Mayumana

Mayumana

Sat 31 Oct

Mayumana are a high-energy percussive dance group, with their own theatre in Tel Aviv. This was the first performance of their new show, Momentum - lots of ticking clocks, plenty of audience participation, and tons of momentum!

Earlier in the afternoon we had a workshop with two of their teachers. Banging on assorted pots and pans - and on our own bodies - was great fun, but the session served to confirm that dancers are not necessarily very musical, just as not all musicians can dance.

Women in Black

Slideshow

Fri 30 Oct

Every Friday lunchtime a group of Israeli women hold a demonstration against the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian Terrirtories. They dress in black, and stand in a little square in the centre of Jerusalem near the residence of the prime minister.

Jenny and her group were taking part in the demonstration that afternoon, so we went along with them, and chatted with some of the demonstrators. They get a mixed reception from passers-by, ranging from encouragement to abuse, but they come back every week to make their point, and have been doing so for over 20 years.

After the demo we managed to grab a standing lunch in the last sandwich shop still open - Shabat was closing in fast. Jenny's group then went on to a meeting with the Campaign against House Demolitions, who try to support Palestinians whose houses are torn down to make way for the expansion of Israeli settlements on the West Bank.

Jerusalem in the rain

Slideshow

Fri 30 Oct

We took a walk round the Old City, and it rained. And rained. And rained.

We'd overshot the mark on the bus, and had to walk a fair way back and across to get to the Jaffa Gate, and then meet up with Jenny. So quite by chance our first views of the Old City were from the hill to the west, which gave us some gorgeous views. It's only now, looking more closely at the photos, that I realise we had our first view of the Separation Wall that morning. We were to see it several times a day for the next fortnight - it's everywhere.

Look who I met in Jerusalem

Look who I met in Jerusalem

Fri 30 Oct

By complete coincidence, Jenny and I found we were both in Jerusalem the same day. So we met up, as cousins do, and had Arab coffee and baklava - the first of many - in the Four Seasons, opposite the Damascus Gate.

Jenny and Tony were on a visit to Ramallah with the Oxford Palestine Solidarity Campaign, and they were able to advise us on many things, for which many thanks :-) .

To fleece or not to fleece?

OK, so maybe I'll leave the fleece at home . . .

Merkavah 09

Jan and I are off to Israel on Thursday on a 12-day traditional dance trip - it's the sort of thing you can do once you've retired - well, at least, one of us has :-)

We are taking part in Merkavah, a 'Journey of Light' (30 Oct-11 Nov) across Israel and the West Bank, focusing on traditional and communal dances. We shall be visiting various communities, and in particular seeing and learning some of their dances, as well as taking in many of the sights that no visitor to the area would want to miss.

Merkavah is organised and led by dance teachers Frida Zalcman and Pablo Scornik, and you can see an outline of the trip on Pablo's Tinkudanzas website.

As we go along we hope to find the time to keep a brief diary of the visit in this blog, with a view to expanding the entries and going into more detail when we get back. We'll upload photos and short movies to sites like Flickr and YouTube, and link to them from here.

After the dance trip, we shall be staying on for a few days to see some of my family in Israel, and to visit a permaculture project in the Palestinian West Bank.

We have also set up a wiki site, which we are intending to use as a workspace for the trip. So far it contains a detailed programme of the trip with online links to many of the communities and places we shall be visiting. At the moment access to this site is by invitation only - friends and relatives who would like to see what we are up to should email me and ask for an invitation.

Now, what's the weather like in Jerusalem in November? Should I take a fleece?? Can I learn the Hebrew alphabet in 3 days???