Grief Point: Dancing in the Abyss

“Grief Point,” an award-winning solo contemporary dance choreographed by Sidra Bell and performed by Moo Kim, invites viewers into a universal aspect of grief that is often considered a private experience in the Western world. “Grief Point” is based on Loscil’s ambient stream-of-consciousness song “The Making of Grief Point,” and evokes the listless, isolated and monochromatic experience of grief that is not shared, mirrored or validated by the presence of others. “Grief Point” as performed by Kim seems to convey, through a single human form, a widespread cultural issue around the lack of public, institutional and social validation available to those who walk in the shadow of their unprocessed grief.

Choreographer Sidra Bell
(Credit: vancouversun.com)

Kim moves into and out of shadow, as if through foggy memories and half-formed opinions. Like the words accompanying him, he seems at times arrested by intense emotion and at others to fall apart in the darkness. “I often come home at night depressed by what we have done, what we are doing. It’s good; it means I’ve changed,” the disembodied voice declares. This is followed by, “I have lost interest in music. It is horrible.” This internal dissection shifts later into a reflection of how mainstream society devalues the experience of grief: “I think the world does not like me grim; it likes me melancholic but not miserable.”

Sometimes when we are bereaved and grieving, solutions are not needed, and healing is not desired. Rather, a reflection, an indicator that we are not alone in the experience, is what we require. “Grief Point” — as arresting, disturbing and fractured as it is — is for these reasons a powerful companion in times of and loneliness and loss.