Palestinian Dabke As Cultural Resistance

Palestinian Dabke As Cultural Resistance: A Presentation and Dabke Workshop by El-Funoun Palestinian Popular Dance Troupe 

7pm: Doors
7:30pm: Performance / Presentation (30 minutes)
8pm: Interactive Dabke Workshop (60 minutes with breaks built in)

Members of the premiere dance group in Palestine, El-Funoun Palestinian Popular Dance Troupe, will be offering a special performance and presentation about the role of dabke as a form of cultural preservation and resistance. 

Proceeds from this event will go to support El-Funoun Palestinian Popular Dance Troupe.

Dabke is the traditional Palestinian dance form – performed at weddings and other celebrations – in which El-Funoun’s innovative dance style is rooted. The dancers will discuss the work of this vital Palestinian cultural institution, and its resolve to remain steadfast in the face of a military occupation that aims to silence, suppress and erase Palestinian society and culture.

Following the performance / presentation, the two trainers will carry out a dabke workshop where participants can learn the steps to traditional Palestinian dances including  dalouneh and tayara that form the basis of Palestinian dabke and El-Funoun's contemporary dabke style and dance school of thought.  Participants will also learn about the important role of the laweeh, the principal dancer in a dabke circle. 

Crowned the lead Palestinian dance company, El-Funoun was established in 1979 by a small group of enthusiastic, creative and committed artists. The Troupe’s repertoire includes 16 major dance productions and over 1,500 performances throughout historic Palestine, regionally, and internationally. In Palestine, El-Funoun has developed a school for contemporary Palestinian dabke, training hundreds of youth every year. It has carried out dabke workshops throughout the West Bank, in the Arab world and internationally. 

Sustained almost entirely by volunteers for decades, El-Funoun is a non-profit dance company with close to 300 members. Committed to its core principles of reviving and reinvigorating Palestinian music and dance and  recognizing culture as a tool of and for resistance, El-Funoun challenges the complicity of international aid agencies in the oppression of Palestinians by refusing politically conditioned funding and aid from agencies that have failed to call for a ceasefire. The dance company is working toward becoming fully self-sufficient by raising funds through its dance productions and workshops. 

Samer Karajah started his dance career with the Handala Dabke Troupe in the village of Saffa before becoming a member of El-Funoun in 2010. Samer is one of the principal dancers, instructors and choreographers in the Troupe. He has co-choreographed El-Funoun’s The Rooster, Asheera, and its upcoming production Zaff. He has also conducted a number of dabke workshops in Palestine and internationally. 

Samer holds a BA in Business Administration from Birzeit University in Palestine and in addition to his work with El-Funoun is a co-owner of a restaurant, an entrepreneur, and a farmer. He is inspired as an artist by developing dance informed by natural movements found in everyday life. 

Majdi Karakra has been a member of El-Funoun since 2005, after he started dancing as a child in wedding celebrations and  garnered attention for his energy and presence. Majdi, who holds a diploma in Business Administration from Modern University College (MUC) in Palestine, currently works part-time with the Troupe. A principal dancer, instructor and choreographer with El-Funoun, Majdi’s choreographic credits include contributions to  El-Funoun’s The Rooster, Partial Memory,  Asheera, and the upcoming production Zaff.  Majdi has worked with and helped train other dance troupes in Palestine, Jordan and Ireland. 

Majdi is interested in how movement is affected and created through the dancers' interaction in public events such as weddings and parties, and how that affects both the participants and the artists in their practice. 

Riham Barghouti is a Palestinian American activist who lived in the Occupied Palestinian Territory for 10 years.  During that time she was the Public Relations Director at Birzeit University and a dancer and trainer with El-Funoun Palestinian Popular Dance Troupe. She currently resides in New York City, where she works as a teacher.  Riham is a founding member of Adalah-NY: Campaign for the Boycott of Israel and the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI). She is a contributor to the book A Land with a People: Palestinians and Jews Confront Zionism.