ALVIN AILEY's NO LONGER SILENT choreographed by Robert Battle

NO LONGER SILENT originally choreographed by Mr. Battle in ('07) for the Julliard School premiered with the Ailey Company this June.  NO LONGER SILENT is a powerful dramatic piece set to Erwin Schulhoff's "Olegata."  Schulhoff was a Czech composer whose life ended under the Nazi regime in 1942 at age of 48.  His works are relatively unknown but thanks to Battle's courageous choreography, it will speak for millions of lives destroyed in the Holocaust.  "Olegata" has a relentless percussive pulse entertwined with complex harmonies using strings & winds.  Schulhoff wrote the piece in 1923 for a ballet based on American Indian culture.  NO LONGER SILENT grabs the audience by the guts and remains embedded.  The large cast remain onstage in its entirety. The haunting & macabre mood becomes terrifying. The lighting remains dim except for glaring\ searchlights. Everyone wears identical baggy, dark prison uniforms. The choice to blur & dehumanize the individual is deliberate. The dancers move frenetically in a medley of erratic formations.  The pounding of feet reverberates with strength & defiance.  Still, the sense of desperation & confinement is prevalent. The dancers become united in line with hands held up in the air with their backs to the audience.  Spotlights glare out into the audience making us aware that everyone is subject to oppression and we all maintain the responsibility to end persecution, genocide & cultural destruction.  NO LONGER SILENT is not merely a masterpiece work of art it is art that blares like a cannon for peace.