PITTSBURGH — There was no prince, no princesses. There was no happy ending or light-hearted fantasy.

The Pittsburgh Ballet Theater on Friday shed a different light on a haunted chapter in history with a production by Steven Mills, a national ballet artistic director. Mills was inspired by the tragedy of Sept. 11, 2001, to present a ballet that would speak to his audience on a serious note.

The result was "Light/The Holocaust and Humanity Project." This ballet will be presented again at 6:30 p.m. Saturday and at 1 p.m. Sunday at the Byham Theatre.

The thought of something as elegant as a ballet made me question how it would be able to capture the horror of the Holocaust.

The ballet takes the audience back to Adam and Eve, the beginning of humankind on Earth.

It was a surreal experience watching the dancers float along the stage, almost it seemed, on air. I had never seen a ballet before, so I was impressed by the dancers' flowing movements.

To me, the Adam and Eve reference was made, not only to show the roots of the Jewish religion, but to show that every person was created equally.

While the dancers switched over to a wedding celebration, a sudden explosion shattered their world. "The night of broken glass" had begun.

Before the Mars Middle School eighth grade students went to this ballet, we prepared by taking notes on the Holocaust. That was when we learned about Kristallnacht, the unofficial start of the Holocaust. The dancers dramatically illustrated the horror of that night.

The once upbeat mood was replaced by a dark, panicked atmosphere. The dancers projected the flood of emotions traveling on the trains to the concentration camps, the showers in which the Jews were gassed, and the ashes of the bodies floating down from the sky.

While the scenes were powerful, they also were confusing. My teacher's explanation after the performance cleared up some of the symbolism.

I believe if we had known the story before watching the ballet, the scenes would have had more impact.

Near the end of the ballet, the characters in the concentration camps slowly died, leaving just one young woman. Even her husband, who she had recently married, died.

I was particularly captivated by the touching story of love's loss. Even as the woman suffered sorrow and appeared to lose her desire to live, there was a spark of hope. Through the dance, the spirits of her husband and all her friends, who had been killed, urged her to survive.

The last section of the ballet was a dance of hope and revived dreams. Though alone, many survivors of the tragedy looked forward to the future as the curtain closed.

My overall opinion of "Light/The Holocaust and Humanity Project" was that it was worth seeing.

Ever since I first learned about the field trip to the Byham Theatre, I've been told my generation is one of the last to be able to hear a Holocaust survivor's story first hand. I don't know if I will be privileged to talk to a Holocaust survivor, but the ballet, based on survivors' testimony collected by Miller, is another way to experience their memories.

As the close of the performance emphasized, "Those who cannot learn from the past are condemned to repeat it."

Jeanna Sybert is an eighth grade student at Mars Middle School.