ZACHOR: Honoring WWII Holocaust Survivors Through Dance
Teen Intensive 2023 - Dance Film Focus
Dates: Monday, August 14th - Friday, August 18th, 2023
Time: 10:00 am - 3:00 pm daily
For Intermediate/Advanced Dancers Ages 14-18
Location: The Foundry, 101 Rogers St. Cambridge, MA, 02142
Tuition: Free!
Join us for a free, week-long summer intensive program exploring the life and music of Mieczyslaw Weinberg, a Jewish-Polish composer who created brilliant classical compositions with Jewish themes. At 20 years old, when the Nazis invaded, Weinberg fled to the Soviet Union and was the only member of his family to survive the Holocaust. With his music, he kept alive a whole world of his family and culture that had perished. On account of antisemitism in the Soviet Union, his work with these Jewish influences received heavy pushback, preventing it from ever reaching the level of global recognition it should have had. Perhaps we can help restore some of that deserved legacy to his name by sharing his story and creating new work inspired by his today.
Participants will have the opportunity to engage with this history through dance, discussion, collaboration and creation in a deeply resonant way. Each morning, students will take a contemporary technique class followed by an improvisation and composition class to expand their choreographic toolkits. In the afternoons, students will engage in discussions on Weinberg's story, hear from guest speakers, generate ideas on how to share his story through movement, and work collaboratively to build choreography. Guest speakers will include musicians and scholars who have studied Weinberg's work, as well as a dance videographer to provide tools for the students to brainstorm about how they will frame their choreography through storytelling and film. In addition to engaging with this important history, participants will explore their creative voices, and develop skills for leadership, collaboration, and communication throughout the program.
On Sunday, August 13th, we will have an orientation discussion and dinner from 4:00-7:00 pm. At the orientation, we will present and discuss some of the research materials that the students will be working with throughout the week. On Friday, August 18th we will work until 4:30 pm, as we will film the final project. Participants must be available for all of these dates in order to participate in the intensive. No previous experience with Holocaust education is required.
About ZACHOR:
ZACHOR is an ongoing project series which seeks to preserve the words of WWII Holocaust Survivors through dance. ZACHOR creates opportunities for diverse groups of artists and audiences to study and reflect on these testimonies in a non-religious setting. Director Rachel Linsky strongly believes that thorough Holocaust education, especially when explored through the universal language of movement, has the power to bring people together to find common goals that bridge pre-existing divisions.
Learn more and see past works of ZACHOR here:
https://www.rachellinsky.com/zachor.htmlAbout the director:
Rachel Linsky is a Boston-based contemporary dance artist. She holds a B.F.A. in Dance Performance and Choreography and a B.A in Arts Administration from Elon University where she graduated summa cum laude. She directs and choreographs ZACHOR, an ongoing series that seeks to preserve the words of WWII Holocaust survivors through dance. She has presented work at venues throughout Boston including New England Conservatory, the Boston Center for the Arts and The Huntington Theater. She has presented dance films in national and international festivals such as Earl Mosely’s Diversity of Dance “Dance is Activism Film Festival'', Prague International Film Festival, and many more. Rachel is one of the 2022-23 JArts and CJP Community Creative Fellows, and a member of the Next Steps for Boston Dance cohort. She has been awarded funding by the New England Foundation for the Arts, The City of Boston, Combined Jewish Philanthropies, The Russell J. Efros Foundation, and The Beker Foundation. In addition to her choreographic work, Rachel dances with KAIROS Dance Theater and The Click and teaches with Koltun Ballet Boston.Please send any questions to Rachel Linsky, at
Rachellinsky411@gmail.com, with the subject line “ZACHOR Teen Intensive”
This program is made possible by the generous support of The Beker Foundation
Applications due by Sunday July 2nd, 11:59 PM. Participants will be notified of their acceptance on a rolling basis!
