That's why the choreographer-performer-educator called her theater piece "Seven." It will be performed by Tikvah Company of Artists Thursday and Friday, Dec. 3 and 4 at the Hamlin Park Theater in Chicago.

Kahn describes the work as integrating modern dance, narrative and a range of different kinds of music. The words-which are appreciate, endure, wait, grieve, trust, listen and journey-are projected onto a backdrop as the seven performers of the company interpret each one.

"The seven words very much have Torah Jewish values to them," Kahn said in a recent phone conversation. "This is not Jewish in terms of being Israeli folk dancing. It is very idea-driven. There is a Holocaust piece about grief, a piece about trust that is the hallmark of the whole performance with dancers who are blindfolded. These are common human qualities and values for anyone who is Jewish or not Jewish."

Kahn is the creator not only of "Seven" but of the Tikvah ensemble. She has two master's degrees in dance (from Case Western Reserve University and Kent State University) but is now more interested in collaborative work. Originally from Chicago, Kahn lived in several other cities but came back last year and spent a year establishing what she calls "a network, a multi-artistic company drive by Jewish ideas." She also teaches a course called Creativity and Adversity, described as an interdisciplinary course she created from the lens of Judaism, art and psychology.

"Even though my training is in modern dance, I wanted to create this work with this ensemble of dancers, actors and musicians," she says. "There is one piece about patience as a character trait, a Jewish value. Appreciation is very much of a Jewish value. It's seeing the good in everything. For 'endure,' I speak Tehillim (Psalm) 13. I speak that text. The piece is about enduring difficulty, part of Jewish history." The "grief" piece was inspired by the work of Holocaust survivor and author Gerda Weissman Klein and her book, "All But My Life," Kahn says. "I dance it, and an actress will be speaking some of her story while Don (musician Don Jacobs from the Maxwell Street Klezmer Band) plays and a vocalist sings," she says. "It is a multi-artistic piece, a piece from her experience, the inspiration of how she overcame." As a grandmother, Klein is "a link to generations," Kahn says.

The piece illustrating "appreciate" "starts with a poetic text I wrote about my mother's passing," she says. "It's very moving, about appreciating what you have. That is a Jewish value, to have gratitude for what you have and to see the good in things."

"Seven" has been performed several times before in different cities and "got standing ovations," Kahn says, "Right now I'm mostly letting the Jewish community know about it but I've done it in all different places," once to an all-women's Jewish audience and another time, in Cleveland, in a public theater for an audience of Jews and non-Jews.

"It has consistently moved people of different ethnicities and been engaging in a very deep way. People can identify with it," Kahn says.

She hopes that Chicago audiences, too, will see the piece as "thought-provoking and inspiring. It is not done as entertainment, but as bringing Torah to life on stage."

"Seven" will be performed at 7:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday, Dec. 3 and 4 at Hamlin Park Theater, 3055 Hoyne, Chicago. For tickets, at $18, visit brownpapertickets.com. For more information, visit www.tikvahartistschicago.com.