Sculpture Information

When I saw this white alabaster stone in the stone yard, I could see it had movement. As I carved, I found this dancing figure. I realised that he needed extra strength around the limbs. So left alabaster between the arms and legs. This gave the effect of a skirt with folds and a cloth blowing over the arms.

I have called it ‘Lord of the Dance’ after the song by Sydney Carter. In the song, Jesus dances from creation through to his death and resurrection. So, this is a resurrection dance. The stone on which the dancer stands is the type of stone that was made into Sarcophaguses in Egyptian pyramids and tombs. So, this resurrected dancer is upon a stone which symbolises death.

Whilst I was carving this piece the alabaster dancer split and I successfully rejoined the break with epoxy resin but one visitor, out of many, noticed the repair so I decided to make it a feature through repairing it with Kintsugi. The Japanese art of Kintsugi uses gold to repair cracks and celebrates brokenness as a strength. Fortuitously, the melded fracture matches the line in Carter’s song, ‘They cut me down, but I leapt up high. I am the life that will never, never die’.

This piece was also made into bronze at Pangolin Studios.