Vessel

Vessel traverses a very fine line between “what the hell am I watching?” and “I can’t stop watching”. Eerie music and near humanly impossible contortions of the human body make this both the weirdest and most captivating thing I’ve ever witnessed on stage – I simply couldn’t take my eyes off it.

This collaboration between French-Belgian choreographer Damien Jalet and Japanese sculptor Kohei Nawais was a truly unique work of art, visually striking with masterful technique. I mean, I don’t know anything about dance, but I can tell you that some of the positions that the seven dancers got themselves into seemed superhuman. As they tangled with one another, sometimes you couldn’t see where one body started and the other ended. The physical endurance it must have taken to maintain the ‘headlessness’ for a whole hour – that is, their arms always concealing their entire heads – seemed like it must have been incredibly painful to do whilst simultaneously intertwining and undulating their bodies. I was in absolute awe of their physical control and skill. The lack of identity, along with the nakedness (save for a pair of flesh-coloured shorts), gave the impression of some sort of non-human, alien entity, especially with movements that took their inspiration from different animals.

My only criticism is that in some places it seemed a little boring; the transitions between ‘scenes’ tended to drag on a bit, so in this regard a few cuts wouldn’t have gone amiss. However, maybe the decision to have them there was to maintain the delicate, almost unnerving atmosphere, which was created partly thanks to the musical compositions of Marihiko Hara and Ryūichi Sakamoto – less ‘music’ in the traditional sense, and more of a soundscape. Though I’m still not sure of what it all represented, the movements matched the score perfectly. It seemed to be about nature and life; what counts as human and what doesn’t.

It starts with the whole stage covered in water; our eyes trick us as we see both the dancers and their reflections. By the end, foam is being used as the main prop as the few remaining dancers cover themselves in it. It sounds weird thinking about it now, but at the time it seemed like it made perfect sense considering what I had been watching for the last 45 minutes. The whole production was like something set in outer space.

To be honest, I could see why this wouldn’t be for everyone. It’s a full hour of strange living art unfolding in front of your very eyes, but visually it was so mesmerising, and in that moment it was so special to be there. I wasn’t sure if I would ever see anything like it again. In fact, I would never have usually chosen to see something like this but I’m glad I did. With my newfound wisdom, my advice is: if you ever see an advertisement for a slightly strange production like this, take a chance and give it a go.

-4 stars