Anne Frank Ballet Review May 2012

The Anne Frank Ballet at CCP Educated and Inspired By Rebekah K. Bohannon-Beeler In a special performance to benefit the Tennessee Holocaust Commission (THC), the Nashville Ballet presented “The Anne Frank Ballet” at the Cumberland County Playhouse on Monday May 7. Based on Anne Frank’s Diary, the cast of five dancers portrayed Peter van Pels, Margot Frank and three dimensions of Anne Frank to better represent the complex internal struggles she endured throughout two years of life in the Annex. Tennessee Holocaust Commission member Felicia Anchor said, “[Anne Frank’s diary] is the entry point, the portal for young people to understand what happened in the Holocaust.” Two performances were scheduled for the one-day event each followed with an open-audience question and answer session with liberators, survivors and performers. The school matinee was prefaced with a narrated video to set the scene for The Anne Frank Ballet. Following the school matinee, the Q&A session was held with Jimmy Gentry, American Armed Forces veteran and a liberator of the Dachau Concentration Camp, and Frances Cutler-Hahn, hidden child Holocaust survivor, as well as the cast of the Nashville Ballet. The students were able to listen to the testimonials of Gentry and Hahn and ask questions about what they had come to understand and ask the dancers for advice on how to achieve goals. As a prelude to the public performance Monday evening, the Cumberland County Playhouse’s Company of Dance performed a modern dance entitled “Loss of Innocence” depicting a group of friends playing together in early Nazi years who then began to distrust and exclude other members of the group until they were no longer able to play together. “Castle in the Cloud,” “Our Children” and “Will There Really Be a Morning” performed by Playhouse Music Education students and “Children of Terezin” performed by Playhouse Theater Education students set the audience to view the Holocaust from a child’s perspective who saw and felt what was happening without understanding why. The public performance was succeeded with a Q&A with Tennessee Holocaust Commission member, Felicia Anchor, born in Bergen-Belson concentration camp while her mother was a prisoner, also Art Pais, a Lithuanian Jew forced to live in the Kovno Ghetto and prisoner at the Dachau Concentration Camp, and was again joined by Frances Cutler-Hahn, hidden child survivor, and the dancers of The Nashville Ballet. “I have seen ‘The Anne Frank Ballet’ three times,” said Hahn to the performers with tears in her eyes, “and each time is powerful and more so.” The courage and fortitude shown by those who shared their touching stories and unique perspectives enriched the performance allowing for a once in a lifetime opportunity to see the Holocaust through the eyes of a survivor, through the eyes of a liberator and through the eyes of a child. An exhibit from THC entitled “Living On: Portraits of Tennessee Survivors and Liberators” was displayed for the audience to see the faces and read the stories of Tennessee residents who experienced the horrors of the Holocaust. For more information about the Tennessee Holocaust Commission and its endeavor to educate Tennesseans about the Holocaust visit HYPERLINK "http://www.tennesseeholocaustcommission.org" www.tennesseeholocaustcommission.org. Also, visit HYPERLINK "http://www.ccplayhouse.com" www.ccplayhouse.com and HYPERLINK "http://www.nashvilleballet.com" www.nashvilleballet.com for current listings and events to support the arts. Picture caption: The Playhouse Music Education students singing “Our Children” in The Anne Frank Ballet performance performed at the Cumberland County Playhouse presented by The Nashville Ballet and the Tennessee Holocaust Commission on Monday May 7. Photo by Rebekah K. Bohannon-Beeler