ani Ma'amin

Keshet's Repertory Company Explores the
Impact of the Holocaust on American Jews

Last year Keshet partnered with the Sabes Jewish Community Center (SJCC) in Minneapolis, MN, and the NM Holocaust and Intolerance Museum (NMHIM) in Albuquerque, NM, to create its Repertory Show, "Ani Ma'amin" (I Believe). The show is a unique interdisciplinary dance performance exploring the impact of the Holocaust on American Jews.

The show consists of choreography developed by Shira Greenberg, founder and artistic director of Keshet, and four Keshet Dance Company Repertory Dancers, threaded together with spoken text adapted from existing works by Holocaust victims and survivors and new material created by participating community members. This will be coupled with visual imagery including still photographs and video compiled from footage from the University of Southern California's Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education.

Keshet developed the concept, framework and choreography for the production in Albuquerque, New Mexico, November 2007 – March 2008. During this process, Keshet enlisted the support of advisors and collaborators including: NMHIM, local Rabbis, synagogue sisterhood, brotherhood and youth groups, the Albuquerque Jewish Community Center, Jewish Family Services (which hosts a regular meeting group of Holocaust Survivors), and the Solomon Schechter Day School.

Performances of the show have taken place in April 2008 at the Sabes Jewish Community Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota and in May 2008 at the South Broadway Cultural Center* in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

*All Keshet performances at the South Broadway Cultural Center were co- sponsored by the City of Albuquerque