Middle East - Anthony Ham [213]
In the Palestinian Territories, music lessons have become increasingly important to children in recent years, as a therapeutic escape from the rigours of every day life. Teenagers and 20-somethings have expanded into hip-hop and rap, the two most popular outfits currently being Gaza-based PR (Palestinian Rappers) and Israeli Arabs Dam Rap (www.dam3rap.com) who rap in a heady mixture of Arabic, Hebrew and English.
If you’re looking for something more traditional, the Palestinian Territories’ love of classical Arab music is still very much alive; jump at the chance to attend local weddings or celebrations where there will often be a live band. With haunting melodies created with the oud (lute), daf (tambourine) and ney (flute), their melodies will remain in your mind long after the performance is over.
Theatre & Dance
Theatre is vibrant in Israel, with plenty of small repertory companies alongside the stalwarts, and lots of well-attended festivals countrywide. Perennially popular are the works of late, great playwrights such as Hanoch Levin and Nissim Aloni, and the contemporary Yehoshua Sobol. The oldest, most respected theatre company is Habima (Click here), founded by Russian immigrants of the 1920s and ’30s.
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PARTY PURSUIT zmagen
Tel Aviv night life On par with other leaders in the nonstop nightlife field, Tel Aviv (Click here) offers a parade of ever changing, innovative dance clubs, from megadomes housing thousands where international DJ stars play every weekend, to neighbourhood dance bars open till far after dawn, decadent gay friendly day clubs, and street parties in broad daylight.
Outdoor rave parties Israel is one of the world leaders in the psychedelic trance music genre, and has been for the past few decades. As such, it’s surprising to note how underground and hush-hush the outdoor rave parties in Israel can be. Nevertheless, ask the right people, and you might be in for the experience of a lifetime.
Ethnic music festivals As spring emerges and valleys fill with flowers and wildlife, annual long-running ethnic music festivals are held in the lush north and scenic desert down south, as well as in the citrus-laden Sharon area. These feature music concerts and workshops for the entire family and provide an organic-spiritual environment for the so inclined.
What’s your recommendation?
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Social commentary theatre is also highly popular, tackling subjects from religion to terrorism to suicide and sexuality; Phallus HaKadosh (The Holy Phallus), a male response to the Vagina Monologues, and the international hit Plonter, with a mixed Jewish and Arab cast, have been two recent highlights.
Though not as far-reaching, theatre struggles on in the Palestinian Territories, despite a dearth of funding and the problems of movement for audiences, caused by roadblocks, curfews and checkpoints. The Palestinian National Theatre (pnt-pal.org) in East Jerusalem and the Al Kasaba Theatre in Ramallah (Click here) keep up a ready schedule of performances. Palestinian youth groups, too, have seized on theatre as a way of venting everyday frustrations; visit Jenin’s Freedom Theatre website (freedomtheatre.org) or Al Rowwad theatre (alrowwad.virtualactivism.net) in Aida refugee camp just outside Bethlehem, for two of the best.
Israelis and Palestinians alike love dance, albeit of different kinds. In Israel, contemporary dance troupes abound; Tel Aviv’s Bat Sheva group, founded by Martha Graham, is probably the best known, with acclaimed choreographer Ohad Naharin. Israel’s folk dance of choice is hora, with its origins in Romania; a great place to see it in action is at the Carmiel Dance Festival (Click here). Palestinians, meanwhile, go in for dabke folk dancing. Check out El-Funoun