The Los Angeles Choreographers & Dancers company will bring A Jewish Child’s Story to the Culver City Senior Center on Saturday, March 29.
According to a statement by the company, “A Jewish Child’s Story is an autobiographical dance multimedia work reflecting my early dreams as the granddaughter of Jewish immigrants. It also incorporates research on the Holocaust and explores the connections to relatives I never had the chance to know. Through movement, storytelling, and multimedia, this performance bridges personal history with collective memory, offering audiences a deeply emotional and thought-provoking experience. Most of us come from families that are immigrants and can relate to it.”
Choreography and creative direction is by Louise Reichlin, and the dancers on the day will be Alana Astor, Carmen Tienda, Camille Imperial, Sophie Kim, Alice Lousen, Ashley Magana, Emily Mcguire, Coree McKee Gonzalez, Mcknnly Moren, Louise Reichlin, and Brooke Sinton. The performance will includes a discussion section with the audience, and other dance pieces by Reichlin including HEART, and selections from The Tennis Dances.
“A Jewish Child’s Story was originally made possible in part by a WORD Artist Grant, the Bruce Geller Memorial Prize award to Louise Reichlin in March 2016, and presented at the Culver City Senior Center through a Culver City grant in 2018,” they say. “Since then it has toured to venues including the Clark Center Main Theater in Las Vegas, to the Santa Barbara HHII Festival, and more recently to the Ailey Citygroup Theater in 2020.”
Part I is called The Roses on my Wallpaper- A Dream, of which Reichlin says, “Set to music featuring both Spanish and Hebrew lyrics, this autobiographical work reflects my comfort with using languages I may not fully understand. The characters include childhood heroines and heroes from my Jewish culture and others from K’ton ton, to Wonder Woman, to 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.”
The event takes place at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 29 at Culver City Senior Center, 4095 Overland Ave, Culver City 90230. Tickets and Parking: FREE and open to the public. Contact 310-253-6700 for event information.