Jerusalem Ballet Presents - Memento - Franceska Mann's Last Dance (20:00)

The work Memento tells the story of Jewish ballerina Franceska Mann, whose final performance took place in the changing room outside the gas chambers at Auschwitz. According to survivors' testimony, in her final moments facing death, Mann did the unimaginable: during her last dance she seized the weapon of one of the SS men, shot at them, and sparked a revolt. To this day, this act is considered one of the boldest and most stirring acts of Jewish resistance during the Holocaust. About the show The ballet Memento is composed of a sequence of stage scenes accompanying Franceska's life between 1939 and 1943. • Warsaw before the war – flowers, applause, and the first, almost imperceptible shadow of the approaching disaster. • The Warsaw Ghetto – life on a thin line between daily routine and constant fear. • The "Melody Palace" nightclub – a place where dance becomes the last means of survival. • Auschwitz – a space where every movement takes on the meaning of life and death. The dancers and the soundtrack • Twelve dancers, each of whom brings their own personal story to the stage. • The role of Franceska's father is played by Adam Greenfeld – a wheelchair-using dancer and IDF disabled veteran, whose own life story is interwoven with Holocaust memory. • The soundtrack moves between musical masterpieces and the voices of history: Ravel's "Boléro" is repeatedly interrupted by Hitler's speeches, while the finale of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony creates a chilling clash between the vision of humanism and totalitarian violence. Memento is a powerful dance work by Nadia Timofeyeva about the power of choice even where it seems no choice remains, and about the belief that even in the darkest moments, art can restore to a person their name, their dignity, and their humanity.