1995

Credits

Performers: Dianne Hepple, Nic Sandiland

Directed by: Nic Sandiland

Cellists: Ian Thomposon, Yogos Askouris

Presentations

1995 Chisenhale Dance Space, London

1995 Institut Unzeit, Berlin