Shushan Purim

Mimes, acrobats, Flamenco music and dance, children's entertainers, and other performances entertained massive crowds today on the Ben Yehuda Midrakhov.

This year the Jerusalem Municipality's T"u b'Shvat activities ( http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/new-year-for-trees.html ) were cancelled. Stated reason was the weather, but as it did not rain that day I think the real reason was the strike of regular workers in support of benefits for contract workers.

The performers are appearing today, on Ben Yehuda and elsewhere in the city, and drawing more crowds than I've seen on T'u b'Shvat in past years.

The Flamenco performers were particularly good and included the excellent singer who has appeared at the best flamenco concerts ( http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/israel-flamenco.html ) and as a guest soloist with the Andalusian Orchestra of Ashdod. You'd think I'd remember his name by now.

Thank you, Google. His name is Yehuda Shwaiki.

Walking home, from the windows of several apartments the Book of Esther being read to the audible enjoyment of families.

Copyright 2012 Jane S. Fox

Entertainment

Sunday night's theater production pf Plufenbach and Zufenheim (I may have spelled that wrong, but it doesn't matter) was done in "german" doubletalk (see Sid Caesar explaining and doing this at http://www.sidcaesar.com/vidclips.html ) with a few humorous translations into Hebrew. I didn't know i was lost until 15 minutes before the end.

Monday afternoon's free concert was in complete contrast to the previous week's presentation of modern Israeli music. Last week it was interesting to hear the composers explain what they were trying to do, and once or twice i had the feeling of understanding they had done it -- rather like Sunday's play. This week's concert was the sort of classical music that seems very clear, though I expect the composers could have explained depths I miss on an intellectual level.

Two hours after the concert ended we were back at the Jerusalem Theater for a dance performance, Srul. First time I'd seen a bucyle and multiple walkers used in a dance performance. There were program notes, but I could have used supertitles explaining each scene. Nevertheless pleasurable.

Row 9A may be the best in the Sherover Theater.

Copyright 2012 Jane S. Fox

Israel Flamenco

At last night's flamenco ( http://www.flamenconatural.co.il ) concert at Beit Shmuel we sat in the center of the seventh row of an auditorium with just the right slope. Nine women tapped and stamped, legs mostly hidden beneath long skirts. Their bodies said, "You don't need to see the mechanics of the artistry." Arms, and hands, and stance are always visible, and the lone male dancer provided contrast.

One barefoot for some, ballet slippers for others, so not-flamenco dance, demonstrated the dancers' wider training.

The male singer had and authentic your-voice-won't-last-if-you-go-on-like-that sound.

Beit Shmuel's Hirsch Theater is a popular, smaller venue. Last week we saw Ruddigore there.

Copyright 2011 Jane S. Fox

Independence Day Dancing

• There's dancing tonight in many venues after the ceremony marking the end of Memorial Day.
• The largest event is at Kikar Safra -- in front of CityHall.
• It goes on till the wee hours.
• See also http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/05/folk-dancing.html

Copyright 2007 Jane S. Fox

Theater

• In the past nine months in Jerusalem, we have been to a concert by "The Tismoret," musicians who play klexmer, gypsy, and Arabic music (http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/06/performing-arts-in-jerusalem.html ) ; a David Broza extravaganza of rhythm, song, and dance worth a long drive -- but only a ten-minute walk from home; Tango por Dos (http://www.ballet.co.uk/gallery/jr_tangopordos_peacock_0506 ); stand-up comedian Jacky Levi asking "Does God Have a Sense of Humor?" (Yes!); some other stand-up comedian who might amuse four-year olds; Jacky Levi again, this time with a thoughtful songwriter, working out material for their next show (on its way to being good); a string quartet; and songs by Italian women. Next week is the oud (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oud ) concert.
• All this is in addition to free klezmer, jazz, marching brass band (http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/02/unexpected-february-entertainment.html ), Irish band, Moroccan band, percussionists on the City wall, drummers, Irish dancing, Moroccan dancing, Balkan dancing, stilt walking, jugglers, commedia dell' arte, and comic ballet (http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/10/all-together-now.html ). (Not to mention the buskers on the Midrakhov.)
• Plus seven museums, three lectures, and nineteen guided walking tours (incuding three tunnels).
• All within Jerusalem.

Copyright 2006 Jane S. Fox

All Together Now

• If you can only come to Israel once, come to Jerusalem during Succot.
• In the morning, dispatcher to taxi drivers, "More taxis to the train station, more, come as many of you as can."
• Where Shlomtsion HaMalka meets King David, families, couples, individuals – waiting for the walk sign, surging across the street, along Agron’s shaded sidewalk to merge with the stream along the Jaffa Road, they walk faster than the cars, the taxis, the buses, stuck in gridlock, all headed in one direction.
• Happy people, dads pushing kids in strollers, big sisters herding younger siblings, black coated men in belted silk coats and wearing shiny brown fur hats, women in their best long skirts and fine-tailored jackets, men in jeans holding their children’s hands, women in hip huggers, long-haired little girls in pinafores, others in sun dresses or shorts, boys running ahead, reined in with a shout, fai-skinned red heads, dark-skinned Ethiopeans, pesionairs, teenagers, cellphones, "We’re near Sha’ar Yafo," "We took the train," "We left the car in Rehavia, "I see you; we’re over here."
• Crowds and crowds, splitting to go down through the souk or round through the Armenian quarter, the religious holding long celluloid carriers with palm fronds and myrtle and willow, boxes protecting chosen citrons; the secular Jews surprised in their company, all towards the Kotel.
• Then masses go out the nearest Gate to the City of David, below the Old City walls, lining up for tours, numbers beyond expectations, beyond the guides’ capacity. "Come back tomorrow. Early." Good nature prevails. There’s plenty to see, walking round the excavations.
• At six, beside the Ottoman Railway station, ten shekels to enter where 30 restaurants, or 40, cook out. Eat in the Shouk sells "Persian Goulash," Yehezkeli" offers fried haloumi cheese, Pisces does things with salmon, there’s tamarind juice and limonana, a wine bar, shwaarma, felafel, kebabs and kubeh, dim sum, empanadas, gefilte fish, crepes, Belgian waffles, brownies, cotton candy. Booths sell crafts. Bands play.
• From 4 PM, families stream through the security checkpoints into Liberty Bell Park, met by jugglers and stilt walkers, a comic ballet duo on a small stage, Irish dancers from Ra’nana on a larger one.
• Hand-crafted glass for sale, and jewelry, and toys, and pottery, and drawings, and books. Hotdogs and hamburgers, juice and soda, and beer with few takers.
• A drummer has brought a dozen giant tablas for kids to sit on and help make joyous rhythms. In a circle o a large mat kids come and learn, and switch, and parents sometimes drum, and for four hours the white-robed man keeps drumming, sometimes singing, and the energy builds and ebbs and builds higher.
• In a tent a circus. In the "amphi," puppets.
• We stopped by the best Irish band I’ve ever heard. The leader played the Irish pipes sweetly but with vigor. A compelling percussionist. A woman fiddling with quick skill. Two guitarists. The leader switches to a long recorder. Back to the pipes. Familiar tunes with newer beats. We crowd around the barrier. They take a break. We pull up chairs from scattered tables.
• The band returns and shares its energy. Behind them teenage girls appear and disappear. Oblivious to all but music, they jump and dance.
• The band moves from tune to tune. Two girls, three or four years old, slip through the barriers onto the platform in front of the band, left hand in left they turn and turn the way kids can, around and around without out falling down. A toddler runs up and runs around them, and three more little girls, dancing like iron filing when a magnet is moved beneath a table.
• Then a man comes around the bandstand in khakis and a t-shirt, shod in proper Irish dancing shies. Still on the tarmac, his feet begin to tap. Up he goes onto the platform and does the Irish steps quick and riveting, and the children whirl, and he taps and clogs and leaps across the stage, always in the space where the children are not.
• Walking home, we pass the banners whereby the Inbal Hotel welcomes three tourist groups. How lucky they are to be in this city in these days! "I hope," I say, "that they got away from the package tour and went down into the park."
• From the hotel, they must have heard the music. "The entire universe is a very narrow bridge, and the essence, the essential principle, is not to be afraid, at all."
• See also http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/10/red-rock.html http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/02/unexpected-february-entertainment.html http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/06/prtforming-arts-in-jerusalem.html http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/20/succa.html

Copyright 2006 Jane S. Fox

Levi Jackson

• Crossing King George from the Prima Kings Hotel (http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/08/rehavia-windmill.html) towards Independence Park (http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/07/fantastic-animals.html and http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/06/two-horses.html) or Raban at the end of Saadia Gaon, which is the begining of Diskin ( http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/06/views.html) is like dancing Levi Jackson.(http://www.lloydshaw.org/Catalogue/CueSheets/Contra/LeviJacksonRag.htm).
• See also http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/07/not-jaywalking.html

Copyright 2006 Jane S. Fox

ICCY

• About a quarter of the way along Emek Refaim http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/07/emek-refaim.html from Liberty Bell Park, a pentagonal sign points to the International Cultural Center for Youth. Classes from Yoga to Karate, for infants to pensioners, meet inside. Upstairs there is folk dancing on Tuesday evening, and a melodious minyan (http://www.geocities.com/shira_hadasha/) on Shabbat and holidays.
• On alternate Friday mornings in the summer, vendors set up tables under blue awnings in the large courtyard. Near the entrance, artists sell graceful handmade glassware. Farther along it’s t-shirts and colorful carry bags. I found deeply dyed silk skirts from India, flirty and knee-length or layered and full length, interspersed with gold-threaded mini wraps to wear over jeans (http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/05/daughter-of-salwar-kameez.html ) or to delight a four-year old who likes to dress up as "a princess like Cinderella." Rose-patterned glass pitchers and plates from Turkey and Roumania (thick and thin) are ridiculously cheap. Lemon liqueur is deliciously smooth.

Copyright 2006 Jane S. Fox

Folk Dancing

• To find a folkdancing group, post a query to the Yahoo rikud group. Venues change, but you can find dancing several days a week.
• On Independence Day Eve there's dancing in Safra Square in front of City Hall.
• For tango, ballroom, or other dancing, the Haaretz Friday supplement Akhbar HaIr is a good source, but it is in Hebrew.

Copyright 2006 Jane S. Fox