Other images

The morning of May 1 we headed out from Amman to Ramallah. As noted in an earlier post, it was a journey that took many hours but would have seemed likely to have taken but one. Travel days being what they are, people arrived in Ramallah more tired than they would have been doing two shows. We stacked the cabs in classic National Lampoon vacation fashion.

Within seconds of departing the cab I was in was separated from the others and so we raced on another to the border. Descending from the hills of Amman to the Dead Sea, a valley which, long past, was part of a vast inland sea that is steadily drying out, becoming more and more saline with each liter of evaporation, you feel the heat rise, the air thicken and, unexpectedly, the land become more fertile. The sea itself, on the horizon over a hill marked by a sign in arabic and english "sea level of the dead sea" in ancient times, and the sea level at present, is startling in its utter blackness, absorbing light like a blanket. Almost all the company went there our first full day in Jordan and floated around, salt stinging their eyes and relaxing their spirits.

At the Jordanian border everyone assembled their bags (we're carrying 30 somehow) and a few stopped just outside border control for a picture with Lucie (who, by the way, has logged more air miles than anyone in CityDance's lifetime than me).

But travel is travel, and by 2pm Jason and everyone else had that "are we there yet look."


Tish, pictured at left, is at a stop in the West Bank, about 15 minutes outside Ramallah. On the horizon is an Israeli settlement. The issues between these two peoples are literally visible at every turn.