Inspired by the beat band "Stomp", the Mayumana dance group adds uniquely Israeli elements to its pulsating mixture of music, beat, movement, humor and joy.
by Simon Griver
Mayumana first took the nation by storm in 1998 during the Israel Festival, the country's annual showcase international event for the performing arts. Since then, Mayumana has performed regularly at its home theater in Tel Aviv, has appeared throughout Israel and has even made its first tour abroad, to Holland.
The ten-person troupe was conceived by Boaz Berman and Eylon Nuphar. "We aimed to create a show that would combine elements from most of the arts," explains Berman. "Eylon and I are both percussionists. Rhythm is an integral part of our day-to-day life."
After 18 months of exacting and exhausting rehearsals in a Tel Aviv cellar, during which the demanding Berman and Nuphar hired and fired dozens of prospective band members, the group was ready for its first performance.
"We looked for mischief and a spark of madness together with the mandatory rhythm," recalls Nuphar. "Aside from creative inspiration, a lot of skills were required to do what we pictured in our heads." Among these skills were music reading, developing coordination, yoga, dance, rock climbing, digesting junk food, drumming techniques and massage. The name Mayumana (from the Hebrew meaning skill, dexterity or proficiency) is, therefore, certainly appropriate.
Berman, who was born in Israel and studied Afro-Cuban percussion in New York, and Nuphar, who was born in New York and studied oriental music and belly dancing in Israel, reflect the cosmopolitanism that underpins modern Israel. Berman also plays and records with leading Israeli artists such as Yehuda Poliker, and has represented Israel in Thai boxing. Nuphar has been a gymnast, long distance runner and video editor. And the ten musicians whom Berman and Nuphar finally brought together have no less colorful and diverse backgrounds, including African and Flamenco dance, classical ballet, jazz and popular music.
"Since each member of the group came from a different field of the arts," explains Berman, "we had to bring them all to a common level -
to turn dancers into drummers, drummers into actors, people into performers, individualists into a group."
Mayumana, like the society in which it operates, is not easily described or characterized. It is a show that engrosses the audience with its openness, providing continuously changing visual pictures that hint at the roots and dynamic complexity of Israeli reality. Mayumana alludes to secularity and religion, simplicity and complexity, harmony and disorder. Its nightly performances comprise a wide variety of situations leading to free associations, many of which are humorous. It is no surprise that in the midst of an urban show, utilizing improvised industrial instruments, a belly dancer appears or swimming flippers are transformed into a telephone booth.
Like Israel itself, Mayumana combines the contemporary with the ancient, east with west and chaos with order. Above all, Mayumana delightfully blends Mediterranean culture with a universal feeling that the group and its performance radiate.