​About ZACHOR:

ZACHOR is an on-going, Boston-based project series that seeks to preserve the words of WWII Holocaust Survivors through dance. ZACHOR creates opportunities for diverse groups of artists and audiences to study these testimonies together in a non-religious setting. With this work, Artistic Director Rachel Linsky strives to open up conversations across communities, build empathy, and communicate the importance of continuing to study these histories today. ZACHOR has received generous funding from The Beker Foundation, Combined Jewish Philanthropies, the New England Foundation for the Arts, the City of Boston Opportunity Fund, and the Russell J. Efros Foundation.

Teen Workshop Series
Calling all teen dancers in the Boston area! This summer ZACHOR is hosting a week-long Embodied Holocaust Education workshop -- and, it’s free! 

In this 5-day workshop, students will take daily classes in contemporary technique, improvisation, and composition. They will read and discuss the memoir of Holocaust Survivor Aaron Elster, and participate in a collaborative process to build a 5-minute piece of choreography inspired by their reflections. Participants will perform alongside ZACHOR’s cast of professional dancers in the premiere of “Hidden” at the Boston Center for the Arts on October 20-22, 2022. Applications due by May 22nd, 2022!

This project is supported by a grant from the Combined Jewish Philanthropies Arts & Culture Community Impact Grant Fund, The Beker Foundation, and by New Work New England of the New England Foundation for the Arts, made possible with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Seedlings Foundation, the Fund for the Arts at NEFA, the American Rescue Plan, Anonymous Foundation, and from individual donors.

Projects

"Schulhoff"

This new work seeks to revive and honor the music of Erwin Schulhoff, a Jewish composer and Holocaust victim. A radical and innovative artist of his time, Schulhoff was one of the first European musicians to incorporate jazz into classical music forms such as symphonies and concertos. The Nazis deemed jazz and all forms of modern art a threat to their ideology and sought to completely erase from history the work of Schulhoff and many other artistic trailblazers. This performance celebrates the survival and legacy of Schulhoff’s music while investigating the Nazis' ban on art forms that embraced freedom of expression and created pathways to share new ideas, voices, and perspectives.

Thank you to all who came out to see Schulhoff performed at The W-Gallery, New England Conservatory, and through CURE8 Cambridge at The Dance Complex! A digital version of this piece will be available soon. Sign up for my mailing list below to make sure you are notified when the digital version becomes available! 

"Hidden"

“Hidden”, a dance film inspired by the story of Holocaust Survivor Aaron Elster who was hidden from the Nazis in a Polish family's attic for 2 years. The film premiered over Zoom on September 12th, 2021 and included a Q&A session between audience members, artists, and Aaron’s son Steven Elster. If you missed it, you can use the link below to watch the full premiere. This project was filmed in residence at Chelsea Theatre Works and made possible by a generous grant from Russell J. Efros Foundation. ​Up next, we will be developing "Hidden" into a live, evening-length work! The full production will premiere through the Boston Center for the Arts October 20-22, 2022 and will feature ZACHOR's cast of professional Boston-based dancers and local teen dance students as well! Stay tuned! 

"Uncovering"

Uncovering is a virtual presentation of short solos choreographed through ZACHOR's pilot community workshop series. This workshop series launched my research into both the story of Holocaust Survivor Aaron Elster and into developing a highly collaborative creative process for ZACHOR geared towards creating an embodied Holocaust education experience for the artists involved. Through a guided post-show Q&A, dancers articulate their experience participating in this research, discussion, and creation based workshop series. The research presentation was held on Zoom in February of 2021. If you missed this presentation you can watch the dances and discussion using the link below!
“Dancing in this work at a memorial site was such a loaded, humbling experience that was not taken lightly. Rachel Linsky took such care developing this very personal and haunting work. The piece is rooted in family history, research, text and imagery from primary accounts of Holocaust Survivors, and a speech made by a survivor tying the breaking of his community to what is happening in the US with ICE and immigrant families. We all approached this as art that interacted with the memorial - calling attention to its intention of remembrance, and honoring stories through movement and embodiment”.
 - Erin McNulty, Dancer in ZACHOR

"Do I Want to Remember?"

​Do I Want to Remember is a Contemporary Dance piece utilizing words of Holocaust Survivor, Alexander Kimel. This work premiered as part of Yom Hashoah programming at Elon University in North Carolina and was presented at the Huntington Avenue Theatre as part of Boston Contemporary Dance Festival in 2019.

"Selection"

Selection, is a site-specific dance filmed at New England Holocaust Memorial. Since its premiere in Fall 2020, Selection has been chosen as a Finalist at the Prague International Monthly Film Festival, and presented in Nozama’s virtual Empower one Another festival, Athen's International Monthly Film Festival, Collective Exchange’s FRAMES festival, Mostra Internacional de Dança Imagens 2020, Earl Mosely's Diversity of Dance inaugural Dance is Activism Film Festival, and the Boston Center for the Arts' Dance Documentation in Isolation Series.
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Selection was choreographed and directed by Rachel Linsky, and filmed and edited by Olivia Moon Photography. The Choreography for Selection was created using the words of Bernard Marks and memories and images of Agi Geva and Elie Wiesel on the selection process in Nazi concentration camps. 

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