התגברות (והתבגרות) כה נעימה- מחשבות של אלה גרינבום על ׳קריוקי׳ מאת רייצ׳ל ארדוס

What is your favorite pastime?

There are those who love a good meal, some will say camping and there will be people who prefer Netflix and Chilled.

And me? I want to sing!

That is to say, I want to screech pop songs and gesture wildly.

Karaoke. What a genius invention!

The one place where I can adorn myself with stardust and let pop songs speak my truth in public.

And that is the genius of this show.

The audience enters as they would a regular karaoke night with a menu comprised of songs. The dancers pass through the audience pouring shots for everyone.

It is a show that is life and life as a show and, of course, the songs amplify our feelings in rhyme and rhythm, an unavoidable soundtrack of our memories.

I signed up to sing but will I be chosen?

The Karaoke stage bears a combination of bravery and fear.

The dancers welcome us with an incantation, “Embracing, not judging. Let us allow ourselves to be everything we ever wanted to be…”

And here, miraculously, I was called up first!

Queen’s Love of My Life,

Freddie Mercury’s spirit overcame me and I wanted to shout out all of my heartbreaks to the crowd,

Perhaps this is the point of the show,

To wash away the pain with a shot of pure tequila and a sweet pop song.

Photo Efrat Mazor

But make no mistake, this is no ordinary Karaoke.

The dance here is a guiding force and all these emotions come to life in the bodies of the dancers.

We all remember the final moments of Dirty Dancing where we wondered if they would succeed- her to jump and him to catch.

Here, Ofir and Tomer recreate that lift over and over, to the crowd’s delight, just like in the movie.

They want to renew their belief that “love conquers all”.

Ofir talks about her parents’ divorce,

Gilad about the ex that left,

Radio meets MTV videos,

“Two of us driving in a car, I don’t know where to,”

Faith with a hint of heartbreak,

They rehearse over and again, just like the lift in the movie,

They go for it,

It breaks them,

Their bodies and voices express the love and the pain,

Dressed in sparkles and glitter like the stars themselves,

The words dance with them on the screen and their bodies belt out the lyrics,

“I heard this song when I was 14,

Or at my parents’ wedding

Or on that night…”

And where were you when you first heard this song?

And you?

Photo Efrat Mazor

The repeated lift echoes our attempts to overcome, to love in spite of, to try again.

If I jump, will you catch me?

Again and again.

Forever.

They dance into the audience,

Bouncing feelings off the tables,

Drawing us in and granting us permission

To let down our guard and jump on it

Leap onto the stage, sing out, with shaking hands in front of us and with us

Because we are all in this movie together,

Our hearts have all broken and yet we still believe in love,

Jumping on it and falling for it,

Losing ourselves.

The dancers are dripping sweat from their acrobatic and their groove,

And maybe this is all an exercise in matters of the heart,

The dancers aren’t superheroes, they are people with cracks and fractures in their hearts just like us.

At the end of the show the audience is gifted the stage

And they take over gladly.

The party goes on.

The performance has managed to move the audience, literally, to get them singing.

And it is a sweet triumph.