Krystyna Zywulska and Naomi Warren’s stories come to life on stage next month in a work from the Louisville Ballet and Kentucky Opera.
This year marks 80 years since the end of the Holocaust, which saw the systematic murder of millions of Jewish people as well as other minority groups including Jehovah’s Witnesses, Romani people and people with disabilities.
“A Time Remembered” comprises two works. First, “Another Sunrise” details Zywulska enduring and ultimately surviving the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. While there, she began writing satirical poetry and songs.
The second act is a full-length ballet. “Light / The Holocaust & Humanity Project” centers on Warren, who survived the Auschwitz, Ravensbrücks and Bergen Belsen camps.
Stephen Mills of Ballet Austin choreographed the ballet using movement to convey the emotional tenor of the story.
“There's something in the way that Stephen Mills has choreographed this ballet where it starts with contemporary ballet and it progressively gets heavier and more modern,” said Lexa Daniels, who is one of two dancers playing a younger version of Warren in the production.
As the ballet comes to its hopeful conclusion, the dance style transitions from less heavy and modern style to a more classical ballet, this time on pointe.
“I think some of the images that you see in the choreography they're just devastating,” Daniels said. “It makes you realize that some of these stories, just the suffering that happens, there really isn't words to accurately describe just how challenging these things are.”
Performers said “Light / The Holocaust & Humanity Project” is both physically and emotionally taxing.
“It is difficult to separate work from not work right now and not take it home with us, especially when we are trying to get as much information and as much background as we can to be able to prepare for the role emotionally,” said Elizabeth Abbick, the other dancer playing the younger version of Warren.
Abbick said company members have been reading books and watching films to ensure they have the contextual knowledge needed for their roles.
“We do have to bring her to life now, and this wasn't just her that went through this,” she said. “A lot of people this happened to, and it's just really important that we are in the correct headspace, emotionally, as in, not just thinking about the steps.”
Even though the ballet’s subject matter confronts some of the darkest aspects of humanity, the dancers want people to walk away with a spark of optimism.
“I want for our audiences to leave knowing that we can go forward and hope,” said Helen Daigle, the Louisville Ballet’s principal repetiteur and senior rehearsal director.
Daigle also dances the role of elder Warren opposite Abbick and Daniels’ younger versions.
“One of the most important reasons that we and all artists have to continue to tell these stories is because there will come a time very soon when the voices to tell their stories no longer have a voice because there are no more survivors,” Daigle said. “So we have to be the ones to continue to share what little bit we can of the reality of what they went through in that way.”
“A Time Remembered” runs at Whitney Hall Feb. 1 and 2.
