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Cafe Tav review: tight-rope walker is airy, flamenco dancer a little too spicy

Posted on August 12, 2007 • By Miriam Schwab
Category: Art and Culture, Featured 1 Comment

Tav Group has created a café experience unlike anything you have ever known: from the makeshift scaffolding walls and open-sky ceiling, to the menu that offers coffee and fairy braids, all your senses will be heightened at Café Tav. The café is currently open at the Jerusalem Art Fair. The performers at Café Tav are from all across Israel, and the café provides an opportunity for many of Israel’s talented artists to perform.

Sara Stern is a dancer, but she never studied dance formally – she just loves it and has developed her own style. She is on the Café Tav menu, and she says that Café Tav is really open to new performers. “When I heard about Café Tav, I simply called them up, and asked if I could join. They said yes, and this is the second time I’m performing with them.” And she loves it, as do all the performers we spoke to.

Reuven Cohen-Allora, one of the Tav Group partners, explains the goals of the café. “Yoav Trifon, Maoz Alon, and myself are professional architects and designers. At the same time, we are artists in the conventional sense of the word, and we dabble in sculpture and other art forms. We came up with this idea that we thought would provide an opportunity for performers, and that the audience would love.”

And they’ve succeeded. While I was standing at the entrance of the café trying to figure out what exactly I was seeing, a woman entered excitedly and asked a waitress when the show was going to begin. When questioned about her excitement, she said that Café Tav comes to the Jerusalem Art Fair every year, and she comes to the fair just to see them.

I’d like an acrobat with my latte

The performers are a colorful group, ranging in age, religious observance, and home towns. According to the menu, you can order a belly dancer, improvisation, classic Indian dance, flamenco, tight-rope-walking, fire-dancing, juggling, unicycle, games, and even treatments such as makeup, massage, fairy braids (!), and card reading. At the back of the café, a man was having his hair cut. This place is anything but boring.

Gavriel Raanan is a jester who aspires to be a professional clown. When asked where he’s from, he explains that while he was born in Jerusalem, he doesn’t have a permanent residence. “I travel from festival to festival, and live in a mobile home,” he says. Gavriel takes his clowning very seriously.

The second youngest artist (the youngest is the baby who tight-rope-walks) is Yaakov Filtzer, 14, who has been dancing modern dance since he was seven years old. He lives in Jerusalem and studies at the Machola School of dance in Baka. Yaakov has amazing talent and energy, and during the entire evening he alternately performs on the stage and prances around the scaffolding surrounding the patrons.

A juggler and a dancer

We ordered juggling and flamenco. The juggling was at once artistic and entertaining. The juggler started off with the regular stuff, and gradually progressed to a clear ball which he brought to life as it spun smoothly around his body.

The flamenco dancer, Shira Shemi from Jerusalem, gave a fantastic show including the requisite fire-engine-red dress, stomping, shawl-swooshing, and facial expressions. It was worth every penny!

Where, when and how

Don’t miss out on Café Tav! It’s open for the whole length of the Jerusalem Art Fair. The fair runs until August 18^th from Sunday through Thursday, from 6-11 pm, and Saturdays from nightfall to midnight. The fair is located in a central location close to the Jaffa gate and David Citadel hotel. You can read more about Café Tav at www.tavgroup.com and the Jerusalem Art Fair at artfair.jerusalem.muni.il/.