Image credit: Nicole VolpeImage credit: Nicole VolpePLEASE NOTE:
BCA follows the City of Boston’s requirement that you must show proof of COVID-19 vaccination to enter.
From January 15, 2022—February 14, 2022:
People aged 12+ must show proof of at least one dose of vaccine.
February 15, 2022 onward:
People aged 12+ must show proof of full vaccination.
Bring one of these five things with you to show proof of vaccination.
“The Schulhoff Collaboration”
For this work, Rachel Linsky is working with Boston-based musicians Yukiko Takagi and Rick Stone to revive the music of Erwin Schulhoff, a Jewish composer and Holocaust victim. A radical artist of his time, Schulhoff was one of the first European musicians to incorporate Jazz into traditional music forms. The Nazis had banned Jazz music; they considered it offensive to their ideology due to its African roots and the large number of Jewish Jazz musicians practicing in Europe at the time. Under this collaboration, Rachel and her dancers are exploring the underground culture of Jazz music and Swing dance that formed in Nazi Germany, and the unique ways in which it served as a form of cultural resistance among youth.
Image credit: Nicole Volpe
Image credit: Nicole Volpe
Image credit: Nicole Volpe
Image credit: Nicole Volpe
Rachel Linsky is a Boston-based contemporary dancer, choreographer, and educator. She holds a B.F.A. in Dance Performance and Choreography from Elon University where she graduated summa cum laude. Rachel is currently a dancer with KAIROS Dance Theatre under the direction of DeAnna Pellecchia and has previously danced with Connections Dance Theatre under the direction of Jenny Oliver. For the past two years, Rachel has been directing and choreographing ZACHOR, an ongoing project series that seeks to preserve the words of WWII Holocaust survivors through dance. Rachel’s choreography has been presented in national and international dance festivals including Boston Contemporary Dance Festival, Prague International Monthly Film Festival, Early Mosely’s Diversity of Dance Dance is Activism Film Festival and Boston Center for the Arts’ Dance Documentation in Isolation series. Her creative work has been awarded funding by the New England Foundation for the Arts, the City of Boston, Combined Jewish Philanthropies, and the Russell J. Efros Foundation. Rachel recently completed an artist residency at Chelsea Theatre Works and is currently being commissioned by the Museum of Fine Arts Boston and the Jewish Arts Collaborative to choreograph a new work for their 2021 Hanukkah celebration. Rachel has taught with many dance schools throughout the Boston area and is currently on the teaching faculty at Koltun Ballet Boston, Urbanity Dance, and Broadway Bound Dance Center.
DANCEMAKERS RESEARCH LABORATORY at BCA
Dancemakers Research Laboratory at BCA supports a handful of dance-based artists to continue to explore and develop existing work through the lens of process extending beyond the initial premiere of a work. Through a series of open rehearsals, the artists create a feedback loop with mentors and those impacted or involved in the addressed topic.
The 2020 pilot season of Dancemakers Research Laboratory supported artists to further work focused on Indigengous displacement, Holocaust survivor stories, and Soviet refugee experiences and will feature work from Rachel Linsky, Jenny Oliver, and Ilya Vidrin. Throughout their time on BCA’s campus, each dancemaker will invite guests and colleagues to share feedback on their work through a series of closed and open rehearsals.
If you would like to be involved in the feedback loop or learn more about the program, please contact Andrea Blesso, Director of Dance & Interdisciplinary Arts.