Join contemporary dance artist Rachel Linksy for the screening of two dance films, “Z”L” and “Forgotten Flame,” followed by a Yiddish dance workshop with live music. This event is presented in collaboration with The Dance Complex.
We encourage you to wear shoes that are comfortable to move in, as we will be doing some dancing together! Free and open to all; geared towards adult participants.
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Dance Film Shorts is a series of two film showings by The Dance Complex in association with MIT Open Space Programming. Events in this series include Ali Kenner Brodsky on March 7, 2024 and Rachel Linsky on March 21, 2024. Both events will take place at the MIT Welcome Center. Rachel Linsky will share two dance films followed by a Yiddish Dance Workshop.
Rachel Linsky will be screening two dance films inspired by the work and story of Mieczyslaw Weinberg. The first, “Z”L”, that she created through the JArts and CJP Community Creative Fellowship, and the second, “Forgotten Flame”, created by ZACHOR’s 2023 Teen Intensive cohort.
Mieczyslaw Weinberg (1919-1996) was a Jewish-Polish composer who grew up learning to play music with his father’s Yiddish theater group. 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. He spent the rest of his life creating brilliant classical compositions with clear Jewish and Klezmer themes. With his music, Weinberg kept alive a whole world of the family and culture he had lost.
This past year, Rachel began an exploration to fuse contemporary dance with Yiddish dance as a way to honor Weinberg’s legacy and celebrate the influences that he kept alive in his music. Following the film screenings, Rachel will lead the audience in a Yiddish dance workshop to bring them into the research! Audiences are encouraged to wear shoes that are comfortable moving in. All are welcome and no previous dance experience is required!
The creation of these dance films was made possible through the generous support of Combined Jewish Philanthropies, the Jewish Arts Collaborative, The Beker Foundation, Boston Moving Arts Productions, and Next Steps for Boston Dance: A Boston Foundation, Aliad Fund, Movement Arts Creation Studio Partnership.
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, The Huntington Theater and The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. 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. Most recently, Rachel was one of the 2022-23 JArts and CJP Community Creative Fellows, and is currently a member of the 2023-24 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 teaches workshops throughout the Boston area.
