A Rhode Island woman's mother survived Auschwitz because a former high school classmate recognized her in a selection line and refused to let her die. That true story is now the basis of a new ballet, Nachtigal, which was staged October 23-25 at the Woodman Center in Providence as the world premiere kicking off Ballet Rhode Island's 49th season.
The work draws its name from Anka Nachtigal, a Holocaust survivor born in Krakow, Poland, in 1918 who was sent to Auschwitz after being arrested along with her oldest sister and brother-in-law, according to Ocean State Media. Inside the camp, a woman Nachtigal had befriended in high school spotted her in a selection line and moved her and her relatives into the group of prisoners who would be allowed to live. “You were the only person who was kind to me in school, and I will not let you die,” the woman reportedly told her, per the same account. Nachtigal was liberated from Auschwitz on January 27, 1945 — her 27th birthday, Ocean State Media reports.
Nachtigal's daughter, Lilliane Birch, is a Rhode Island resident who has worked closely with the production and regularly shares her mother's story with young people as a speaker for the Sandra Bornstein Holocaust Education Center, according to the same outlet. The ballet also draws on her mother's story; Birch has described her mother believing “the only ones who survived were the ones who had hope,” a sentiment also recounted by WBSM.
From Kindness to Choreography
Ballet Rhode Island, founded in Providence in 1978 as Festival Ballet Providence, created Nachtigal in partnership with the Sandra Bornstein Holocaust Education Center, according to a press release from Ballet RI. The choreography comes from Yury Yanowsky, the company's artistic curator and resident choreographer, who also choreographed the new piece, per the same release. The ballet is set to music by Icelandic composer Hildur Guðnadóttir, according to dance writer Gavin Larsen, who noted that Nachtigal is not meant as a literal reenactment of Anka's experiences but rather an evocation of them.
Birch's parents feared being forgotten.
Where and When to See It
Ballet RI staged the premiere October 23-25 at the Woodman Center at Moses Brown in Providence, according to the company's own performance schedule. An additional performance is set for November 6 at 7:30 p.m. at the United Theatre in Westerly, per Ocean State Media's reporting. Ballet RI describes the new work as part of its In Motion program, with material from the company stating that it asks what it means to remember and how the body can carry history forward across generations.
The production arrives as Ballet RI has said it wants to grow into what it calls a nationally recognized creative force in dance while staying rooted in Rhode Island, according to Ocean State Media's earlier reporting on the company's plans. Nachtigal follows other recent works by the company that have tackled difficult subject matter, including Machinal, which told the story of a woman executed at Sing Sing after murdering her husband, as Larsen's piece recounts. Other dance companies have taken on similar territory — Larsen points to Stephen Mills's Light: The Holocaust and Humanity Project and Jessica Lang's Thousand Yard Stare as comparable works, with Ballet Austin describing Mills's piece as centered on Holocaust survivor Naomi Warren, a survivor of three Nazi-era death camps, according to Ballet Austin.
