Helen Lewis (choreographer)

{{Infobox person

| name = Helen Lewis

| image = Helen Lewis.jpg

| alt =

| caption =

| birth_name = Helena Katz

| birth_date = 22 June 1916{{cite news | url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/dance-obituaries/6998609/Helen-Lewis.html | title=Obituary: Helen Lewis | work=The Daily Telegraph | date=15 January 2010 | accessdate=23 January 2013 | location=London}}

| birth_place = Trutnov, Bohemia
(now the Czech Republic)

| death_date = {{Death date and age|2009|12|31|1916|06|22|df=y}}

| death_place = Belfast, Northern Ireland

| nationality =

| other_names = Helena Hermann

| spouse = Paul Hermann (1938–1945; his death)
Harry Lewis (1947–1991; his death)

|children = Two sons:
Michael Lewis
Robin Lewis

| occupation = dance teacher, choreographer

| known_for = A Time to Speak, autobiography

}}

Helen Lewis MBE (née Katz; 22 June 1916 – 31 December 2009) was a pioneer of modern dance in Northern Ireland, and made her name as a dance teacher and choreographer. A survivor of the Holocaust, she was also known for her memoir of her experiences during the Second World War.

Early life

Helena Katz was born in 1916 into a German-speaking Jewish family in Trutnov in Bohemia (now in the Czech Republic). After she completed study at the Realgymnasium of Trutnov in 1935, she and her mother moved to Prague; her father had died in the previous year.{{r|jstor}} There she studied dance with Milča Mayerová, who had trained with Rudolf Laban. Katz also studied philosophy at the German University of Prague, and took private lessons in French. In about 1936 she met Paul Hermann, a Czech from a Jewish family, and in 1938, after she had finished her dance training and her university exams, they were married. She taught as an assistant at Mayerová's dance school, and experimented with choreography.{{r|jstor}}

War years

Following the invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1939, deportations of Jewish families began in August 1941. The Hermanns were sent in 1942 to Terezín; in 1944 they were transferred to Auschwitz and separated. Paul Hermann died in 1945 on a forced march, not long before the end of the Second World War.{{r|jstor}} Helen, who survived two "selections" by Josef Mengele,{{cite news | url=http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/survivor-of-auschwitz-death-camp-helen-lewis-dies-at-93-28509130.html | title=Survivor of Auschwitz death camp Helen Lewis dies at 93 | work=Belfast Telegraph | date=2 January 2010 | accessdate=7 January 2016 | author=Henry, Lesley-Anne}} was later sent to Stutthof concentration camp in northern Poland.

When the war ended, she returned to Prague, where she learnt of her husband's death; her mother, who had been deported early in 1942,{{r|jstor}} had been murdered at Sobibór extermination camp. Helen began to correspond with Harry Lewis, a Czech with British nationality whom she had known at school and with whom she had had a brief romance before she met Hermann.{{r|jstor}} She married Lewis in Prague in the summer of 1947 and in October moved to Belfast.

Belfast

File:Helen Lewis plaque, Crescent Arts Centre.jpg

After the birth of her two sons, Michael and Robin, in 1949 and 1954,{{r|jstor}} Lewis began to work as a choreographer. In 1956, she created the choreography for the productions The Bartered Bride of Smetana at Grosvenor High School in Belfast, for a performance of Dvořák's The Golden Spinning Wheel at the Belfast Ballet Club, and for a Macbeth at the Lyric Theatre, Belfast. Lewis also taught modern dance, and in 1962 started the Belfast Modern Dance Group.{{cite news | url=https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2010/mar/17/helen-lewis-obituary | title=Helen Lewis obituary | work=The Guardian | date=17 March 2010 | access-date=22 April 2015 | author=Johnston, Philip}}{{cite web|author=Jaffe, Steven |date =2022|url=https://www.belfastjewishheritage.org|title=First Lady of Dance and Survivor: Helen Lewis|work= Jewish History in Northern Ireland|access-date = 21 March 2022}}

Her book A Time to Speak, about her experiences before and during the war, was published in 1992{{r|helen}} and was translated into several languages.{{cite web | url=http://www.culturenorthernireland.org/features/performing-arts/helen-lewis-1916-2009 | title=Helen Lewis, 1916–2009 | publisher=Culture Northern Ireland | date=January 2010 | access-date=20 February 2016 | archive-date=2 March 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160302081622/http://www.culturenorthernireland.org/features/performing-arts/helen-lewis-1916-2009 | url-status=dead }} It was adapted for the theatre by Sam McCready and performed at the Lyric Theatre during the Belfast Festival in 2009.{{cite web | url=http://www.culturenorthernireland.org/features/performing-arts/belfast-festival-time-speak | title=Belfast Festival: A Time To Speak | publisher=Culture Northern Ireland | work=Performing Arts | date=8 September 2009 | access-date=22 April 2015 | author=Coyle, Jane | archive-date=9 April 2015 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150409042446/https://www.culturenorthernireland.org/features/performing-arts/belfast-festival-time-speak | url-status=dead }} It was also performed at Exeter Synagogue in 2010.{{cite news | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/devon/hi/people_and_places/religion_and_ethics/newsid_8612000/8612422.stm | title=Exeter Synagogue stages Holocaust survival story | publisher=BBC News | date=13 April 2010 | access-date=27 May 2016 | author=Lawrence, Danny}}

She died at her home in Belfast on 31 December 2009, aged 93.{{cite news | url=https://www.thestage.co.uk/features/obituaries/2010/helen-lewis/ | title=Helen Lewis | work=The Stage | date=11 January 2010 | accessdate=10 April 2016 | author=Coyle, Jane}}{{cite news | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/8436948.stm | title=Belfast Auschwitz survivor Helen Lewis dies aged 93 | publisher=BBC News | date=1 January 2010 | accessdate=23 January 2013}}

A dance studio at the Crescent Arts Centre in Belfast is named after her.{{cite web | url=http://www.crescentarts.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3&Itemid=104 | title=Helen Lewis Dance Studio | publisher=Crescent Arts Centre | work=Room hire | accessdate=15 September 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160809042842/http://www.crescentarts.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3&Itemid=104 | archive-date=9 August 2016 | url-status=dead }}

Awards

In the 2001 Birthday Honours, Helen Lewis was appointed MBE for her services to contemporary dance.{{cite news | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/1390386.stm | title=Knighthood for 'golden' flautist (Northern Ireland's Queen's birthday honours list)| publisher=BBC News | date=16 June 2011 | accessdate=23 January 2013}} She was awarded honorary doctorates by Queen's University Belfast and by Ulster University.

References

{{Reflist|refs=

Lewis, Helen (1992). A Time To Speak. Belfast: Blackstaff Press. {{ISBN|978-0-8564-0491-7}}.

Lewis, Helen (2002). [https://www.jstor.org/stable/30057194 An Irish Epilogue]. Irish Pages 1 (1): 25–30. {{subscription required}}

}}

External links

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2MItrTQxHw&t=2s/ Helen Lewis Items From The Linen Hall Theatre and Performing Arts Archive], YouTube, 27 August 2020. Retrieved 21 March 2022.
[http://archive.northernvisions.org/related/women/i-remember-the-holocaust-helen-lews/ Lewis, Helen. I Remember the Holocaust (video made in 2000 by MediaAble Productions). Northern Visions Archive]
[http://hmd.org.uk/resources/books-for-adults/time-speak-helen-lewis/ For educators: A Time to Speak – Helen Lewis. Holocaust Memorial Day Trust] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170827213900/http://hmd.org.uk/resources/books-for-adults/time-speak-helen-lewis/ |date=27 August 2017 }}

Category:1916 births

Category:2009 deaths

Category:20th-century autobiographers from Northern Ireland

Category:20th-century British Jews

Category:21st-century British Jews

Category:Artists from Belfast

Category:Auschwitz concentration camp survivors

Category:British women choreographers

Category:Choreographers from Northern Ireland

Category:Contemporary dance choreographers

Category:Contemporary dance in the United Kingdom

Category:Czech choreographers