After facing a diagnosis of terminal breast cancer in 1995, Noack set out on a radical path to recovery. Her doctors openly ridiculed the alternative therapies she wanted to pursue, and insisted that if she did not undergo multiple surgeries and an intensive course of chemotherapy, she would be dead within six months. Complicating matters was her inability to get any kind of health insurance, a common problem for dancers and artists. Nonetheless, Noack followed her heart, and has not only survived, but has lived the most healthy, productive, and joyous years of her life.

Through her show, Noack wants to educate the world about a better way to heal—through joy, through love and trust in one’s dreams, and most importantly, through the celebration of dance. “One of the most important goals of these performances is to bring a message of hope to women living with breast cancer,” says Noack, who has made a national commitment to touring and education. She wants the show to be a forum that will enlarge the dialogue about breast cancer and educate women everywhere about alternative treatments.

The show includes Argentine Tango, Flamenco, Rumba, and Salsa performances by a dynamic cast of 35 dancers, musicians and actors that features many luminaries from the world of latin dance and music: Felix Insua, the principal dancer for Yoruba Andabo; the renowned Flamenco dancer Maite Vicens; composer Gary Raheb; Flamenco cantator Alfonso Mogaburo; violist Michael Lawson; guitarists Carlos Revollar and Arturo Martinez; percussionist Pedro Pablo Martinez. Contributors to the voice-overs include actors Mira Sorvino, Annabella Sciorra, and Guy Urqhart. All the music for the show is performed live, and the final section features a performance by the son montuno group Mo’Guajiro.

Karim Noack began dancing at age three in her native Columbia and has lived and worked in New York for 12 years. She has studied at the Ecole Superieure d’Etudes Choreographiques in Paris, the Ballet Nacional de Mexico, and the Merce Cunningham Studio Dance Space. She has worked extensively in several disciplines, appearing in films, on television, in the theater, and in hundreds of dance performances worldwide. The opening night of the La Mama performances will be a benefit for the dancers and musicians who have been instrumental in bringing a new voice of hope to the national dialogue about breast cancer.

THE NEW YORK TIMES Review
MARCH 14, 2001
Karim Noack: A Hospital Battle Portrayed in Dance
DANCE REVIEW
By JENNIFER DUNNING

Karim Noack's ``Six Months to Live'' ought to be required viewing for members of the medical profession, both caring and malign. The piece, performed on March 4 at La MaMa, was clearly an uplifting experience for the people watching it, many of whom joined the cast in a jubilant onstage dance party at the end. But this portrayal of a spunky woman battling doctors and nurses was heavy-handed even as the caricature it was intended to be.

Ms. Noack, a New York-based Colombian who performed with the activist Mexican Contradanza company, was given six months to live after her breast cancer was diagnosed in 1995, so she turned to alternative therapies. But the audience never gets to know much about her stage character. And a single benign doctor or nurse in the piece would have made the ruthlessness of the others much more powerful.

They brandish bloody carving knives and grope or attempt to rape the central character in almost every segment. Their mocking of her belief in the curative powers of brown rice and trampolines is a little more convincing. But that, too, is undercut by the unfailing goodness of her spiritual guide and of practitioners of alternative
medicine and the crudity of the death figure who careers through the piece.

Ms. Noack directed and wrote the lyrics for ``Six Months to Live,'' which was set to uncredited music performed live, and she
choreographed the flamenco and Latin dance segments. The 35-member cast also included Guy Urquhart, with voiceovers by performers who included Mira Sorvino, Annabella Sciorra and Gary Raheb.