Ballet has always been a part of Hannah MacKenzie-Margulies’s life.
“I always loved the way that ballet has been able to tell stories,” she said.
When she was younger, her ballet school performed The Nutcracker annually. As the only Jew in her class, MacKenzie-Margulies couldn’t find herself or her identity in the story.
Now, as Artistic Director of Little Tanz Theater, MacKenzie-Margulies has the opportunity to share a Jewish holiday story with the world – Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins, which takes the stage at Minneapolis Southwest High School on Dec. 20 and 21.
Told almost entirely through Yiddish dance, this modern twist on Eric Kimmel’s 1989 novel tells the story of Hershel, a traveler who spends each night of Hanukkah fighting goblins in a synagogue to save Hanukkah in his latest stop on his travels.
Little Tanz Theater Artistic Director Hannah MacKenzie-Margulies at a rehearsal of “Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins.” (Photo by Gabi Rosenthal)
When creating the libretto for the show, MacKenzie-Margulies chose to make the show exclusively dance for a reason: “As humans, I believe that we do a lot of communicating every day … and shows like this remind us of the power of movement as an expressive form,” she said.
This is the second year of performance, and for MacKenzie-Margulies, it’s a project that’s been years in the making. The idea came to her when she was working on The Wild Rumpus in 2023, an adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s book Where the Wild Things Are.
During that process, she learned that Sendak based the book on his Yiddish-speaking relatives, which inspired her to learn about early Yiddish dances that she was able to incorporate into The Wild Rumpus.
Later that year, she attended a concert at the JCC, which she realized could provide the space to make a childhood dream of hers a reality. Over the next year, MacKenzie-Margulies began to dive into the world of Yiddish dance, a “new form” for her.
MacKenzie-Margulies hopes that the show can show children a tale that has explicitly Jewish characters who celebrate Hanukkah. “It’s a goal of mine,” she remarked. “I hope that that’s inspiring for kids and shows them that they are welcome and belong on these stages.”
Cast members range in age from seven and eight years old to performers in their early 40s, according to MacKenzie-Margulies. She said that the community within the production reminds her of the one that she found in those performances of The Nutcracker.
The community extends beyond the cast. MacKenzie-Margulies’ choreography is accompanied by a live Klezmer band, led by music director Josh Rosard.
Rosard has been studying and performing Klezmer music for the past five years, and he was excited about being able to share that passion with others.
“It felt like a natural conversation that I could bring my knowledge about the music into making the show more complete,” he said.
Klezmer music has always spoken to Rosard. Growing up in a family of Holocaust survivors, he feels as though he’s been able to connect more with his past through Klezmer.
Through Klezmer, Rosard has taken on the responsibility of preserving an aspect of his cultural history.
“It feels meaningful as an accordion player to also be able to have that privilege,” he said. Klezmer and the accordion go hand in hand, according to musicologist Joshua Schwartz in the book “The Accordion in the Americas.”
MacKenzie-Margulies has nothing but praise for Rosard and the other musicians. “It’s not an easy task to play for 50 minutes straight … and they’re knocking it out of the park,” she said.
As the Jewish community recovers from the Bondi Beach shooting on Sunday, Rosard and MacKenzie-Margulies emphasized the importance of Jewish pride. “I think it’s important to have an opportunity for people to come together, celebrate our heritage together, and feel proud and hopeful,” Rosard said.
MacKenzie-Margulies agreed, adding that “it’s always been important, but in this time and this week it feels especially important to have opportunities to, in the spirit of Hanukkah, continue to find the light in this dark moment.”
Rosard also believes that the messages in Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins resonate with immigrants, especially with ICE’s Operation Metro Surge and their increased presence in the Twin Cities. “That really ties into the story of Hershel and how we have to be creative and use wit and humor in ways to defeat the dark forces that are always around us,” he said.
Tickets are available online.
