Neve Tzedek

Yesterday after school, my mom, my brother, and I took a bus to Neve Tzedek.

Neve Tzedek is one of the oldest neighborhoods in Tel Aviv. It's got a kind of small-town feel to it in a way, but the taller buildings are always looming in the background.

We went for lunch at a place called Suzanna, but it was a bit rushed because we had to get to a show (which admittedly was in the building across the street, but still). It was a dance performance called Oyster, which is still going after ten years and is celebrating its anniversary at the Suzanne Dellal Center, which is one of the celebrated dance theaters in the country.

Oyster is unconventional, to say the least. All the dancers wear wigs (I'm still wondering how they didn't fall off) and have their faces painted white. The show is presented kind of like a carnival sideshow event, with one short piece after another. One piece includes dancers with rods connecting their hands and feet, and another has an extra-tall man pushed around by a ballerina with a stool attached to her behind. There's one where a dancer is hanging from a pulley, and one with "armless" men. I thought it was amazing, the way that they folded themselves and fell and stretched. And I suppose the weirdness of it was what made it amazing. It makes you want to do something not-so-normal because you can.

After that we went for gelato and went home. I studied some French. It was brilliant.