Our Favorite Stories In Dance: The Night of Broken Glass

Published by New Jersey Stage
01/27/2022

New Jersey Stage published its 25,000th story in December 2021. As the site approached the milestone, we posed the question on social media as how we should celebrate.  One response was to highlight our favorite stories from over the years.  We liked this idea, but could not narrow things down to just 25 favorites so we will present a favorite each day from different genres.  January 27 is Holocaust Memorial Day - the day for everyone to remember the millions of people murdered in the Holocaust, under Nazi Persecution, and in the genocides which followed in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, and Darfur. So we thought it was a good time to look at a dance feature on the Carolyn Dorfman Dance Company called The Night of Broken Glass.

The feature was published on October 19, 2014 and is available here. The name Kristallnacht (The Night of Broken Glass) comes from the shards of broken glass that littered the streets after Jewish-owned stores, buildings, and synagogues had their windows broken during one violent night in Germany. Acclaimed choreographer and storyteller, Carolyn Dorfman has lived with stories like this throughout her entire life. A daughter of Holocaust survivors, her work has increasingly been influenced by her Jewish heritage and the stories of her parents.

In the feature, Dorfman talks about each dance in the piece and puts them in context of the stories her mother told her household while she was growing up.  "My work was a way of saying, ‘Mom, I understand. I know how important it is to you that your stories be told,'" she explained.

The feature includes a pair of videos of the Carolyn Dorfman Dance Company performing "Cat's Cradle" and "Mayne Menstshn." It originally ran in our monthly digital magazine and that version is available here.