Mayumana presents BE!
The word "Mayumana" sounds like a football cheer for a small mid-western college, and one would expect to see a passel of blonde, blue-eyed, cheerleaders rattling their pompoms and jumping on the precise cue. The Hebrew word "Mayumana" (pronounced my-YOO-muh-nuh) means skill, and though there are no blonde, blue-eyed cheerleaders on the stage of Broadway's Union Square Theatre in the company's production of "BE," there is plenty of skill.
This is a company of muscular athletes bounding through wildly energetic movement designs to their own rhythmic accompaniment, lugging their drums (all sizes) and guitars on and off the stage, bounding through space with a captivating insouciance, and playing with wondrous light designs that can leave you completely puzzled and dazzled. The set looks like your old aunt's attic, stuffed with junk, yet each piece is ingeniously set in its proper place to be used in time. The company has charming interludes with the audience and round out the 90-minute piece with a robust set of curtain calls. Do they dance? They surely do combining acrobatics, belly dancing, flamenco, modern, and hip-hop, but always with that mesmerizing beat in the background. It is Mayumana's inseparable connection to the vigorous rhythms they produce, one after the other in a barrage of bewildering activity, that makes this company more than "Stomp," "Blue Man Group," and "Dumbstruck" who operate in similar mind-sets.
One sequence is on the tail of the other, connected flawlessly. Often it is just one of the female dancers romping out of the wings, hopping up on a counter top and running across it to the other side. In fact, the production opens with the ten dancers, in long coats sitting at a counter, facing the audience as if they were a panel of judges listening to testimony. One cocks his head to the side, another follows, and soon they have abandoned the counter, the coats, and are geared up to really move. The advantage of this quiet introduction is a chance for the audience to frame the faces, each one different, each one handsome, each one projecting a contained animal-like quality that you are sure will be let loose momentarily. At first they appear uniform, but as the sequence of acts unfolds multi-colored costumes change and reveal more taut midriffs and sturdy leg muscles. A word about the women, all with gobs of bouncing hair layered high above their heads. They are dressed in divine layered prints with leg warmers and boots (specially-made police boots) light and supportive but providing the proper clomping sound as the company pounds out rhythms on the floor or off the walls of the set.
Here come the drums, the boxes, the body, anything that has a surface suitable for hitting, tapping, clapping, and making rhythms. There are green phosphorescent masks atop black robed dancers and that instant of humor when one robed figure bumps into the wall. There are orange neon balls bobbing in air held aloft by blacked-out figures, there are long multi-colored tubes the dancers use to howl into, beat on, slap against the floor (all sound producing) and one ingenious segment where the five women are in three-sided partitions banging and kicking the sides in unison producing intricate sound phrases. Don't look for arabesques or a ballet line. Though these women are superbly dance trained and could give any Broadway dancer strong competition at an audition, classical is not what is seen here. They pound the stage floor with conviction and rebound often in back flips or equally diverse acrobatic feats. Watch for Ivory Coast-born Aka Jean Claude Thiemele his body gleaming in a tour de force of primitive choreography.
Boaz Berman, one of the founder/performers, and his nephew Ido Stadler share drumming duties. They are probably the most fascinating cogs in the wheel of eye-popping acts. Berman and co-founder, Eylon Nuphar started in a basement space in Tel Aviv over ten years ago, and now perform in their own 400-seat theater in Jaffa in addition to supervising three other companies running in various parts of the world.
Though the energy travels at a peak throughout, the drumming is far from ordinary. Stadler uses boxes, tubes, flippers, water buckets, conga drums, and his own body to pound out sounds at such a rapid pace that one feels certain he will expire shortly from the self-inflicted beating, "You have to be a very nervous person...hyperactive you could call it," the 28-year old Stadler said, conscious of choosing his English words carefully. He sat at perfect ease facing me across the table betraying any sign of hyperactivity. Gene inheritance has to have played a major part here (I offer) as he interchanges this stunning role with his uncle on alternating nights. They exchange glances and smile neither acknowledging my theory.
Berman seems to be in charge of keeping the cast alive and well. He provides the company with a steady regimen of warm-up therapy, Pilates, yoga, any and all means of preserving the body in this backbreaking show of energy. "We try to find people who can play guitar, drums, dance, and have a good sense of humor as part of the show is spoken," Berman said. smiling at his own list of expectations. "Each performer does two parts. I can discover a lot very quickly at an audition. The way they stand on stage can tell you. We also have to discover if they are nice people, because we travel a lot and are together all the time. We have real personalities on stage, not just performers who come in the studio, do the part, then leave. We are closely connected and must choose wisely when replacing cast members. Our company is the show, and they must be content, so we are always looking how to keep them happy and ...healthy."
Co-creator Nuphar admits, "It's not easy to classify this show. It's music, it's theatre, it's percussion, it's dance, and it's wit. It's us being ourselves and basically anything goes." Perhaps that is the real reason this compelling company has had a ten-year run. People are going and telling others not to miss it.
Before the lights go up and we are introduced to an interchange of sounds, a prelude to the big picture that will keep us moving in our seats for ninety minutes, a voice-over will instruct us to "BE" many things: be at peace, be lovely, be happy, be joyful, be yourself, be quiet, and enjoy. Take these instructions with you as you dance out of the theater.