Mayumana

I went to this show called Mayumana Momentum today.

It was in Jaffa, and we had to drive there because it's Shavuot (a holiday) and there aren't any buses. May I just say that driving in Tel Aviv/Yafo is the worst? I mean, firstly I'm not so used to sitting around in cars anymore and secondly, it's all so complicated. Plus, you can never find parking. We were lucky in that respect.

Mayumana is a group that does something sort of similar to Stomp. Except not. It's a cross between dancing and singing and acrobatics and acting and drumming and playing music and audience participation. And it's really cool. But loud, too.

This particular show had a theme of time. There were clocks everywhere and quotes about time that were projected onto a screen before each act. And then that screen lifted up to reveal this grid-thing where the dancers/actors/musicians could climb up and each person had their own box where they danced and sang, backlit by lights, and they also performed on the stage. They had this really cool recording thing which they could press and it would play back the music they'd already created and they could record another part over it, which they also did with cameras: they would film something and project it onto the screen, sometimes filming something else and adding it. Oh, it was all brilliant.

They made the show mostly in English and movements, so most people would be able to understand. Even if you didn't speak English, you could get it from the actors' gestures, and in any case it was more about the music and dance.

All the performers were insanely adept at guitar, drumming, and singing, as well as being extremely strong and flexible. At first I thought, "Oh, I could do that," but it soon became apparent that there was no way at all.

In any case, Mayumana was really great. If you find yourself in Jaffa, I encourage you to go.