Remembering Helen Lewis: Film Screenings and Conversations

Join us for an evening to celebrate the legacy of dancer and teacher, Helen Lewis (1916 – 2009), who survived Auschwitz and went on to teach modern dance in Belfast. On Holocaust Memorial Day 2024 we will screen two films that reflect Helen’s life and the work she inspired, and share outline ideas for a new Scholarship Fund for dance artists named after Helen.

The Crescent Arts Centre is proud to be home to the Ulster History Circle’s blue plaque in Helen Lewis’ name, and to have our primary Dance Studio named after her. Several of the dancers taught by Helen teach regularly in The Crescent.

About the Films

A Time to Dance (60 mins) 

Produced and Directed by Moore Sinnerton

A Chistera Production for BBC Northern Ireland

When the Nazis entered the Czech capital Prague in 1939 the young Modern Dance student Helly Katz could scarcely have envisaged a future in a faraway place called Northern Ireland where - as Helen Lewis -  she would make a huge contribution to the Arts and wider culture here. Obliged to wear a yellow star, she would soon embark on a succession of forced transportations to some of the most horrific concentration and extermination camps in the East, including Auschwitz-Birkenau. In A Time to Dance she reflects on her survival against the odds and how she built a new life in Belfast.

Abii ne viderem (I turned away so as not to see) (16 minutes) 

Philip Johnston

Music: Giya Kancheli, waltz from Coppélia by Léo Delibes, Argentine Tango (anon)

The genesis of this work began after visiting the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC with Helen in 1998. We spent many hours in the museum with our friends Sam and Joan McCready. Helen gave details of each the exhibits in the museum that other people, perhaps not understanding their significance, simply passed by. When I was next in Belfast I asked Helen if she would tell me about choreographing the Waltz from Coppelia in Stutthof Concentration Camp in December 1944. We recorded the conversation and I asked Helen if I could use her voice in the dance piece. I retuned to the United States and began to choreograph Abbi ne viderem. I filmed the work and brought it back to Belfast to show it to Helen in her home. It was later performed at the Lyric Theatre in Belfast with dancers from Northern Ireland and Helen in the audience. 

The proposal for the Helen Lewis Fund Scholarship at The Crescent developed in partnership with Philip Johnston, Jane Mooney, Brenda McKee

About the contributors 

Philip Johnston

Philip studied dance with Helen Lewis and performed in her dance company, the Belfast Modern Dance Group. After his Professional dance training at the London School of Contemporary Dance Philip danced for major companies in the UK and performed across the globe. He directed the Norwegian Modern Dance Company in Oslo. In the United States Philip taught as an Associate Professor in the Dance and Theatre Departments at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he received his MFA in Dance and Doctorate in Theatre History. 

Brenda McKee

Brenda McKee was a pupil of Helen Lewis and a member of her dance company. She danced in many of the productions that Helen choreographed.

Brenda taught English and Drama, took an M.A. in Education and trained to teach Contemporary  Dance.When invited by Helen, Brenda taught her Dance classes - the Junior, the Teenage and Adult class. She still teaches the Adult class in the Crescent. From Brenda's classes, dancers have gone on to train professionally. 

Jane Mooney

Jane started dancing with Helen as a teenager, quickly realising that she had found her home.  The creativity of Helen’s teaching and performances inspired and ignited Jane's joy in the potential of dance as an art form. Jane subsequently trained at the Laban Centre, starting a career as a dancer and teacher before becoming artistic director of one of the first UK’s National Dance Agencies.  Jane was Chair of Dance UK for 4 years and a Dance Panel member of Arts Council England. She is also an experienced project manager, mentor and board member in all areas of dance development and continues to enjoy the creativity of her own dance practice.

Moore Sinnerton

Former BBC and UTV executive, filmmaker Moore Sinnerton has made more than seventy films - mostly, but not exclusively, for the BBC. He formed his own production company Chistera in 1990 to specialise in documentary projects dealing with History, the Arts, Politics and Identity.