The dancers had been rehearsing all day long, but the energy was high as the cast of Barak Marshall’s “Monger” prepared for their May 14th performance with Balkan Beat Box. “There is a terrific atmosphere working with them,” said dancer Gavriel Spitzer, “It’s a lot of fun.”
The onstage encounter between Marshall’s fast-paced, sensual hybrid of Polish-Yemenite body language and Balkan Beat Box’s sound that makes the soul dance is an inspiring opening to the Suzanne Dellal Center’s 20th Anniversary celebrations. Tomer Yosef recalls first meeting Marshall, who is also an accomplished singer, and his mother dancer/choreographer/singer Margalit Oved in Los Angeles three years ago. Marshall and Oved performed twice with the group in LA. The relationship developed further when Marshall included music from Balkan Beat Box in the score for his latest dance “Monger”.
“We’re excited about tomorrow’s performance – the first time we perform with “Monger” onstage,” Tamir Muskat, founding member of BBB, explains that collaboration is the essence of the group, whose members have worked with a variety of artists in different individual projects. Yosef adds, “It is new, but natural.”
Some might label BBB as part of the world music trend, but Yosef views their work differently saying “We take traditional music from Morocco, the Balkans, and Yemen, the music we grew up on, and give them a contemporary twist. World music often has a ‘pleasant’ sound – our concerts are a sort of rave. We want to make people move; we want the audience to be part of the show.”
Thursday, May 14th at 21:00
Suzanne Dellal Center, Tel Aviv
www.suzannedellal.org
03-5105656
Balkan Beat Box performances:
www.myspace.com/balkanbeatbox
Photo: Tamir Muskat of Balkan Beat Box on drums at Suzanne Dellal Main Stage
Image credit: Ayelet Dekel
