The ongoing story

So we have finished the Book of Lamentations, but the need and opportunities to find expression for grief are far from over. Learning to lament is an ongoing story. We carry hurt with us in our hearts that surfaces and surprises us when we least expect it. New hurts big and small pierce our hearts when we least expect it. This world is flawed and will give rise to lament every single day.

And we can find lamentations where we least expect it.

I had an evening alone in London on Friday night and decided to go to a performance at the Place, the home of the London Contemporary Dance School. The school that my dance teacher Eliot Smith attended not so very long ago. I was curious. I just wanted to see inside.

The performance was billed as An evening of explosive hip-hop and contemporary premieres. I had my expectations. We always do. I expected Diversity. Diversity the dance troupe not diversity of demographic – this was the London Contemporary Dance School after all. Damn those expectations!

Of course, I couldn’t have been more wrong. Now I love street dance and that would have been fine too, but given the journey I have been on this month, this was like the perfect evening of dance for me. It was as if Joseph Toonga and Just Us Dance Theatre had got the memo that read Helen Redfern is coming tonight. She’s been studying Lamentations but you need to show her how it’s really done.

Eight individual premieres each expressing different aspects of the soul. Movement that touched the soul. Expression that pierced the soul. Music that connected with the soul. Each performer explored the depths of their own soul and lay out all their anger, frustration, pain, isolation on that stage for all to witness. It was uncomfortable and distressing. You’re tempted to turn away because it’s all too much but you can’t. You’re mesmerised.

And so as Dickson Mbi presents Duende –

The invitation to connect and see a live spirit coming in and out of its vessel can sometimes be overwhelming.

It was. Breathtaking. Beyond words. There are no words. If there were words, then why would we need dance at all?

When Boy Blue Entertainment performed NOIR, it had the feel of a Spiritual – that sense of expressing oppression and exploitation. The struggles were difficult to watch but the tender support of one man for another was heartrending. Sixteen grown men of all shapes and sizes and life experiences came together as one to express their strengths and weaknesses in the face of the struggle – each in his own way and yet united in their desire to be there for each other.

In the duets between Joseph Toonga and Dickson Mbi (It’s Between Us) and Ricardo Da Silva and Botis Seva (It’s OK), there’s a journey of struggle –

A journey of struggle as two friends support each other and find a solution.

A journey of struggle to explore fears and inner thoughts. In the second piece, the older man is frustrated with the younger guy because he cannot find a way to express his lament. He reaches out to him and is rejected. He calls out to him and is ignored. He’s so frustrated. And then there is a glimpse of release – a moment of abandon – until fear takes over and the lament is locked up inside again.

By now, I was convinced this evening of premieres was trying to tell me something. That it had been put together especially for me. Except that at the end of each work, the response was astonishing. Everyone felt the same. Every member of the audience remembered to breathe again. They exhaled that breath they had been holding. Some were on their feet. Some cheering. All applauding. Each one knew they had witnessed something exceptional.

The dancers knew it too. They were spent. They had exposed their souls and made themselves vulnerable. They had expressed their lament. It had cost them in blood and sweat and tears. They had held nothing back. They had reached out of their hearts to each other and to each member of the audience.

Thank you.

And so sorry the rest of you couldn’t be there.

But if you want music that expresses lament, have a listen to Jocelyn Pook, Armand Amar, Torben Lars Sylvest and Max Richter.

If you want images that express lament, check out Dickson Mbi.

Be on the lookout for expressions of lament. They surround us. Hearts are breaking all around us and lament breaks out through creativity. Art reveals the soul – the lamenting soul – in a way that nothing else can.