No Longer Silent

A long-forgotten score by Erwin Schulhoff—a Jewish composer banned in Nazi Germany —inspired this searing, large ensemble work that shows off “a different side of Ailey,” (The New York Times).  

Powerful phrases stir the imagination with images of flight and fatigue, chaos and unity, collectivity and individualism as dancers clad in all black travel in militaristic rows. The music, created between 1922 and 1925, provides an ever-shifting mechanical cadence against which the work builds dramatically to a piercing conclusion.

Former Artistic Director Robert Battle originally created the work in 2007 for his alma mater, Juilliard, as part of a concert of choreography that brought to life scores by once-banned composers. Denied employment after the Germans occupied Czechoslovakia, Schulhoff was prevented from emigrating and died of tuberculosis in the Wülzburg concentration camp in 1942. The 2015 Company premiere of No Longer Silent coincided with the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps that marked the end of the Holocaust.

“It’s arguably Mr. Battle’s strongest piece, and the most major one that he’s set on the Ailey troupe so far. Battle echoes the rhythmic complexity of the music in his ritualistic choreography that is reminiscent of the early works of Martha Graham and, in many moments, the theatricality of Paul Taylor, yet this dance retains its taut point of view to the end.” – The New York Times