A Jewish Child’s Story, is an autobiographical dance multimedia work of early dreams from a granddaughter of Jewish immigrants, and research on the Holocaust connected to relatives never known.
A Jewish Child’s Story was originally made possible in part by a WORD Artist Grant, the Bruce Geller Memorial Prize award to Louise Reichlin in March 2016. Part I was first performed in an outside festival (the San Pedro Arts Festival) and we were able to develop the work with several residencies in theaters donated by the city of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Dept and the NEA here in LA, and we now have some video and photos from there. Besides the actual performance, we are available for master classes for any level- elementary school through college and to non-dancers, and to discussions on the material. We performed both Part I at schools, and Part II at the Orange County Dance Festival in 2017. The complete work was premiered at the Clark Center Main Theater in Las Vegas in January 2018 with some of our other works. It was awarded a grant by the city of Culver City for a February performance, and was selected and performed for the HHII Festival in Santa Barbara in March 2018, with the Los Angeles premiere of the full piece as part of the company’s “40th Anniversary Celebration” in October 2019.
A Jewish Child’s Story, Part I
The Roses on my Wallpaper- A Dream
Choreography and Direction by Louise Reichlin
Music by Luvi Torres, Traditional Turkish, and by Michelle Green Willner
Narration by Louise Reichlin
Costumes for The Magician by Linda Borough
Biblical costumes by Diana MacNeil.
Preview Part 1: The Roses On My Wallpaper: San Pedro ♥ Festival of the Arts at People’s Place, San Pedro, CA
9/4/16
Premier Part 1: The Roses On My Wallpaper: San Pedro ♥ Festival of the Arts at Ports O’Call, San Pedro, CA
9/18/16
Notes on the Part I
The Roses on my Wallpaper- A Dream
To music with both Spanish and Hebrew words, this autobiographical work explores why I am comfortable using pieces in languages I may not understand, and the characters represent children’s heroines and heroes from my own Jewish culture and others from K’ton ton, to Wonder Woman, to Rachel or Rebekah at the Well and Miriam with her cradle holding Moses. The Magician is about an always-returning mysterious Magician that traveled the world doing cifti telli dances during the Turkish Empire to traditional music. When I was a child, I would wake up after an adventure and see the pink roses on my bedside table lamp, and the pink roses on the wallpaper, and wonder if this was really awake, or was this asleep, marking the day-time and waiting to go back to a much more exciting world. It also explores the idea that my grandparents were immigrants.
Review
“In A Jewish Child’s Story, again the theme of dream meets reality resurfaces, as the little girl falls asleep to visions of K’tonton, the thumb sized boy; the Biblical heroines, Rebecca, Miriam , the Hanukkah hero Judah; and Wonder Woman.The theme of living water (mayim chayim) is ever present too, with both Rebecca at the well and Miriam’s timbrels of water, immediately inviting dance and celebration to the festive scene. Reichlin’s use of props and costumes (Linda Borough) is of memorable note as well. K’tonton is draped in a jacket reminiscent of Joseph’s coat of many colors; while Miriam’s basket is an excellent prop. This show is the perfect blend of tradition meets assimilation. A true mix of all characters from biblical heroes to superheroes performing interpretive stories through dance of the wondrous miracle of survival.” Bonnie Priever Curtain Up
“A Jewish Child’s Story, Part II”.
Yellow Star
Music Traditional by the Klezmer Conservatory Band
Lyrics: M. Oysher.
Original Media by Michael Masucci
Additional editing by Andrew Zutta
Costumes by Linda Borough
Original Costumes by Linda Borough
Original Dancers: Liza Barskaya, Nathan Ortiz, Kistina Pressler, Rebecca Reaney, Glenn Rodriguez, Linnea Snyderman, and Devin Ziel
Narrator: Louise Reichlin
Preview Madrid Theatre, CA
12/21/16
World Premier complete work at the Clark Center Main Theater Las Vegas 1/21/18
Notes and reviews on Part II
Yellow Star
Yellow Star, was originally part of Reichlin’s early multi-media work The E-Mail Dances, first shown in 1997. Michael Masucci was media collaborator. A review described: “Yellow Star” grew out of Ms Reichlin’s search, by geographical internet databases, for her Jewish roots. Her grand-parents, who came to the United States from Europe, never talked about the rest of their family who stayed behind. “Symbol of the Polish ghetto, the Yellow Star reflects Ms Reichlin’s search by Internet genealogical databases for her Jewish roots. Seven dancers holding long wide strips of yellow-gold fabric, interpret stylized moves a la Fiddler on the Roof. Weaving and intertwining, they end the piece by sequentially placing the strips on the floor to form the six-sided star. At the same time, an overhead shot of the same dance is being projected on the rear screen. The combination of elements vividly evoked memories of the once vibrant culture and it’s devastating demise. (Dance! 90210).
Yellow Star was reworked and shown again in 2003- At a certain point, the image of the star begins to deconstruct (a previous shoot running backwards and worked on with a computer). In the original version, the piece ends with an empty stage, symbolizing the destruction of so much of the Jewish culture in Eastern Europe during the 2nd world war. In that new version, the dancers reappear and begin dancing again as Reichlin looks around the stage, a more hopeful viewpoint with the memory kept alive.
Original cast- Recorded at the Madrid Theatre 12/21/16
This activity at the Madrid Theatre is funded in part by The National Endowment for the Arts and The City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs. The work is made possible in part by a WORD Artist Grant, the Bruce Geller Memorial Prize. “WORD is a program of American Jewish University’s Institute for Jewish Creativity, a program supported through a generous Cutting Edge Grant from the Jewish Community Foundation of Los Angeles. WORD’s Artist Grants, Bruce Geller Memorial Prizes, are made possible by the late Jeanette Geller in memory of her husband Bruce.
Press Quotes
"Memory also enriched Louise Reichlin's and Michael Masucci's ...intense Yellow Star, which asked projected imagery to provide a conceptual overview – literally the larger picture of what the live dancers evoked: the horrifying history of Polish Jews in the 20th century."
