Chiaro:Scuro is a musical dance show by Broken Rhythms Dance Company that purportedly takes inspiration from the film noir genre and Germanic expressionism to create a performance rich with meaning, although as an abstract piece, the audience could be forgiven for missing all of it. According to the description, the performance “ties together the light and dark of the human condition and uncovers motivations that can lead to paranoia, inner turmoil and murder,” but there are arguably no definitive indications of any sort of plot or story outside of some abstract conceptualism using a few simple props. Despite this, the talent of the dancers and choreographers shines brightly here, and it’s a joy to behold simply for the emotional spectacle.
Performed on a small dark stage hazed in fog and illuminated by chromatic lighting, six dancers undulate and roil betwixt one another in a series of movements that are skillfully executed and well-paced, ranging from absolute stillness to a chaotic frenzy. The first impression I had was a tryst between Thriller and smooth jazz, but throughout the show the music and dancing constantly evolved, punctuated by rhythmic, raw hisses and other abstract respiratory vocalizations from the performers themselves. Sometimes somber and beautiful, in other moments frenetic and nightmarish, the piece brings the audience on an emotional journey that belongs as much to the viewer as the performer, and this highlights an often overlooked aspect of abstract art.
The term “interpretive dance” is usually used somewhat disparagingly by onlookers whose principle reflection of what they’ve just witnessed is that they had no idea what in blue blazes was going on. Unlike more reserved forms of dance and performance, which might throw the audience a bone in the form of a discernible plot and characters or a series of movements that boast a minimal level of grounded continuity, interpretive dance tends to have none of these things at face value, instead appearing to be a wild and unhinged flailing of wild and unhinged “performance artists.”
However, I believe the downfall of the very concept of abstract interpretive dance, from an outside perspective, is that it implicitly requires the viewer to interpret the dancing. Through the common understanding that art holds latent meaning, a viewer who finds themselves unable to extract this meaning unconsciously feels disadvantaged and uncomfortable, so therefore considers the experience distasteful. This extends to any sort of abstract art.
Yet, through witnessing Chiaro:Scuro, it has dawned upon me that the key to appreciating abstract or interpretive art is to absolve oneself of the demand to derive any sort of meaning from it whatsoever. In this way, it is simply expressive art, wherein the artist is expressing an emotional experience, and the viewer is receiving that emotional experience on a level not requiring cognitive comprehension.
There’s undoubtedly a rich tapestry of meaning expressed within Chiaro:Scuro, and I for one am perfectly happy to allow all of it to soar majestically over my head. We live in an era where ham-fisted political messaging and moral grandstanding is applauded and even expected from any sort of artistic media, and I find myself delighted to encounter the rare occurrences where I can observe a piece of contemporary media without being forced to endure a quivering mass of irrelevant meaning being violently crammed down my gullet. Chiaro:Scuro was a beautiful bit of dance and music by a small group of extremely talented artists, and that’s all I ever wanted it to be.