PikiWiki Israel 3497 dancing to celebrate the crop

Mayim Mayim ( he, מים מים, "water, water") is an

Israeli folk dance Israeli folk dance ( he, ריקודי עם, ''rikudei 'am'', lit. "Folk dances") is a form of dance usually performed to songs in Hebrew, or to other songs which have been popular in Israel, with dances choreographed for specific songs. Israeli d ...

, danced to a song of the same name. It has become notable outside the Israeli dancing community and is often performed at

international folk dance International folk dance includes Balkan dance, Middle Eastern dance, contra dance, Hungarian dance, polka, Chinese dance, and Japanese dance. Clubs featuring these ethnic dance genres are enjoyed by non-professional dancers for entertainment. Ma ...

events.

History

The dance was created in 1937 for a festival to celebrate the discovery of water in the desert after a seven-year search. The choreographer was Else I. Dublin. The dance is sometimes known as "Ushavtem Mayim", after the first words of the lyrics, or simply just "Mayim", but "Mayim Mayim" is the original and most common name. The movement to the first four counts has become known as the "Mayim step" and is similar to the

grapevine step The grapevine is a dance figure in partner dancing that shares a common appearance, with some variation, in ballroom, club, and folk dances. It includes side steps and steps across the support foot. The step is used, for example, in the foxtrot ...

found in other forms of dance. "Mayim Mayim" is done in a circle formation, facing the center through most of the dance, and holding hands except when clapping.

The song

The music for Mayim Mayim was composed by Emanuel Pugashov Amiran with lyrics taken from the

Book of Isaiah The Book of Isaiah ( he, ספר ישעיהו, ) is the first of the Latter Prophets in the Hebrew Bible and the first of the Major Prophets in the Christian Old Testament. It is identified by a superscription as the words of the 8th-century BC ...

, chapter 12 verse 3, "Joyfully shall you draw water from the fountains of triumph". :Ushavtem mayim b'sason mimainei hayeshua :Ushavtem mayim b'sason mimainei hayeshua :Mayim mayim mayim mayim, hey, mayim b'sason :Mayim mayim mayim mayim, hey, mayim b'sason :Hey, hey, hey, hey :Mayim mayim mayim mayim mayim mayim b'sason :Mayim mayim mayim mayim mayim mayim b'sason

Appearances in gaming

*An 8 bit arrangement appears in the

Game Boy Camera The Game Boy Camera (GBC), released as in Japan, is a Nintendo accessory for the handheld Game Boy game console. It was released on February 21, 1998, in Japan, and manufacturing was ceased in late 2002. As a toy for user-generated content, it ...

's Ball minigame. *A 16 bit arrangement appears in the Super Famicom port of ClockWerx. *A remixed version appears in

Konami , is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company, video game and entertainment company headquartered in Chūō, Tokyo, Chūō, Tokyo, it also produces and distributes trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, pachinko machin ...

's ''

Sexy Parodius is a 1996 horizontal-scrolling shooter arcade game developed by Konami. It is the fifth installment of the ''Parodius'' series. Like the rest of the series, it is a parody of the ''Gradius'' series and other Konami games. It also contains sexua ...

''.

History

The song

Appearances in gaming

See also

References

Further reading