Holocaust survivor brought gift of dancing feet to Belfast

Holocaust survivor Helen Lewis is to be commemorated with a blue plaque which will be unveiled this Friday in the place where she taught dance for many years.
Helen Lewis, who will be commemorated with a blue plaque in Crescent Arts CentreHelen Lewis, who will be commemorated with a blue plaque in Crescent Arts Centre
Helen Lewis, who will be commemorated with a blue plaque in Crescent Arts Centre

The Ulster History Circle plaque will be unveiled at 11.30am on Holocaust Memorial Day in Crescent Arts Centre by Belfast’s Mayor Alderman Brian Kingston.

The unveiling will be followed by a reception in the arts complex including poetry, music and dance to celebrate the life of the former Auschwitz prisoner.

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Helen Lewis was born Helena Katz in Trutnov, Czechoslovakia, in 1916, and studied dance in Prague.

She married in 1938, and in 1942, together with her husband, Paul, she was deported to Terezín, the Jewish ghetto, and then to Auschwitz, where they were separated.

After the Liberation, Helen returned to Prague, to discover that her husband had not survived. In October 1945, an old friend contacted Helen from his new home in Belfast, to where he had escaped just before the war.

Harry Lewis and Helen married in Prague in 1947, and returned to Belfast to make a new life and start a family.

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After the birth of their two sons, Helen found her love for dance rekindled, and began a busy and productive career choreographing for theatre and opera.

She created the first modern dance work in Northern Ireland for the Belfast Ballet Club in 1956, and subsequently founded the Belfast Modern Dance Group, whose first performance was in 1962.

Helen was noted for having a deep understanding of movement, and her work was credited for bringing a European dimension to dance in the theatre.

She wrote movingly of her experiences during her early life in her memoir from 1992, A Time to Speak.

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Helen Lewis was appointed MBE in 2001 and was awarded honorary doctorates from the University of Ulster and Queen’s University. She died in 2009.

She believed that “dance by its very nature has the special power of drawing people together”. Her extraordinary gifts as a teacher are remembered by generations of dancers who continue to teach her work throughout the world.

Chris Spurr, Chairman of the Ulster History Circle commented: “The Ulster History Circle is delighted to honour this exceptional person, whose life and work is an inspiration to all.

“It is fitting that the plaque to Helen Lewis is at the Crescent Arts Centre, where she taught dance for many years. We would like to thank the Crescent, and we would also like to thank Belfast City Council for their financial support towards the plaque.”