Waltz for a Shattered World
Premiered 1990
Emmanuel Midtown Y, New York
Commissioned by
The Downtown Chamber Players
Performed by the Downtown Chamber and Opera Players

Choreography: Sasha Spielvogel
Original Score: Avishai Ya'ar
Director/Conductor: Mimi Stern-Wolfe

Performers:
Hannah Baumgarten
Siri Bothner
Felice Dalgin
Anke Hauerstein
Laren Lynn
Gary Galbraith
Osamu Uehara
Lewis Bossing
Viviana Durante

Revived May 4th & 8th 2008
Yom Hashoah:
Holocaust Remembrance Program
St. Mark's in the Bowery, New York

Orchestrated by: David Majzlin

Performers:
Sevin Ceviker
Andrew Claus
Evan Copeland
Masha Dashkina
Curtis Howard
Kathryn Mowat-Murphy
Jeffrey Lyon
James Kinney
Esther Nederpelt
Kevin Scarpin
Alicia Weihl
Kimberly Wolff
Stéphanie Landouer

The dance takes place in a Cabaret on the eve of the rise of the Weimar Republic. Everyone is partying with each other - but as certain factions come to power, one by one, specific 'friends' are ostracized and shunned. The second half takes place in a Concentration Camp while the 'Nazis' remain upstage in the Night Club, seemingly oblivious. The finale is a Grand Waltz Macabre with the dead who return to the Club, dancing inextricably bound, with those who remained.

Part One
In the Cabaret

Part Two
In the Camp

Doubt
Over the Wall
Kapo *
Escape
Survivor among the Souls

Part Three
Waltz Macabre

  • A Kapo was a prisoner commanded by the SS to oversee his fellow inmates forced labor, food rations and often responsible for who would live and who would die. To save their own lives, Kapos were known to be as brutal as the Nazis, often taking advantage of their power. However, fulfilling their tasks was no guarantee they would live either.

When Mimi and I first premiered Waltz for a Shattered World in 1990, I'm sure I suffered from the arrogance of youth: it is often asked if anyone has the right to expound on the horrors of the Shoah by artistic means and whether that depiction can ever come close to historical reality. Now, eighteen years later, given the fact that history indeed repeats itself, it seems more imperative than ever to keep telling these stories and to ask ourselves, what would I do if faced with the same situation. - Sasha Spielvogel - 2008

MUSIC

Ms. Spielvogel's WALTZ FOR A SHATTERED WORLD.