Labyrinth Dance Theater to Present Sasha Spielvogel's NOOR

Sasha Spielvogel's critically acclaimed NOOR returns to the stage for one performance only at 8:00PM on Thursday, December 7, 2017, at the Suzanne Werner Wright Theatre, Sarah Lawrence College.

Felicia Norton performs her role as Noor, writer and choreographer Sasha Spielvogel will once again direct the performance.

NOOR tells the story of unsung World War II heroine, Noor Inayat Khan. Though her father, Hazrat Inayat Khan brought Universal Sufism to the West and she grew up in a family that practiced pacifism, Noor became the first female wireless operator to infiltrate Nazi-occupied Paris and ultimately, the last communication link between British and French forces. Not the stuff that spies are made of, she felt she must play her part in opposing the atrocities of Nazi Fascism, passionately believing the words of the Sufi prayer, "Raise us above the distinctions and differences which divide us." With unbounded courage, Noor (code named Madeleine) managed to keep her unlikely spy ring operational even after its cover was blown, often doing the work of six Morse-code operators. The Nazis had a full description of her yet she evaded capture during the summer of 1943. After a stunning betrayal, she was caught and held captive at Gestapo headquarters in Paris. Her heroic life would end after being transferred to Dachau. Defiant to the end, Noor's last cry was "LIBERTÉ!"

Noor Inayat Khan posthumously received Britain's George Cross and France's Croix de Guerre. In 2012 Princess Anne unveiled a statue of Noor in London, the first of its kind commemorating an Asian war heroine.

Felicia Norton performs the role she originated with an intensity and daring worthy of its subject. In this forty-minute tour de force, Ms. Norton deftly captures the essence of Noor's heroism, beauty, and idealism for which she received standing ovations in London, Paris, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and New York.

Emmy nominated composer David Majzlin's gripping score evokes Noor's inner spiritual world and the harsh outer world she put herself up against, integrating Noor's poetry and music with speeches by Hitler and Churchill, Tagore's "My Country Awake," letters to her brother, Indian ragas, and songs by Edith Piaf.

"I believe in Noor and what she did," Sasha Spielvogel, founder and artistic director of Labyrinth Dance Theater, told Richard Holloway in a BBC Radio interview. "Through dance, there is a great opportunity to repair the world." Spielvogel, whose father escaped the Holocaust from Vienna, is known for creating dances with messages of social justice and for bringing deeply humanistic subject matter to the stage.

Reviews have called Labyrinth Dance Theater/Sasha Spielvogel's work "Totally mesmerizing!" "Striking!" "A powerful achievement!" "Raises the art form to where it should always be: Towering!"

This performance of NOOR is made possible by Hamm & Clove Stage Company, funded in part by a generous grant from ArtsWestchester.

The event is free and open to the public: 8:00PM, Thursday, December 7, Suzanne Werner Wright Theatre, Sarah Lawrence College,1 Mead Way, Bronxville, NY 10708. For more information, contact 914-395-2412. (Total runtime of event: 1.5 hours)

Watch a preview below!