Review: GOOD GRIEF: SONGS OF THE MOON AND THE UNBROKEN CIRCLE at Kennedy Center

In Good Grief: Songs of the Moon and The Unbroken Circle creator Tariq Darrell O’Meally explores how we become more than what we’ve lost. His answer: we must grieve a person as much as we have loved them and balance loss with praise and celebration.

The world premiere is the culmination of the 2022–23 Local Dance Commissioning Project awarded to O’Meally. The Local Dance Commissioning Project is given annually by the Kennedy Center to advance the creative and professional work of a DC-area artist and the local dance community as a whole. The resulting production features local artists.

O’Meally describes the work as an “enveloping dance odyssey.” Not only do the dancers gather, encircle and connect on the stage, but the production uses the entire space of the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater – dancers progress through the aisles, speak from the back of the house, sit and read from the seats, move backward down the steps. There is no “fourth wall” to separate the performers and audience – we actively inhabit the space together. At times it can be confusing to locate where a voice or movement originates – just as grief can be disorienting and perplexing.

Although the proscenium stage is a high and wide expanse, we appreciate the human scale of the five dancers who powerfully command and claim the space. Particularly when the artists are lit from the side as they are early in the performance, the dancers are etched with a corona of light that defines the performers’ bodies.

Dramaturg Sarah Beth Oppenheim says, “This dance is a lifeboat. Shifting tides of the moon and the waves are key.” We see the water elements in the dancers’ movements – a pulling undertow or whirling eddy, undulating ripples, crashing waves. The motion is often deep and dangerous, full of force and energy – dancer Malik Burnett spinning then stretching off-center into a beautiful line from earth to sky or Tariq Darrell O’Meally extending a powerful phrase to the very end of his fingers.

When the dancers come together to soothe, connect and comfort it is a surprise to realize that in a narrative of grief and sorrow, it is relatively late into the 90-minute performance before the village comes together in this way to console and to ease each other’s pain.

Performers are in loose grey or black contemporary street clothes. Props and costumes are minimal with the memorable exception of a black, wide-brimmed, veiled hat – a mourner’s widow’s weeds. At times the veiling serves as a jail, trapping dancer King Molasses. As the dancer leaves the stage and slowly ascends the aisle of the Terrace Theatre, the veil trails behind, persistent and inescapable.

The production interweaves music and spoken word – personal narratives of the artists. Frequently there is ambient music with obscured human voice, but Good Grief also effectively incorporates known contemporary music. The choreography to the live recording of Aretha Franklin’s “Never Grow Old” is effervescent and joyful. In contrast, Kendrick Lamar’s “United in Grief” is percussive, staccato and intense as the lyrics echo, “I grieve different; I grieve different.” The quiet of James Blake’s “Retrograde” and a melancholy “Save the Last Dance for Me” also transport us.

Lighting by Dylan Uremovich washes the dancers in color from every direction: from the side, instruments aimed at the audience or follow-spots. In one beautiful effect, O’Meally is bathed in red, becoming a beating human heart.

Good Grief is full of heart and humanity. It moves us in a journey through pain, love, longing, rebuilding and community.

Runtime: 90 minutes with no intermission

GOOD GRIEF: SONGS OF THE MOON AND THE UNBROKEN CIRCLE is presented by The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on Friday, May 26 and Saturday, May 27 as the culmination of the 2022-2023 Local Dance Commissioning Project. For further information visit the Kennedy Center’s Click Here.

GOOD GRIEF: SONGS OF THE MOON AND THE UNBROKEN CIRCLE’s choreographic director is Tariq Darrell O’Meally. Sarah Beth Oppenheim is dramaturg. Candace Scarborough is collaborating choreographer of the blak hermyt solo. Marc Bamuthi Joseph and Nejla Yatkin provide peer support. Kat Rothman is stage manager. Sound design is by slowdanger: taylor knight & anna thompson, in collaboration with Tariq Darrell O’Meally; lighting design by Dylan Uremovich, costume design by Faryn Kelly and Tariq Darrell O’Meally.

The dance artists of GOOD GRIEF: SONGS OF THE MOON AND THE UNBROKEN CIRCLE are Jamison Curcio, dani tirrell, King Molasses, Malik Burnett and Tariq Darrell O’Meally.

Photos by Kyle Andercyk